So, is there a problem?
If so, what is the solution from my end… assuming that a new visitor is not going to understand our “status quo” right away? I’m open to any ideas anyone has to alleviate whatever problems the current setup has. Even better yet is if you can program something that I can add to the site to alleviate it. 
It may be an obvious suggestion, but what about a sticky thread outlining forum etiquette and notifying people of the search feature? Most of you would have seen it before. I usually skim through these on the rare occasion (once, in fact) that I join a new forum, but do other people do the same?
Andrew
This strikes me as the important bit.
Eccl. 3:1
A while ago there were a couple of threads about the increase in rudeness on the forums. That also just went away.
It’s a Proud Mary kinda thing.
I vote for the sticky thread idea.
That’s what I call the AOL effect. As a forum gets more visual, interactive, and easier to use the amount of chatty posts goes up and the closer the forum gets to a chat board.
The unicyclist.com forum has made the discussion group a lot more accessible than back in the days of the mailing list and Usenet. That’s a good thing.
The forum is also a lot more multimedia friendly so it is a lot easier to post pictures and video than it was back in the days of Usenet. That’s a good thing. I love the videos and pictures.
But the increase in chatty posts and low content posts does make it impossible to read every single post or even look at every thread. I used to be able to read every thread and most every post. No longer. It’s not even close. I can’t read every post and I don’t even bother to look at every thread. The volume is too much.
A decrease in the chatty posts in R.S.U. would make it much easier to handle the volume and make it less likely for people to miss the good stuff and the important stuff that gets posted. The Just Conversation forum is where the chatty stuff should go. R.S.U. should be more business like but still fun.
I third the idea for a sticky thread outlining some basic forum etiquette. Chatty posts and replies should go to Just Conversation. Posts in R.S.U. should have some thought behind them and generally be informative or productive to the forum.
Another thing that could be done is to use the reputation system to vote down chatty posts in R.S.U. and do more voting up of quality posts. Using the reputation system like that could help discourage chatty posts in R.S.U.
When posting to R.S.U. I try to keep in mind that whatever I post goes out to hundreds of people. Is what I’m going to post worth the time for those hundreds of people to read it? Am I just going to waste their collective time? I’ve written replies and then decided not to post it because the reply didn’t offer anything worthwhile. Just because a reply is written doesn’t mean it has to be posted.
Just Conversation, on the other hand, is more of a free-for-all and chatty posts are welcome and even encouraged over there.
Re: The New Forum Style…less content, more chat
podzol wrote:
> Another solution, because there is a difference among posting styles,
> is to have a forum titled Unicycling theory and practice. Maybe it
> could even be strictly administered to keep it on track.
Such posts belong in rsu. That is largely the purpose of the mailing
list and newsgroup, which are connected to the rsu forum but not (AIUI)
to other forums. That’s not to say that people shouldn’t search before
posting, of course. I have long been in the habit of searching both
Google Groups and www before asking questions on any ng.
For forum users (of which I am not one), I like the “sticky thread” idea
suggested by Andrew Carter. Perhaps that could be combined with a
regular posting of the FAQ [1] to the newsgroup and mailing list.
Another idea (taken from rec.juggling) would be to have a standard post
outlining the purposes of the group, the FAQ and basic netiquette. I
don’t know whether it’s still the case, but in the past the JIS would
automatically e-mail such a message to any poster on rec.juggling who
had not previously posted from the same address. The standard post
could also be sent to all new mailing list users when they first sign
up, and could form the basis for a sticky thread on the forum.
For postings to rsu, I recommend following normal usenet netiquette:
<URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/primer/part1>
The standard post for new users could, of course, include a link to
Emily Postnews, but…
<dons flameproof suit>
I fear that the irony may be missed by some of the Leftpondians here.
