Posted by Twinleaf on July 21, 2013, at 10:05:14
There have been a lot of thoughtful, insightful ideas about why Babble is so inactive. To sum them up:
1. Because the board is has gone from being overly moderated to largely unmoderated, it does not feel like a safe place to share intimate details of one's life. We have yet to experience a flexible, appropriate degree of moderating. Historically, this sense of a lack of safety was made worse by the sharing of information with Facebook and twitter.
2. There is a lot of concern over the effect Lou's posts are having on new posters (not the older ones, who have developed ways of dealing with them). It's clear that they cause distress, and many older posters feel that potential newer ones are being frightened away from participating here.
3. Perhaps the newness of communicating anonymously but intimately online has faded. This may be affecting all sites, not just ours.
4. Dr. Bob may have developed a communication style with us which is rather contentious and invalidating; this would be an additional reason for the forum to feel less than safe.
I think all of these factors, as well as others I am unaware of, are contributing to Babble's decline. I do think several of them can be improved considerably if we and Dr. Bob can develop constructive ways of working together. I hope others will add things I haven't thought of, or just add their views about what has gone wrong.
poster:Twinleaf
thread:1047564
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20130702/msgs/1047564.html