A new section of the board.....

[Leon]

As everyone can see by the poll, with 223 people voting so far, there is a 93% approval rating for a new off topic chat section. For the 15 people that don't want the new section, the other 208 appreciate you letting us have more fun. There was over 50% that do not want politics or religion to be topics, so they won't be permitted.

As a comparison, changing to the new s/w a year and a half ago, if I remember correctly, only had about an 80% approval rating. This is much higher than that, and I would be a bit surprised if we don't have close to 100% of our members that think the new software is better than the old software, as of today. For the 93% that don't have an issue with the new section you can join in anytime, and for the 7% that don't want it, you don't have to but are still welcome to. This doesn't mean an occasional off topic won't be permitted on the main board, they will. But most of them will be in the section for them. The new board rules will go up this week and they will be announced for all to read. Just to be clear, again, I don't see the board changing at all with the new rules. For those that like it the way it is, you should be happy and for those that don't, you will remain unhappy. All in a days collecting. I did listen and took notice of your opinion. I wouldn't have asked if I was unwilling to change mine. Once again thanks to all of our great board members for helping make this decision, and this board, be the best vintage baseball card board on the net. best regards

[Matt]

Leon - can we vote on new rules to be added? E.g. a rule that everyone must refrain from starting a thread asking about the authenticity of a Goudey Ruth with a blurry scan until they have started at least 10 other good threads in that forum?

[iggyman]

Originally Posted by Leon

As everyone can see by the poll, with 223 people voting so far, there is a 93% approval rating for a new off topic chat section. For the 15 people that don't want the new section, the other 208 appreciate you letting us have more fun. There was over 50% that do not want politics or religion to be topics, so they won't be permitted.

Nice spinning. Can I change my vote to "I don't care", heaven forbid I get lumped in with those sociopaths that voted against the thread???

Lovely Day...

[Leon]

Originally Posted by iggyman

Nice spinning. Can I change my vote to "I don't care", heaven forbid I get lumped in with those sociopaths that voted against the thread???

Lovely Day...

Sure thing....you can change it, duly noted. If you want to call people sociopaths you can do that too. It's America....

[T206Collector]

1. I was not in favor of the change to a new board and I have found ZERO benefit in my own interests in Net54 as a result of the change to a new board. The new board is still more cluttered than the old one -- the gift of sight is somewhat a curse, I guess -- and thus my prior objection is still completely true today.

Here's a link to a thread about Ty Cobb on the old board. Take a read -- see how much easier it is to review and read? Now try doing it from your iPhone or Blackberry. Again, much easier in the old world.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...+Ty+Cobb+cards.......

2. It is misleading to say that a water cooler section has a 93% approval rating based on the poll as currently structured. While no further polls are warranted on this topic, I would predict that a binary choice -- water cooler vs. no water cooler -- would show more than 7% against, based on the comments on this thread.

3. Finally, on the concept that this is a family and you want a place on here to talk to your family, that's where you completely lose me and, frankly, this concept does not give enough credit to the value of this board as it is found by most of the people who check it out as an information source on pre-war baseball cards, decidedly not a family.

Moreover, the more you change a proven commodity, the greater the risk that you will lose its essence. Look no further than eBay, which ran much more smoothly as a pure auction site, than it does as a BIN depository. Sure, eBay may make more money doing that, but does anyone seriously question that eBay has lost the essence that made it so popular in the first place? The more add-ons you make to a fundamentally text-based pre-WW2 baseball card message board, the more you run the risk of diluting the brand. And to cavalierly make these add-ons without any acknowledgment of the risk of change is unfortunate and makes me somewhat pessimistic of the board's future.

[timzcardz]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

1. I was not in favor of the change to a new board and I have found ZERO benefit in my own interests in Net54 as a result of the change to a new board. The new board is still more cluttered than the old one -- the gift of sight is somewhat a curse, I guess -- and thus my prior objection is still completely true today.

