Jan 6th - TWiB Bill Scher and Matt Lewis

[Ocean]

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, welcome to the rebels' home!

Spill your guts, folks!

[AemJeff]

Originally Posted by Ocean

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, welcome to the rebels' home!

Spill your guts, folks!

FREE BHTV!!!! YEEAGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Brenda]

Ocean, I guess you must have missed Bob's note here in vBulletin. Here's the relevant part:

By popular demand, we’re going to experiment with keeping the vBulletin forum open for those of you who want to keep using the platform to talk about non-diavlog-related stuff. But please, please, please don't use vBulletin threads to comment on the diavlogs. That would draw your energy away from the diavlog pages just when we need you to help us keep those pages smart and vibrant. The Disqus platform, being more accessible than vBulletin, will probably bring more newcomers, so we want you to be there setting an example, helping to sustain the spirit of constructive contention that you’ve built here.

[edited to ponder what to do next]

[Ocean]

Originally Posted by Brenda

Ocean, I guess you must have missed Bob's note here in vBulletin. Here's the relevant part:



[edited to ponder what to do next]

Brenda, I had a vague idea that Bob had asked that we continued posting in the new Disqus forum. But I think that both Bob and you are underestimating the effect of the new forum. For some of us it's plainly not feasible. It's not about changing the format a little bit and making some adjustments. It's a dramatic change. Some of us will not want to continue posting. It's as simple as that.

You can get your new crowd of commenters there with lots of one sentence comments and LOLs, but those of us who participated here because we liked the ability to have more complex interactions, extended, in depth discussions, will not be able to switch.

So, simply either we have discussions here (vBulletin), or you will lose us and we, of course, not allowed to use this one for our discussions will have to move on to other business.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but this switch was a terrible mistake and proof that you may not understand the dynamics of your comment section. It may work for some and especially for people who have been happy using Disqus in other places for their short comments. You may be able to build a new community there. I'm not likely to participate. It's too depressing.

[Brenda]

Believe me, we're aware of the limitations of Disqus. I won't argue that it's as good a platform as vBulletin. But we had compelling reasons to ditch the vBulletin-to-diavlog bridge.

For the good of Bloggingheads.tv, I hope you'll give Disqus an extended workout for, say, a couple of weeks. You assume a community can't be nurtured there, but it's only been, what, 48 hours? Let's not give up yet.

[edited to fix link]

[Sulla the Dictator]

When I click on the diavlog, I do not have the option to comment. Is there a glitch or do I need to click on something specific?

[Ocean]

Originally Posted by Sulla the Dictator

When I click on the diavlog, I do not have the option to comment. Is there a glitch or do I need to click on something specific?

I know what you're talking about because I ran into that problem at the beginning. But here's where you need to go. Not sure how I got there.

[badhatharry]

you click on the diavlog you want to watch, then you click on play entire video

I miss my italics!!

[sugarkang]

Originally Posted by Brenda

For the good of Bloggingheads.tv, I hope you'll give Disqus an extended workout for, say, a couple of weeks. You assume a community can't be nurtured there, but it's only been, what, 48 hours? Let's not give up yet.

[edited to fix link]

I'm willing to comply... for a price. Ahem, still waiting on my book.

[Florian]

Originally Posted by Ocean

Brenda, I had a vague idea that Bob had asked that we continued posting in the new Disqus forum. But I think that both Bob and you are underestimating the effect of the new forum. For some of us it's plainly not feasible. It's not about changing the format a little bit and making some adjustments. It's a dramatic change. Some of us will not want to continue posting. It's as simple as that.

You can get your new crowd of commenters there with lots of one sentence comments and LOLs, but those of us who participated here because we liked the ability to have more complex interactions, extended, in depth discussions, will not be able to switch.

So, simply either we have discussions here (vBulletin), or you will lose us and we, of course, not allowed to use this one for our discussions will have to move on to other business.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but this switch was a terrible mistake and proof that you may not understand the dynamics of your comment section. It may work for some and especially for people who have been happy using Disqus in other places for their short comments. You may be able to build a new community there. I'm not likely to participate. It's too depressing.

