Duncan Edwards wrote:I've been party to some recent offline discussion with a few claiming to be disaffected QSF members who say they don't like the way QSF is "dominated" by video producers. Since they set it up and maintain it I think I can understand why the producers might feel a bit entitled to maintain a producer-centric board.
I'm reminded a bit of the Good Old Days when I opened and maintained a Yahoo group.
Yes, this place is dominated by producers, just as my group was dominated by me, but does anybody besides me remember how many quicksand groups on Yahoo were opened up and then suddenly, were great wastelands of no activity whatsoever?
That is because when you open a thing, other people do not show up in droves to throw quicksand material at you. You are, your own self, responsible for the care and feeding of your group/forum/whatever.
That's what the producers do here. They are the driving force that provides material and maintains the forum.
Therefore, I echo your sentiments. Disaffected members are free to go other places -- if they can find them.
They are free to open up something of their own and run it any way they want. But are they up to the care and maintenance? They're going to have to show up now and then with their own ideas/creations/conversation-starters. And the fact that most people are not up to that even when they start with the best of intentions is exactly what created all those quiet quicksand groups of years gone by.
Or they could (news flash!) just come here, and utilize the non-producer forums. It seems to me that the arts and stories sections are actually pretty healthy.
In any given group/forum/whatever, even when it is successful, there is a core of active members and a sea of lurkers. That is just how it is. I am glad that we are run by producers because I am sure some of the lurkers are supporting us.
I have noticed a general quieting-down of participation in recent years -- mostly in general discussion. I think that this is to be expected as my generation ages out and the next generation comes in. When I first entered the community (in 2000), the Internet was new and the very idea that someone might actually share my fetish was a shock to my system -- a pleasant shock, but a shock nonetheless. But people are now growing up with the idea that the Internet has everything and will provide anything they desire -- and, hopefully, for free.
I am sure that we have many new arrivals here who went to Google deliberately to find us, and just as expected, we were here, so here they are...and it's not a big enough deal for them to mention it.
I wouldn't be surprised if some alien lands on Earth, listens in on some conversations and finds out that no matter what it is that we wonder about, we ask Google...and Google always provides it. Therefore, Google is our God.
Nessie
Would you prefer a forum dominated by people who just sat around complaining about how the free lunch didn't include Lobster?