Here's a link to a thread about Ty Cobb on the old board. Take a read -- see how much easier it is to review and read? Now try doing it from your iPhone or Blackberry. Again, much easier in the old world.http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...+Ty+Cobb+cards.......

FYI,

IF Leon choses, witin the vBulletin software is the option to alos provide a mobile version which is much easier to read on mobile devices.

I know this from a non-hobby (well, non-this-hobby at least) forum that I am on.

[Big Six]

Hoping Leon would consider this...

[4815162342]

Originally Posted by timzcardz

FYI,

IF Leon choses, witin the vBulletin software is the option to alos provide a mobile version which is much easier to read on mobile devices.

I know this from a non-hobby (well, non-this-hobby at least) forum that I am on.

+1

A mobile version would be fantastic. Really the only problem I have viewing the site on my iPhone is the "go to first new post" image-links being too small. I always have to pinch-zoom to be able to click them.

[HRBAKER]

Originally Posted by 4815162342

+1

A mobile version would be fantastic. Really the only problem I have viewing the site on my iPhone is the "go to first new post" image-links being too small. I always have to pinch-zoom to be able to click them.

I'm all for multi-tasking but I am not sure I can drive, talk, text, play "Words With Friends" and read Net54 at the same time.

[calvindog]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

1. I was not in favor of the change to a new board and I have found ZERO benefit in my own interests in Net54 as a result of the change to a new board. The new board is still more cluttered than the old one -- the gift of sight is somewhat a curse, I guess -- and thus my prior objection is still completely true today.

Here's a link to a thread about Ty Cobb on the old board. Take a read -- see how much easier it is to review and read? Now try doing it from your iPhone or Blackberry. Again, much easier in the old world.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...+Ty+Cobb+cards.......

2. It is misleading to say that a water cooler section has a 93% approval rating based on the poll as currently structured. While no further polls are warranted on this topic, I would predict that a binary choice -- water cooler vs. no water cooler -- would show more than 7% against, based on the comments on this thread.

3. Finally, on the concept that this is a family and you want a place on here to talk to your family, that's where you completely lose me and, frankly, this concept does not give enough credit to the value of this board as it is found by most of the people who check it out as an information source on pre-war baseball cards, decidedly not a family.

Moreover, the more you change a proven commodity, the greater the risk that you will lose its essence. Look no further than eBay, which ran much more smoothly as a pure auction site, than it does as a BIN depository. Sure, eBay may make more money doing that, but does anyone seriously question that eBay has lost the essence that made it so popular in the first place? The more add-ons you make to a fundamentally text-based pre-WW2 baseball card message board, the more you run the risk of diluting the brand. And to cavalierly make these add-ons without any acknowledgment of the risk of change is unfortunate and makes me somewhat pessimistic of the board's future.

Oh no you didn't!

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by calvindog

Oh no you didn't!

I almost missed this line beneath the 14-line block quote, which is a mis-/over-used and cumbersome feature of the new board.

[Leon]

Originally Posted by T206Collector

1. I was not in favor of the change to a new board and I have found ZERO benefit in my own interests in Net54 as a result of the change to a new board. The new board is still more cluttered than the old one -- the gift of sight is somewhat a curse, I guess -- and thus my prior objection is still completely true today.

Here's a link to a thread about Ty Cobb on the old board. Take a read -- see how much easier it is to review and read? Now try doing it from your iPhone or Blackberry. Again, much easier in the old world.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/15365...+Ty+Cobb+cards.......

2. It is misleading to say that a water cooler section has a 93% approval rating based on the poll as currently structured. While no further polls are warranted on this topic, I would predict that a binary choice -- water cooler vs. no water cooler -- would show more than 7% against, based on the comments on this thread.

3. Finally, on the concept that this is a family and you want a place on here to talk to your family, that's where you completely lose me and, frankly, this concept does not give enough credit to the value of this board as it is found by most of the people who check it out as an information source on pre-war baseball cards, decidedly not a family.

