Diaries

[Claw75]

I think you dropped something herbie

[ohdear]

Ohdear are you Mike Ahearne aka Warrior from gladiators? Only really know him as a body builder who plays poker.
Is steroid rage really a side effect or just a myth?

lol if i was why did you put the aka bit and my gladiators name too? if i was Mike Ahearne despite the large amount of steroids i may or may not have taken i'd still remember i was in gladiators and what my stage name was

roid rage is a myth fyi

Look I've met Mike a few times and for the most part he struggles to remember he is Mike let alone that he was actually Warrior back in the day

so it could be me and i might not even know it?

[smashedagain]

I think you dropped something herbie

Ecstacy or guts?

[gatso]

Example: A few days ago I posted in my diary about the cruise ship Concordia, and ended up discussing Bawtry auction.

funnily enough tom the concordia was one example that popped into my head when thinking about this earlier. not because it typifies my opinion any more or less than any other example, it's just coincidence

what doesn't make sense to me is this- you're interested in the concordia and want to have a discussion about it on the forum, now this is cool and having a wide range of topics to discuss has always been a great thing about blonde

but do you not think that you're more likely to get a discussion about it going if you start a new thread called 'concordia' that everyone will see and be aware of than if you post in your diary that only those who read your diary will see?

more threads, more discussion, more people getting involved. it seems to be win win to me

I probably only open 4 diaries on blonde regularly, one of them is yours so I did see the concordia stuff but I'm sure I've missed so much stuff on others and other people who don't open yours are missing everything you write about which is a shame to be honest

[ohdear]

Example: A few days ago I posted in my diary about the cruise ship Concordia, and ended up discussing Bawtry auction.

funnily enough tom the concordia was one example that popped into my head when thinking about this earlier. not because it typifies my opinion any more or less than any other example, it's just coincidence

what doesn't make sense to me is this- you're interested in the concordia and want to have a discussion about it on the forum, now this is cool and having a wide range of topics to discuss has always been a great thing about blonde

but do you not think that you're more likely to get a discussion about it going if you start a new thread called 'concordia' that everyone will see and be aware of than if you post in your diary that only those who read your diary will see?

more threads, more discussion, more people getting involved. it seems to be win win to me

I probably only open 4 diaries on blonde regularly, one of them is yours so I did see the concordia stuff but I'm sure I've missed so much stuff on others and other people who don't open yours are missing everything you write about which is a shame to be honest

i think these are exactly the points and the problems

"but do you not think that you're more likely to get a discussion about it going if you start a new thread called 'concordia' that everyone will see and be aware of than if you post in your diary that only those who read your diary will see?"

i imagine red dog doesnt just think this to be the case but knows it, i think all of the big diary posters do, i dont think its something they need to be made aware of, there's some great stuff that comes out of the diarys, some of the best stuff on the forum but when you've spent X amount of years on your diary, it's gotton a zillion views and replies, your life story and everything else from the concordia to poker is in it it's a hard habit to break, it becomes your baby, of course they know the end result of breaking that pattern and instead of posting something in their diary posting it in the general forum for all to see will result in "more threads, more discussion, more people getting involved. it seems to be win win to me", but then they have to balance that off against all the hard work and effort of years gone by that they've put into the diary and the content it's missing out on by posting stuff elswhere, because of how important peoples diarys are to them, understandably, no matter how obvious it is that it's having an adverse affect on the forum it's a hard habit to break, but for now it seems people are content to sacrifice the groth of the forum for the personal gain of their diaries

[taximan007]

Loving this new diary 

FWIW I think ohdear makes some very good points

[rex008]

There was a Concordia thread. 5th contributor was Tom:

Kids are useful for distracting sharks. Just drop one overboard every now and then like a ladle of chum.

There you go.

If he wants to discuss it on his diary as well that's his choice as far as I'm concerned. If every time a thread goes off on a tangent some trolling thread policeman demands a new thread be started, blonde would be overwhelmed with random crap. Maybe you ought to hang around longer and actually see how the place works for a bit before you try and fix it.

[ohdear]

There was a Concordia thread. 5th contributor was Tom:

Kids are useful for distracting sharks. Just drop one overboard every now and then like a ladle of chum.

There you go.

If he wants to discuss it on his diary as well that's his choice as far as I'm concerned. If every time a thread goes off on a tangent some trolling thread policeman demands a new thread be started, blonde would be overwhelmed with random crap. Maybe you ought to hang around longer and actually see how the place works for a bit before you try and fix it.

calm down! i'm not trying to "fix" anything, tighty said the numbers are fine, i just see a model that works on another forum and think that your groth, at a time when you could really do with it, could be so much bigger if you implimented it, it seems a few of your regulars agree.

