I love to make forums. I have done it a few times on my own, using phpbb2 and phpbb3 (I like phpbb3 better by far, and phpbb3.0.7 is just simply awesome), and I have helped manage and set up other people's forums a lot too (even a few forums that weren't on phpbb).
But more than playing with permissions and setting up rooms and fiddling with themes and hacks and all those nifty things, I love managing communities.
I love people.
That is probably why I love forum management so much. I know it is why I love this forum so much. You people are great.
Anyways, I want to talk about something that I have noticed in my foruming. Something that I think is a very important principle that needs to be kept in mind and guarded against.
Forums die.
Sad isn't it? People get together because they want to build their own little community, they put a bunch of work and time into it (and if you have been watching the Sci-Fi forum grow, you know how much work that is), they get their friends to come and have fun with them...
But for some reason it doesn't 'catch.'
No one really posts, and when they do, it really isn't on the topics that the forum is for, causing work for the moderators (if there are any who are doing anything). Nothing is accomplished, everyone is confused about what they are supposed to be doing (when they care). Spammers take over, people forget about it, leave it. It becomes a ghost board, and is eventually terminated or left to drift with the masses of useless social networks.
* sniff *
We want to avoid that, don't we?
So how do we do that? I mean, what can we do to make sure that the Holy Worlds community has a long and productive life?
Well, there are lots of things that need to come together for a healthy community. We already have a bunch of them automatically in place because we are Christians, and because most of us are Rebelutionaries of some form or another (seriously, that makes a huge, dramatic difference). We also have a common excitement and passion that draws us together, that is also a big help. Things are very active on here, and I don't see that falling away any time soon.
But there is one danger that we need to watch out for. It is easy to slip into, very easy. And it seems innocuous... until you see it kill as many forums as I and other members of The Council have.
I have thought and prayed about it a lot in recent weeks, and The Council has been discussing it for a while now. But we haven't been able to figure out a really good 'handle' to call this problem by. We have thought of various things, but they really didn't work. Haha.
The problem with defining it is that it includes a wide variety of behaviors. It includes off-topic posting, an emphasis of quantity over quality in posting and thread making, excessive use of smileys, silliness instead of productivity, stuff like that.
Now don't get me wrong, I am just as crazy as any of you (or, depending on who you ask, more crazy). I like smileys.
I do use short posts. And I love that one of the most often quoted reason for loving Holy Worlds is the freedom to be crazy.
But I believe there is a qualitative difference between the kind of craziness that is involved in having fun discussing the theological implications of sapient dragons or the internal structures of a centaur's digestive systems, and the kind of craziness that is involved in having contests on how many smileys can be packed into a post, or (more obviously) on how silly you can get.
The former is good. The latter is undesirable.
What do I mean by that? Am I mad at you for using smileys? No!
I just want to warn you, to alert you, to encourage you to be careful. Try to spend more of your time in the Tower Records and Scholar's Hall than you spend in General Discussion or the Courtyard. Try to focus on content, helping further our goal here.
Think about it... what is our goal in this forum?
To bring glory to God through writing fantasy.
That is it. We serve that goal through many ways. We discuss fantasy with the purpose of helping our writing improve so that we can glorify God in it. We make friends and fellowship with each other to be encouraged and exhorted in our calling to write well and honorably... in a way that glorifies God.
So try to look at each post, each thread, that way. Especially now that we are starting a Sci-Fi forum: this is the crucial time for watching out for this. Forums spin out of control fast when they are just starting, so be extra-specially careful over there, and here during this time.
Thank you for doing so well here, I really appreciate it. Thank you for making this place active and God honoring.
Now let's make this the place where people go to meet people who really, really know how to glorify God through writing fantasy.