Moreover, the more you change a proven commodity, the greater the risk that you will lose its essence. Look no further than eBay, which ran much more smoothly as a pure auction site, than it does as a BIN depository. Sure, eBay may make more money doing that, but does anyone seriously question that eBay has lost the essence that made it so popular in the first place? The more add-ons you make to a fundamentally text-based pre-WW2 baseball card message board, the more you run the risk of diluting the brand. And to cavalierly make these add-ons without any acknowledgment of the risk of change is unfortunate and makes me somewhat pessimistic of the board's future.

1. You weren't in favor of the change to the new board s/w. That is why I used the term "virtually" when I said 100%. Your objection to the new technology is taken into account and noted.

2. I agree, I should have said that 93% approve OR DON'T really care one way of the other.

3. ON the concept of family....you are absolutely entitled to your collecting methodology and the lack of wanting to make friends in the hobby. As long as you don't harm anyone else, I have no issue with folks not wanting to have camaraderie, it's their choice. As far as value of the board, I think that is in the eye of the beholder, so your point is valid for you, not so much for me.

4. As far as changing a proven commodity, I feel it is my responsibility to always look to make our home/board a better place. So that is what I do for the masses, understanding there will be folks that don't like any decision that is ever made. Where you feel it will dilute the board, to have a place we can talk with our friends, I feel it will enhance it. We can politely agree to disagree on that aspect of it. You are pessimistic and I am extremely optimistic. With over 60 new members joining each and every month since the new s/w has been in place, I feel something must be going ok. My glass is usually have full though.

I do appreciate your views as it's always good to get the counterpoints in order to make more informed decisions. As for an Iphone app, we will look into that in the (near) future. However, we already have one person speaking up that says he has no problem with it. I do think it is probably needed long term.

best regards and happy collecting

[T206Collector]

Originally Posted by Leon

I do appreciate your views as it's always good to get the counterpoints in order to make more informed decisions.

Thanks. I think you understand my perspective.

[4815162342]

Forum Runner is a vBulletin and phpBB forum add-on that allows your users to access your forum at blazing fast speeds by using a native application installed on their mobile phone (Android or iPhone) or iPad/iPod Touch device. Forum Runner currently supports vBulletin v3.6.x, vBulletin v3.7.x, vBulletin v3.8.x, vBulletin v4.0.x, vBulletin v4.1.x, and phpBB v3.0.x.

http://www.forumrunner.net/

[michael3322]

Dear Leon,

With all due respect, I don't think your characterization of a 93% approval rating is completely accurate.

In fact, one could easily argue that the approval rating is actually 40% since most who voted that "neither politics or religion" should be included may also believe that this entire section is probably not in the best interests of the website.

If you are looking for the answer, then perhaps you should hold separate poll that asks that very question, rather than trying to answer multiple questions with a single poll question.

Just a thought...

Originally Posted by Leon

As everyone can see by the poll, with 223 people voting so far, there is a 93% approval rating for a new off topic chat section. For the 15 people that don't want the new section, the other 208 appreciate you letting us have more fun. There was over 50% that do not want politics or religion to be topics, so they won't be permitted.

As a comparison, changing to the new s/w a year and a half ago, if I remember correctly, only had about an 80% approval rating. This is much higher than that, and I would be a bit surprised if we don't have close to 100% of our members that think the new software is better than the old software, as of today. For the 93% that don't have an issue with the new section you can join in anytime, and for the 7% that don't want it, you don't have to but are still welcome to. This doesn't mean an occasional off topic won't be permitted on the main board, they will. But most of them will be in the section for them. The new board rules will go up this week and they will be announced for all to read. Just to be clear, again, I don't see the board changing at all with the new rules. For those that like it the way it is, you should be happy and for those that don't, you will remain unhappy. All in a days collecting. I did listen and took notice of your opinion. I wouldn't have asked if I was unwilling to change mine. Once again thanks to all of our great board members for helping make this decision, and this board, be the best vintage baseball card board on the net. best regards