I enjoy participating in online discussion forums. There are some that I often post in (such as Ilounge.com) and others where I just lurk (such as Slashdot.org). It gives me opportunities to stay current on things I'm interested in; technology, news, politics, etc. One of the more frivolous forums where I had been relatively active until recently, Get Organized Now, finally pissed me off to the point where I decided to tell the whole world (my 16 page visitors per month) about it.
So here's the background. This particular forum was never my absolute favorite, because it's mostly (apparently) populated by middle-aged women with concerns not at all similar to my own, mostly including keeping DH (that's shorthand for Dear Husband, for the uninitiated) happy and the children fed and off to school, etc. In addition to having a whole different set of responsibilities than I have, the population at this forum is clearly of a different SES and if they knew me in real-life they wouldn't have been quite so accepting, I am sure. For instance, I remember vividly the day I stumbled onto a thread about things that people considered "luxuries" versus "necessities." This thread was incredibly long, and dozens of people responded within minutes to say ridiculous things such as "Well, my Olympic-sized swimming pool is just a luxury but my 2-car garage and my front-loading washer & dryer are absolute necessities! Couldn't live without them!"
Now, believe me I realize I live a relatively privileged life but - 2-car garage? washer & dryer? Are you kidding me?!? These things are not necessities. I have not had a garage in my entire adult life - shit, I'm lucky my jalopy even still runs! And as for a washer & dryer - you mean these are available in one's home?
However, I decided to overlook this obvious divide in life circumstances, as I was going thru a real crisis in my "office" (read: part of room that contains my desk). It was a total mess and I was unable to focus in the clutter. I am a grad student and it is necessary for me to actually be able to locate my computer in order to get any work done, and the mess was starting to trickle (avalanche) into the kitchen. So I started visiting this forum in order to get support and ideas for how to tackle this monster, and everything was great at first. Several moderators and regular posters came out to welcome me and even congratulate me on deciding to commence this monumental task, of ridding my office of what probably amounts to several tons of litter, detritus, flotsam & jetsam, and the like.
I thought I had found a new home...ahh...an organizational haven, a place where people would give me wonderful advice and help me stay motivated. In the short-term, this was fantastic and I really got a lot out of the community. But as I started to read many of the threads and become more familiar with the moderators and regular posters, I started noticing things that at first just annoyed me a little. For instance, the first thing was just that when someone would post a question asking for advice on choosing, say, a filing system, if anyone had the audacity to post a link to some other website the moderators would go in and edit the post, removing the offensive link. So, okay...that's annoying but not necessarily a deal-breaker. Then I realize it's not just links, this editing will happen when a product is even so much as mentioned that isn't sold on their site.
This got me really angry. Given that the whole purpose of a discussion forum is to engage discussion it doesn't really make sense to monitor the posts quite so aggressively! I mean, if you don't really want people to engage in a free discussion on your boards, then don't host the boards. It's ridiculous.
Obviously I am well aware that this site isn't the only one that operates in this fashion. Probably most of the sites that exist mainly as a sales tool likely have rules about links. But even so much as mentioning a product that isn't even competing with anything on your site? That's just silly.
If you just want to sell products then sell products. If you want to truly be a place where people can congregate, even if it's only to be rich together and tell stories about how your stainless-steel appliances just don't live up to your expectations, then lay off and allow a free discussion.
Do you know of a great forum to share? Have a horror story of your own? Leave a comment! It's free and it'll make you a better person!
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3 comments:
It was a total mess and I was unable to focus in the clutter. I am a grad student and it is necessary for me to actually be able to locate my computer in order to get any work done, and the mess was starting to trickle (avalanche) into the kitchen.
Oh, see, now you know why you neighbours haven't been invited over yet. I've discovered that after living out of a suitcase for a year, and then having everything shipped back (always fun to move across the country, then slowly take half your crap back in repeated cross country flights) in boxes, it's fucking hard to get organized again! Argh!
I'm slowly working on it, though - my new rule is at least two loads of laundry a week, dishes every morning, and at least 30 minutes of maintenance work on the apartment, even if that just means reorganizing a shelf of books. It's slow work, but I am actually starting to be able to do things - like sit at my desk while typing this, listening to music, and generally not spending all my time home on my bed. (I actually excavated my altar last week, and am now out of excuses to not meditate daily.)
That said, although I don't follow it to a T (or any other alphabet letter), I really do like Julie Morgenstern's Organizing from the Inside Out. She has a line of products associated with it which I didn't find helpful (I like the Real Simple stuff, if I buy anything), but the book itself is useful. I also have a subscription to Real Simple (thanks, Dad!) which also has monthly organizing hints/suggestions, as well as neat "did you know you can use this object A over here for doing task M that it's not at all designed for, yet perfect for?" Makes the Alton Brown multitasker in me happy.
My personal organizing nightmare? My art supplies, bookshelves, and filing cabinet - and it all boils down to what is and isn't accessible for me. How do I make sure I can find the articles, or make sense of where the books go (subject area? author? title? augh), or intuitive ways to organize the boatloads of artstuff I have.
...at least the artstuff can just be shoved in a box in the closet!
Oh - and if you don't mind perusing LiveJournal, I like the hipdomestics community ( http://community.livejournal.com/hip_domestics/ ). There are still different SES issues - we really need a "chic smallish places on grad studet budgets" forum some place - but there tend to be moderately useful ideas, from cleaning to organizing and cooking. I run through Apartment Therapy ( http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ ) Discardian ( http://www.metagrrrl.com/discardian/ ) and IkeaHacker ( http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/ ) once every few weeks or so when I'm avoiding homework...
Hey, thanks for all the website suggestions. Can't wait to check them out, SES issues and all.
And if it makes you feel better, I have the same organizational issues with my books. I usually group by subject, then by author. But then there are a always a couple random books that don't fit anywhere so I have to put them with "miscellaneous." And then as the collection grows out of the available bookcases, I have books piled on the floor and every available table in no discernible order whatsoever. It's an ongoing battle, or as you philosophers and other assorted geeks might say, a sisyphean task.
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