Forum direction

[MK]

Evaluating this Chat room.

I've looked at a few others around the nation and see various uses of Freedom of Speech.

Avatars, Google Ad Sense Ads, and language tone are some of the main differences I've seen.

If you have thoughts on how to best maintain this an open resource, inclusive and non-discriminating, please add your comments. The Announcement http://www.lakawa.com/lakawa-chat-f1/in ... 11675.html always at the top of the Chat threads has been up there for years to help as a guideline. Maybe there is something you wish I would either do or prefer I don't do.

I'm not mining for business leads just more of a "We the people..." inquiry. I realize my role in here after all wasn't an elected position.

Regards,

Mike

[johnz]

Hey, Mike,

I'll way in on this.

I like the forum the way (I think) it is:
If somebody goes off topic or starts trying to sell their golf clubs, you gently remind them 'no'.
Nobody gets booted off just because they represent a different faction, company, or whatever.
I really like the 'no swearing' thing, so I don't have to worry about if my kids are looking over my shoulder when I'm browsing.
I'm comfortable with the fact that you are running a business (that hopefully helps pay for hosting and maintaining the site) and that you aren't comfortable with competing business blatantly advertising their stuff, but that they are still allowed to partake in the forum in all other ways.
I also think when threads get way overheated with people just losing it on each other, it's good to shut down the thread and ask them to 'take it outside.' It seems so many of those big arguments online can be solved with a face-to-face and a handshake.
I think if you opened it up for a 'free for all', then there would be so much crap to slog through, that it would lessen the value of the site.

Those are my thoughts...and thanks for carrying on the legacy... It's a thankless job.

[MK]

Thanks John for chiming in. Well stated points. They all sound reasonable.

I haven't had to "kick" people off much. I think a belt buckle salesperson and one other form of spam (rhymes with corn) have made it past the goalie 2 times within the last year or so. Thanks to the mindful eyes I'm usually quick to get notified.

I've thrown out a couple of warnings to help keep things on point but usually feel like a heel for being the heavy. It seems consistent with how I grew to know this arena and glad I don't have to do it much.

Love the point you made about having a conversation and a hand shake. That does help clear the air. Harm is done pretty quickly with the lash of a post and ill conversation behind closed doors.

This forum is dominated with kiting and less windsurfing. It's not intended to be exclusive and fun to read the posts/pictures and events from them. I tried windsurfing once in 1989 and think I'm still sore.

I think I would benefit from having a sounding board. There are a few business agendas and some minor politics I don't always see clearly. Censorship isn't necessarily the answer and I don't think that any one person is capable of having all the answers. I'm naturally a happy go lucky type and would probably hug trees if everybody were doing it.

Regardless if you respond or not, thanks for your attention.

[slopecat]

I would like to see a means to send a personal message to someone through the forum. The reason I would like to be able to do that is to exchange an e-mail address or phone number with someone without having it posted for all of the public to see. Its not so much that I wouldn't want other forum members to see that information, its the web crawlers, spammers and people I know nothing about that I want to keep it away from.

Since I am new here and don't really know more than a couple people it makes it a bit harder to check with others to get updates on conditions or changes to plans that may have been posted here.

As far as the content I have seen and its tone, I am very happy with what I have found.

Mike

[reutersju]

Mike,

I stumbled upon this site/forum in 2009 when my buddy convinced me to get into kiting. It has been and continues to be a great learning resource for me. I like the knowledge sharing that takes place on various topics. It is clear that anyone posting on this forum shares a passion for the wind and the topics of posts reflect that 99% of the time. I like the open invitations to join fellow kiters for a session, we really have a great community of wind junkies who look out for each other. I think you took over a great forum and have done a great job maintaining it!

Chad R.

[bmr]

Mike,

I apologize for my big horn sheep spam earlier. I think things are pretty groovy...however I like that PM idea.

[MK]

Great responses in here, in my inbox and on the phone! Thanks for chiming in. I see the traffic in my Analytics so I know you are there:) It's good to hear from you, your interests, and expectations.

Nobody I know of is currently banned from this site except one from well over a year ago. If you think or have heard otherwise please speak up. I handle a few requests to reset passwords.

I just did a quick calculation over the past week and see I'm on average taking 11 shots on goal per day for spammers requesting approval into the forum. I probably need to tighten the spam controls.

PM is a good idea and I'll look into it further. My first thought is the way it is set up now helps protect everybody in the forum from those motivated to go through and single out everyone for the types of spam I'm currently filtering.

I did notice a potential solution to fit your responses. http://www.chicagokitesurfing.com/ lists a specific section of the forum carved out for where you are riding within "1-2 days." This allows people to post specifically on topic about location within 2 days, localize their riding spot and who will be able to join. Then once on location you get numbers from others in person. How about those apples?

[Kelcher]

The only suggestions I have are as follows:

A) PM is pretty kewl
B) Topic = Sunday or Topic = Monday. Should be 3/21/2011 or Tues. March 31 2015. (this gets rid of confusion, although difficult to enforce unless you are a moderator with edit abilities.)

[Ric]

Hi Mike:
Great job on everything you do in here. My only comment would be to see if "new postings on a topic" could be first on the thread and so on. When browinsg threads, you always have to go way down to see what was said in the last posting. Sometimes there are 2 or 3 pages on a topic. Instead of scrolling down, it would be nice to read the last posting first.
That is all.
Thanks for all you do.
ric

[Barry P]

Me too. Me too. I am very happy with this site and even happier with the attitude of the wind junkies around here.

One more "wish" I can throw in would be the ability to add information to the Lakes page (kind of a Wiki page of Lakes) and to have optimal wind direction indicators near the lake link so you don't need to open and read (maybe organize the lake list by wind/location somehow, add a chart?). For example Lake George is missing, and none of the three launch sites on Medicine Lake are noted (or is everyone welcome at anytime to launch at the house that is marked there?). This would also be a good location for the sort-of-ban we have promoted on Calhoun for water kiting. WBL is missing Rutherford and Wildewood launches. There's more. I really really like the detailed info on some of older Lake pages. With any changes it'd be nice not to loose it.

[smrsco]

I agree with Barry P that the "Lakes" page could use an update and (even better) a revision to the format. It could be a lot more useful than it currently is. Otherwise I think it's a great site and appreciate the hard work of everyone involved keeping it live!

[MK]

I agree. The timing is good for these comments. This will be some in-between-the-season items to pick away at.

Thanks for your comments, more are welcomed.

[Barry P]

It would also be pretty nice if postings in Classifieds could be deleted by the 'owner' once the item has sold, or a status column we could use to sort on.

Lots of sold things. It would be nice to be able to find the stuff that hasn't sold yet a little easier.