That would be a bad scenario. Board out of control. It might be possible to deal with a situation like that by subdividing into multiple smaller boards with more manageable traffic.

Basically I agree with your entire post, including what you said about our “historic IQ level”. We need to get back that smart self-image.

That’s a challenge, and rapid growth could have the newbie problems you warn about.

Our secret weapon is the people discussing the problem right now. We aren’t enough to form a viable community all by ourselves, and not enough to have the really interesting conversations; but there are enough of us to be a constant if unofficial presence on all the boards, showing the newbies how it’s done and cuffing ‘em upside the head when necessary. I’ve said for some time now that this group knows how to be moderators. And maybe the best thing for this Brave New Zone (2.0) is not to have moderators assigned to specific boards, but to have this group of veteran Zoners empowered to do what they think best to run the place. Moderators at large. Power to back up your suggestions to the newbies.

But what about Zoners who haven’t been around for a while? I’m not comfortable with making that large a population all moderators. And so we’d have three “classes” of members, and what are the odds that it’ll cause friction? Nothing’s ever as easy as it seems at first blush, is it?

It’s technically true that I don’t make a dime from running the HabitableZone, yet it’s also true that working on this software is 90% of my day job. That’s a mixed blessing, because the university doesn’t generally need discussion forums–we’re using it for online courses and textbooks–and so there are some things that the Zone needs that are a low priority officially. Like replacing simple text comments with full-feature posts as replies. It’s that sort of thing that complicates my strategy of slipstreaming the HabitableZone in the university’s wake. (With their knowledge and approval, I should be clear.)

Thanks for you Zen-like patience and acceptance, Frank. You’re a rock.

One of the things I have liked about this always being a small group is the ability to show up late and still have the opportunity to comment.

I am a member of a large sports forum that still uses the tree format. If you are not logged in and paying attention, you will miss chance to comment on any post over 15 minutes old, on a slow day, 5 minutes on a busy day. Posts roll off of page one that fast. This is the reason most forums have abandoned the tree. Can you imagine a hot topic here if we had several hundred active members? What happens to a post when the thread thins out to 1 letter per line? I think 30-40 members would be the upper limit for our current set up. In any case, however many users Robert is designing this format for is probably the upper limit for this site.

I like the old tree but it will be a problem should we ever. grow. Planning ahead would be wise.

The politics problem might be solved by more members as long as we are lucky enough to maintain our historic IQ level. As long as we have been small, dumb asses have tended to feel uncomfortable and have departed soon. A rapid influx of newbies will make the bottom feeding hoypaloi feel more at home.

Anyway, smart people are starved for a place to talk politics with other smart people and a larger, more diverse group would probably take the sting out of the same old song from the same old singers.

Yeah, the format changes have been the major reason we have lost many of our regulars. Each change has been hard to take. I like WordPress okay now, but I was sorely irritated by the choice at first. It seemed we were going from one obtuse format to another. Even now, If I didn’t use the dashboard I would not care for it and I get the impression that there are still some who don’t know how to find/use the dashboard.

Much of the problem is that change/improvement takes too long. How long has the blocked membership thing been going on? I don’t blame anyone. Robert doesn’t make a dime from this pastime.

I have decided that it is what it is and I’ll just take it as it comes.

Same software, different stylesheets

Usually, this isn’t carried through to the comment level.

So SS and GS boards were places peoplpe came to learn stuff, and the other boards were where the regulars…those who posted…took it to another level with one another. I don’t have the same access to stats like the DTW, but I suspect it would be the same. If anything was posted on Space Sciene Or Geek Speak anymore, that is.

SDAI Tech was correct about one thing: we need producers on this board. That’s what it is all about. If we produce content, then there will be those that that read it, and a small percentage of those will choose to participate.

Those with thick hides will continue to post.

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“Recent posts” should probably be specific to each board. It’s not that hard to hit the tab at the top to run through a day’s throughput, and for those who could care less about Flame or CE, the “recent posts” for those subjects won’t clog up the board they do like.

I still like the access to the comment dashboard. I like to see the most recent comments, too. I hope you at least leave that back door open.

Very few boards use white text on black backgrounds. But black text should not be on a pure white background either. Check out the restful color scheme on Pournelle’s site, or Unmannedspaceflight.com. Subtle blue shades might be better for a space site.

You seem to be on a roll, Tom.

The Space as the front page idea is pretty radical, but it has a lot going for it nevertheless…as long as traffic remains reasonable. A static front page would be disastrous; the front page must be seen as constantly updating.

Hmmm…lots of ways to skin that cat. A recent posts listing conveys a sense of activity. It’d also be possible to have a front page that shows a summary for each board in a separate column. Formatting could be used to give Space more prominence, perhaps a larger font size and center placement.

Eventually it might be possible to nail direct URLs for other boards, but I suspect that would be technically difficult and cost money.

Eh? You mean, if there’s a Zone which gives Space/Science a prominent place by the front door, there should be other Zones which give prominence to other boards?

One way to do that would be to put the board’s name in front of the domain name: “current-events.habitablezone.com, space.habitablezone.com” etc. Is that the sort of thing you have in mind? That actually wouldn’t cost a thing, because I run my own DNS and can manufacture hostnames by the yard. How about automatically creating blogs at usernames? tb.habitablezone.com? All that stuff’s technically feasible.

And then there’s the format. I keep coming back to the dark backgrounds because they’re easier on the eyes, and I envision people reading the Zone for extended periods.

We shouldn’t go to the opposite extreme, black-on-white. That guarantees eyestrain and headaches. But I could try for something that uses lighter, low-saturation colors–pastels–as backgrounds.

I think there’s a way to open up the design for everybody to experiment with it (as long as you can deal with some CSS). Best of all would be a skinning system to let people choose their own color scheme. I want to think about that for a bit.

I didn’t know it was a peculiarly Californian custom. I got a c.s. speeding ticket, 72 in a 55 and only because I was incautious enough to be the only car on that stretch of freeway. I could pay a $390 fine and it would go on my record and raise my insurance rates. Or I could pay $410 and take eight hours online of “traffic school”, which will educate me on how to be a good citizen of the road and correct the character flaws that led me to become a vehicular outlaw instead.

When I say eight hours, they mean eight hours. I’ve done this once before, and there’s a timer on each question. Doesn’t matter how quickly you read the question and answer, you will take an amount of time on each question that adds up to eight hours online.

As somebody who builds genuine online learning systems, I find the use of such a system as a punishment to be profoundly offensive. But I have to hold my nose and do it to avoid being mugged a second time by my insurance company.

Glad you asked, bowser?

Demographic age is a factor in our problems here, and once again I see the Zone a microsmic reflection of Out There. The median age in the US is 38, and that’s old for a population of 330 million. Dare I venture that this fact just might have something to do with the nature of politics these days?

Yep, bowser, we have to be honest with ourselves about the age factor. We’re talking not just about replenishment, but replacement.