I also think a change in attitude from some of your more prominent posters towards their diary would help, help to bring in new members and help to promote a higher volume of general conversation on the broader forum if they ventured out of their diary more often and segmented some of it's content into their own threads.

i said i've been a long time reader and i can tell you that looking from the outside the rail looks like a horrible cluttered mess, impenetrable to a newbie. i come from a forum where the system thats in place works great and there's amazing groth, thought i'd suggest it, i think you know the bit i've highlighted is not what i was suggesting at all so there's no need to get all defensive, with regards to me hanging around for a bit to see how the place works before i start sticking my nose in as ive said before i started reading the forum then the thing with blatch happend, that's been a couple of years now, just because i don't post doesn't mean i have no understanding of how the forum works.

you make an interesting point though: "If he wants to discuss it on his diary as well that's his choice as far as I'm concerned", it is his choice i agree, i think from the arguments put forward by many a member on this thread and for the benefit of the forum it would be nice if he chose to start some new discussions elsewhere on the forum, i like the forum and am glad that the numbers are up but if you want continued groth then i suggest a change is most definently need with regards to the diaries to bring in newbies but more importantly to make them stay, at the moment the lounge is almost dead and the rails top 10 threads are DTD spam and diarys, not very welcoming or user friendly for a new members

[Shogun112]

[Ant040689]

There was a Concordia thread. 5th contributor was Tom:

Kids are useful for distracting sharks. Just drop one overboard every now and then like a ladle of chum.

There you go.

If he wants to discuss it on his diary as well that's his choice as far as I'm concerned. If every time a thread goes off on a tangent some trolling thread policeman demands a new thread be started, blonde would be overwhelmed with random crap. Maybe you ought to hang around longer and actually see how the place works for a bit before you try and fix it.

[TightEnd]

no matter how obvious it is that it's having an adverse affect on the forum it's a hard habit to break, but for now it seems people are content to sacrifice the groth of the forum for the personal gain of their diaries

you are stating this as if it is a fact. Its not. No growth of the forum is being sacrificed (evidence, traffic and sign ups), and no-one amongst the forum principals is interested in "personal gain of their diaries" over other aspects of the forum

You state a lot of further stuff as facts. They are not, they are opinions. Albeit verbose ones, that to me dilute some sensible points you make!

[ohdear]

agreed, unfortunately.

i won't carry on going over the same stuff anymore, it's out there for the people at the top on here to see.

I will leave you with what is my own personal experience, i think marky147 was the one who knew what bb'ing forum i was talking about, it's a huge place maybe in numbers at least 50 times bigger than here, theres probably 20 boards and 30 new threads at least a day just on the general discussion section, when i first went there a good few years ago i wanted to get my macros sorted, so i posted about my carbs, ckal intake etc, what i wanted to achieve and was my diet correct to do it, very quickly got the answers i needed and was very happy, i ventured over to the general discussion board to see what it was about, let me tell you if i had seen a bunch of stickies at the top for a gym 500 miles away from me that i was never going to go to followed by the next 10 or so threads being members journals with their preexsisting jokes and history i wouldnt have gone near the place with a barge pole, they wouldv'e lost a customer right there and then, that couldn't have been less welcoming, as it was the louge was alive with easy to get into topics that you can hit the ground running with, it was the easiest forum to get into, then you've got this forum that in comparisson is much smaller but couldn't be harder to get into, when my mates on here told me of the thing that happend with blatch i read it for a while, i dont think you had the dtd stickies up then, not sure if you even had any but the rail couldn't have looked more off putting, it was just a sea of diaries it took me a couple of months of casually reading the forum to catch up with all the different groups and cliques on every different diary, took me a day on a bb'ing forum 50 times bigger to get to know the big posters, where everything is how everything works etc, it's like you've gone out of your way to make it as difficult as possuble for a newbie to join the community, it's just weird, you don't see it anywhere else. i feel a bit sorry for james dempsey, although hes winning major comps left right and centre so not that sorry lol but didnt he buy a big % of the forum from the prevous owner? what has he spent that money on? something that i was reading on tikays diary a few weeks back is nothing more than a forum that costs £200 too run a month that anyone could do, it's a bit out of order for him. if i knew that james dempsy had sunk all that money into backing the site i'd be bending over backwards to get as many new members through the door to help groth on the site and turn it back into a bussiness so the guy can see a return on all the money and time he's put in, not, like some of the top people are doing with how the configuration, placement and monopolisation of the site their diaries have, restrict the groth of the site by making it as difficult as possible for new members to get into

[TightEnd]

if i knew that james dempsy had sunk all that money into backing the site i'd be bending over backwards to get as many new members through the door to help groth on the site and turn it back into a bussiness so the guy can see a return on all the money and time he's put in

This really is too much. A number of people work extremely hard to this end

[Ironside]

i said i've been a long time reader and i can tell you that looking from the outside the rail looks like a horrible cluttered mess, impenetrable to a newbie. i come from a forum where the system thats in place works great and there's amazing groth,

you sure the mazing growth isnt down to the amazing amout of steriods and supplements the members are taking on the bb forum

[Acidmouse]

Not sure everyone has a high priority as you at attracting new members, having more posts etc...I am happy its a nice chilled forum with alot less drama that most these days. Looking at numbers/figures/profit etc aint what its about and I don't think James bought it to make any money.