From the Administration

[creativegifts]

We have had 7 people regisiter for the forum in the last 2-3 days that did not follow my request to use either their first and last name or their business name when they registered. This request was made in the interest of transparency. Unlike the FB group, where we have over a thousand members while only a handfull ever participate, this forum will be transparent. Some of you registered before I made that request and that is fine. But for those who registered in the last 2-3 days and ignored that request, I have sent an email to the to confirm that their email address was legitimate. Two of the 7 were not and they have been deleted.

I don’t know why the other 5 didn’t honor that request and hope it is not just so they can lurk in the background and never participate. I have asked them to introduce themselves on the forum so that we know know they are.

This is a brand new forum and it may or may not succeed. That is up to the users. But in order to make sure that we aren’t like FB and consist of mostly lurkers, I will be deleting anyone who has not joined in and made a post within a month of joining.

Harsh. Perhaps. But I have spent time and money on this forum, and will do whatever is necessary to keep it transparent if it suceeds. Thank you.

[Lise46]

I think you are spot on Joyce. Do I need to change my user name?

[joycereidarizona]

Thank you Lise. No, don’t change your user name. You used your first name and most of us know who LIse is.

[Glendadrumnc]

Joyce, I, too agree with your points on signing up for this forum. I don’t understand why someone would sign up and not follow the rules or not interact. What’s the point? I know there should be many more people with whom we’re familiar on the Facebook group that should be joining the discussion. I’m definitely in favor of keeping out the “lurkers”, they don’t belong on here, this is for serious business owners. Many of us have been long time veterans of this business and we know more than we don’t. Newbies should be so fortunate to be on here to ask questions and get experienced knowledge.

[creativegifts]

Glenda, what you say is true. As they say, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.” We are already in the midst of the holiday season and many are too busy to deal with a forum. I have had one member ask me to remove her from the group because she didn’t like being notified of every post. I have it set up so that you are notified since the primary reason people give for not liking FB groups is that they forget about them. We shall see how that works and only time will tell how successful and how valuable this forum will be.

[Lise46]

It is definitely going to get harder to participate over the next 8 weeks.

[creativegifts]

I realize that. It is also going to be harder for me as well. I also realize that this forum is most likely not going to be very active until after the first of the year. We’ll see if it is then but that will be a good time to discuss what worked and what didn’t during this holiday season. In the meanwhile, participate when you can and don’t worry about it. No one is going to be deleted for non participation now.

[SherryCooter]

…on the comment about notifications. Is it an option to get a daily summary of notifications so there aren’t so many emails? My cancer group and caregivers group, have that as an option. Thanks!

[creativegifts]

Sherry, Yes, that option is available as a plugin that I can add but it would cost me $6.99 a month to do so. From what I am seeing so far in this forum, I’m not willing to pay that and still offer the forum for free since I receive nothing out of it. And I’m pretty sure people would not pay to use it. Another option is for me to delete all notifications but then I’m sure that would mean people would never check it.

If you are checking the box that says “Notify me of follow up replies via email” Don’t. If you check that box, you get two notifications of each post and reply.

I’m always open to any suggestions.

[SherryCooter]

Ok, thanks! How much are you paying to have this forum up? Are you getting any kind of pay back for doing it?

[creativegifts]

Sherry: I’m not paying anything for hosting this forum as I have a hosting account that allows me to host multiple sites. I did pay someone to help me sort out the problems with it not sending emails since I couldn’t figure out how to solve that problem. The forum software is a free plugin which is why I chose this one instead of paying for one that costs me money each month. And, I am getting zero payback for doing it.

[SherryCooter]

Thanks! Glad there is no cost to you for the forum!

[Author]

Posts