</flameproof suit>
[1] We may need several FAQs. Those that exist may be out of date. I
know of these two, mind you it’s been a few years since I actually
looked for unicycling FAQs:
<URL:http://www.unicycling.org/unicycling/faq.html>
<http://www.unicycling.com/brett/e_muni/faq.html>
–
Danny Colyer (my reply address is valid but checked infrequently)
<URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/>
Subscribe to PlusNet <URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/referral/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
gkmac, i like what you said.
i prefer a community that welcomes people to interact. that is really the best thing about these forums. people get to know one another. you get to feel a part of a community which is sometimes hard to do locally.
i find a sticky about the search button to be rude and exclusive.
-eric
This group (referring to the forum) is at the stage when beginners are going to outnumber the experienced. It’s catching on.
The beginners are going to be asking all the same questions, that’s just life. But a big part of those is being part of a social group in an often lonely sport. If beginners are encouraged to find the answers on thier own, we miss out on some of them becoming part of the group. The “number of people using this site” box is a good indicator of lurkers vs users; guests are always a majority.
Think of it in the context of a club, where the usual beginner questions are referred to the faq pamphlet, over there by the door. Good luck, kid. Who could stand to the side while someone tried to learn, unaided in a group full of skilled unicyclists? On the other hand, if beginners show up in large numbers, teaching them interferes with other club activities. That’s when a beginners group/time/area is formed, helped out by the right volunteers.
And that’s what I’d suggest, a beginner’s forum. With a sticky post up top with the usual questions linked in it, for the lurkers. But also open to posting these questions, because some just need the social support. That would help with a lot of the chat, without chasing off new community members.
I do think that most of the ot chat comes from beginners. We just don’t have as much unicycling stuff to contribute; just getting started and all. Give unto us a kiddie corner, and we shall chatter away out of earshot.
It wouldn’t be a sticky about the search button, it would be a sticky that said, ‘READ ME: RSU Forum Rules!’ or something to that extent, and in there would be a set of rules devised to try and keep rsu a productive and happy place. Then, whenever someone does something exclusively against the rules, bad things happen to them or something, or at the very least they’re told to go read the damn rules 
You have forgotten geared unicycles such as the Schlumpf is pretty new, and we got a ton of new cool films.
One of the problems with trying to limit the content is that (whoever it is) you are limiting it to what you want to see. Probably everyone has a slightly different idea of what that should be, depending on thier particular interest, experience, time on the forum, access to other unicyclists and so on. So if you were to try to limit it to certain kinds of posts that would very much be open to interpretation. And if you tried to educate people into what the right kind of post were by the rep system, then how patriarcical and controlling would that be!
Who would chose what was ‘appropriate’?
What’s wrong with a bit of chat?
As for the search thing. Yes I get a bit tired of seeing one question, just after the same question has plopped to page 2. But I also don’t think that the search button is the total answer because having a question repeated after a reasonable amount of time lets other people (who may or may not have been part of the forum when the original question was asked) have a go at answering it in their own way and may have something new to say or it may be a new experience for them to help other people.
One thing I do think is very true is that over the past few weeks a lot of younger poster seem to have joined us. What would you think about and under 18s forum where only under 18s could post, but they could also post to the other forums when they wanted to.
Cathy
Gilby, don’t do too much to change the forum.
It works. If you change it into lots of different sections, the community feel will go. I can understand how some of the originators of the newsgroup feel fed up with the way things are going, but in a way, we just have to live with posts that we don’t want to add to, or read. If you don’t want to read or contribute to a thread, let it go, it will not be there for ever, just read the bits you want to.
Please don’t give us loads of forum rules or guidelines. One of the reasons I love Unicycling is because it doesn’t have rules, or people telling me what to do. I use a couple of UK mountain bike forums. One is in lots of different sections, and sometimes suffers because of that, the other has one area to post on, and it is very busy, if you want to post something off topic, you write " OT: " and it works well. We already have the just conversation section, so even off topic posting isn’t really needed.
Leave things as they are I say, I like the site the way it is.
Innes:)
all good thoughts from everyone…thanx for posting folks.
p.s. have a nice ride
the only real interesting thread to me is mr and the thread where people release their online vids. everything else i just dont really read. cuz like even though some have to do with unicycling…they are still usually not interesting.