I'll start. I have a lot of ideas about forums. I started participating in forums (what later became the IBC) in 1996. I can tell you those were the golden days. Not every kid with a stick in a pot had a computer and a digital camera, you didn't have to post for the four thousandth time to take your juniper outside. Bonsai participation for the most part was from growers with at least some experience and sophisticated enough to have a computer and know how to use it.
At the same time, there was an awful lot of misinformation floating on the web. This was the from our bonsai text book heritage of myths. Huge arguments raged about soil, fertilizers, and cultural practices. There were no moderators; flame wars abounded. It was better than a good daytime soap. This was extremely fertile ground. Slowly, good science began to prevail over cultural tradition, and this revolution persists to this day. The internet CHANGED bonsai, and for the better. I still miss those days.
What made those days so good? For one thing it was wide open. Several early attempts were made to limit the participation (sever the connection to the RAB newsgroup). The were all beaten back, thanks in part to yours truly. Newbies in those days didn't mean stick in pot greenhorns. It meant someone who had been practicing bonsai alone for twenty years finally found contact with THE community. Many eyes were opened, many ego were hurt. We lost some good people, but we gained more than we lost.
When bonsai forums became web based (as opposed to listserv, newsgroup), things changed. Yes, the community became even more open, but we also were exposed to the stick in a pot crowd. Now, many promising artists have come from this group, but the overwhelming influence has been to dilute the substance of the online bonsai community. Great discussions still happen, pictures and video are an enormous help, but there is no denying a sea change in the forum community.
Fortunately, instead of only ONE forum as in the old days, there are over a dozen, and in several languages as well. Now forums develop character and one can select the forum that is most appealing. For example (I will use names, not point in pretending we don't know to whom one is referring), BonsaiTalk is the most popular English language newsgroup, that is, it has the most members and traffic. It has been prone to enormous food fights in the past, mostly over 'Art' debates. They still happen but with less frequency. Groups do grow and change. These days I am hard pressed to find a single post in which I am interested enough to respond. BT, probably because its size, runs the gamut from stick in the pot to professional, and it has a number of professional level members.
Bonsaisite, is, and has always been a beginners group. The problem is that it is mostly by and for beginnings, so there is a lot of bad advice and it is pretty much dominated by just a few names with mediocre experience. It is difficult to find any post that is not stick in a pot except by Harry and a few other artists.
BonsaiChat is appropriately named, it is mostly by and for chat persons. Sometimes I call it the birthday forum since it seems that most of the energy goes into congratulating members on having survived another year. The only time this group put out some good serious work was when Will was stirring the pot.
Gardenweb, which was at one time the second of only two existing bonsai forums is virtually moribund having pissed off just about everyone imaginable with its silly in house 'we will tolerate no other commerce rules'. Now it's content is virtually run by someone called Lucy, although Vance Woods and BonsaiKC still appear occasionally to stir things up a bit.
Then there are the rebel groups that embraced art at all costs, including foregoing participation by most of the community, AOB and KOB. The stuff there is great and attracts some of the best artists in the world, but the layout and method of posting and responding is so alien to us all that there is lucky to be one or two posts a day. It doesn't have to be this DULL!.
Lastly, there is the poor old IBC, the group that started it all. The Listserv group still has the greatest number of artists and experts, but practically no one else, and is also virtually moribund these days with only a couple of posts a day. In the glory days, there were over 100 posts a day. The IBC website addition a few years ago was great because it allowed the use of images, but the setup is clunky and the gallery can ONLY be used for pictures (which is vigorously enforced). The text is another gallery which is also nearly moribund. Still, the IBC has the most potential to be THE best forum, with the most professionals with a friendly format, if only they could get their sh__ together. But they never will because it also is dominated by a few users with very strong opinions of how it should be run.
What can we learn from this?
First and foremost,
the biggest lesson is that it has to be easy. If you have to struggle (AOB, KOB, IBC) to find new posts, and the correct place to post or respond, forget it. We are instant culture and getting worse by the minute. We should tattoo KISS on our foreheads backwards so we see it in the mirror every morning: Keep It Simple Stupid! Software developers should also have it tattoed on their butt since that where their head is most of the time. You should be able to go to a site and with one click (or none as here) see all the new stuff.
Categories don't matter! Has anyone ever actually gone to the Soils category of a forum and actually learned anything? Chances are, you were just overwhelmed by 200 pages and 4 thousand posts on soils that just left you confused. When I want to learn something specific the last thing I would do is consult a forum category. Why do you think god invented Google? Even the search engines of most of the forums are pretty good, so you can zero in on what you need without any using the confusing categories. I have never understood this burning desire to create yet ANOTHER category for books out of print with intact binders or whatever.
Forums are about ACTION. Why not just let ONE forum be about what happens every day, or at least the current thread. If you want to search all the old stuff looking for Serrisa or Joe Blow's post, you are on your own Fred, that's what the search feature is for. Ok, that's a little extreme, but do you get my point? If you want to attract and keep good people, all this other crap isn't going to do it, it's the daily ACTION that will keep them around, especially people of experience. I
never look at the galleries in a forum, why would I subject myself to that? Stick your pictures in a post a get a critique, move on. There's no need to keep that pic for posterity. There are plenty of forums that do that, have about just ONE forum that puts the emphasis on daily posts and discussion.
Give it to beginners straight. We aren't doing beginners any favors by patting them on the back and saying 'interesting good start!'. You don't have to be mean, but you can gently point out that's not how we do it. Those with curiosity will stay, those that can't stand the heat will get out of the kitchen. I wouldn't mind seeing ONE forum with most of the members really willing to tell the straight skinny without devolving into flame wars. It can be done. I have been reading and responding to posts for TEN years, tens of thousands of posts, and have never engaged in a flame war, but there have been plenty of great controveries.
That's how I would like to see this forum, or at least ONE forum on the web. Maybe I'll get my wish, but I must admit, the odds are against it.
Brent
EvergreenGardenworks.com
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