I agree. Terrible, terrible mistake....from the point of view of regular commenters. But who knows what is their point of view. Is it a matter of cost? Or does Bob want to attract more traffic? IMO, he is not going to attract the kind of traffic that shows up in the comment section of the Atlantic or the New Yorker--but rather the kind of traffic that shows up in Yahoo message boards.

[dieter]

Originally Posted by Florian

I agree. Terrible, terrible mistake....from the point of view of regular commenters. But who knows what is their point of view. Is it a matter of cost? Or does Bob want to attract more traffic? IMO, he is not going to attract the kind of traffic that shows up in the comment section of the Atlantic or the New Yorker--but rather the kind of traffic that shows up in Yahoo message boards.

Can you elaborate?

We might be thinking the same thing. I believe there will be mostly "post and forget" or "drive by posting" type "discussion" going on.

[Florian]

Originally Posted by dieter

Can you elaborate?

We might be thinking the same thing. I believe there will be mostly "post and forget" or "drive by posting" type "discussion" going on.

We are probably thinking the same thing. Posters to the Atlantic and the New Yorker don't generally engage in discussion with one another (no threads as in bhtv) but they are greatly superior in quality to "post and forget" boards.

[Ocean]

Originally Posted by Florian

We are probably thinking the same thing. Posters to the Atlantic and the New Yorker don't generally engage in discussion with one another (no threads as in bhtv) but they are greatly superior in quality to "post and forget" boards.

Are you referring to a sequence of monologues/mini essays that some websites have? I've seen that in specialized forums. It's a whole bunch of experts who like to write their essays about the topic. Like a mini-professorial exposition. It can be elegant looking and interesting in an informational way, but the lack of interaction places them between boring and insufferable. Not the BhTV crowd for sure. The political diavlogs wouldn't attract many from that crowd either.

[Florian]

Originally Posted by Ocean

Are you referring to a sequence of monologues/mini essays that some websites have? I've seen that in specialized forums. It's a whole bunch of experts who like to write their essays about the topic. Like a mini-professorial exposition. It can be elegant looking and interesting in an informational way, but the lack of interaction places them between boring and insufferable. Not the BhTV crowd for sure. The political diavlogs wouldn't attract many from that crowd either.

True, but I would rather read mini, elegant, semi-professional essays than fly-by-night posters, who are not interested in discussion. The new format is no different from Yahoo message boards.

[Ocean]

Originally Posted by Florian

True, but I would rather read mini, elegant, semi-professional essays than fly-by-night posters, who are not interested in discussion. The new format is no different from Yahoo message boards.

Oh, absolutely, I agree with you.

Sometimes I'm reading an article on line and I look at the comments and I get so turned off by the pitiful content that I've decided not to even try. Between the typos, the lack of grammar structure, and the incredible silliness and shallowness of the content, it's closer to torture than getting anything meaningful. Unless I was trying to get some form of research data, and still it would be depressing.

[rfrobison]

Originally Posted by Ocean

Brenda, I had a vague idea that Bob had asked that we continued posting in the new Disqus forum. But I think that both Bob and you are underestimating the effect of the new forum. For some of us it's plainly not feasible. It's not about changing the format a little bit and making some adjustments. It's a dramatic change. Some of us will not want to continue posting. It's as simple as that.

You can get your new crowd of commenters there with lots of one sentence comments and LOLs, but those of us who participated here because we liked the ability to have more complex interactions, extended, in depth discussions, will not be able to switch.

So, simply either we have discussions here (vBulletin), or you will lose us and we, of course, not allowed to use this one for our discussions will have to move on to other business.

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but this switch was a terrible mistake and proof that you may not understand the dynamics of your comment section. It may work for some and especially for people who have been happy using Disqus in other places for their short comments. You may be able to build a new community there. I'm not likely to participate. It's too depressing.

[LIKE]