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Maybe it's just me, but I have noticed a correlation between the number of members posting on the message board (going down) and attempts by the moderators to keep the conversation on the forum PC (going up).
I found the discussion on the Etsy issue very interesting and was surprised to hear that it was closed down temporarily over the weekend. While it is up again today, apparently the moderators were concerned that this might be objectionable content. It isn't much of a leap to take that as a instruction to self-edit.
On another thread in the last day or so, a member reported he was asked to contribute to the forum after an absence of some weeks. He reported that "I am not willing to be pushed into posting 'good job' on stuff that I don't know beans about, just to be a good member of this forum." Perhaps if he were offered a few challenging threads to read, he might be tempted to contribute.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor of moderation. But a timely intervention in the form of a posting asking members to keep things civil, or perhaps the deletion of a member posting that goes way over the top (like this one, I suspect) would be far more effective than deleting threads and enforcing orthodoxy.
When I joined the forum last November there were sixty to seventy postings a day. Recently I counted a low of 28. Perhaps a gilding of the lily is discouraging participation.
I found the discussion on the Etsy issue very interesting and was surprised to hear that it was closed down temporarily over the weekend. While it is up again today, apparently the moderators were concerned that this might be objectionable content. It isn't much of a leap to take that as a instruction to self-edit.
On another thread in the last day or so, a member reported he was asked to contribute to the forum after an absence of some weeks. He reported that "I am not willing to be pushed into posting 'good job' on stuff that I don't know beans about, just to be a good member of this forum." Perhaps if he were offered a few challenging threads to read, he might be tempted to contribute.
Don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor of moderation. But a timely intervention in the form of a posting asking members to keep things civil, or perhaps the deletion of a member posting that goes way over the top (like this one, I suspect) would be far more effective than deleting threads and enforcing orthodoxy.
When I joined the forum last November there were sixty to seventy postings a day. Recently I counted a low of 28. Perhaps a gilding of the lily is discouraging participation.
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