KatBookTrailers

OH I found it...it was in an very odd spot and that's when I went into the Notification of the quoted posts. I actually had to get a quoted post to see that there was a way to opt out of ALL emails at the very bottom. Hoping this helps others in the same predicament.

When I first signed up, I opted out of receiving emails for notifications, and now I received an email when someone quoted one of my posts in a reply. I cannot find how to go back into that here in my Account to make sure I don't receive any emails. I hope I'm not forced to keep receiving unwanted emails? :(

I have a member who has been posting on the site asking people to PM them so they can provide a link to their writing for critique. I personally know that the member is basically just advertising their work and possibly wanting to add followers elsewhere. How would you handle this? I've already told the member twice openly that PM advertising could be a cause for a ban.

I've had people say my forum members are mean...but that's because they didn't like that someone disagreed with them or their beliefs. If they can't handle strong disagreements, then they aren't strong enough mentally or emotionally to stick it out, so it's probably best that they move on someplace else. I've had complaints that some people want more sub-forums and other people say it's a waste and they wouldn't use them anyway. You can't please everyone.

On one site I wanted full control over the reports and didn't want anyone else touching them. It's because I had a protocol that I wanted to follow and it's hard to train people to think like I do, especially when staff come and go so quickly most of the time. Delegating a lot of other duties is actually a good habit to get into! It shows staff that you value them when you allow them to do the things that you hold dear or hold as important.

I think burnout is inevitable for the hard working staff member. They're there because they love it and want to see the place succeed. I really encourage long LOAs when possible, but no more than 30 days. It feels good to take a break and get refreshed and then have the energy to get back into the swing of things.

Since they're my babies, I don't like criticism! I want praise :) I guess if someone started off by saying what they like about my forum before they dig into it, then I'll have my listening ears on. Otherwise, don't shoot me down just for the sake of shooting me down.

I have never been on a forum where the chatbox has been successful. There was one site where two members only wanted to be in the chatbox and not post on the forum itself. They complained when the chatbox was finally removed, but they were the only ones. No one else noticed it gone.

Glitzy stuff that's all over the place. If it sparkles, shakes, moves or draws my attention, it annoys me. If you have good content, you don't need to resort to adding those things. Sometimes those things can be hard to read if they're text and if they're moving, they get in my way of clicking on things I want to click on.

There was one year I did Bingo games with my members. It was fun at the beginning and we had some activity from it, but then after a few rounds, it died down. I tried other events, but those members wanted good conversation, not fun and games. We had a chat box, that didn't go anywhere. We even online games to play, but one player dominated all the high scores and whined when others wanted a reset. SO we just got rid of those all together. Problem solved.

It's easy to call it quits instead of changing a forum, but sometimes all you need is time to wait for things to improve. I almost asked a site owner to close the doors on one site, but then it miraculously picked up again. Of course, some of those were trolls, but wow, they really brought the activity we needed. There is one forum I'm no longer a part of, but if they would ease up on their rules, I'd probably return. Being too strict and making a police state for a forum leaves a bitter taste in a lot of member's mouths and they just walk away, never to return. This was a Christian forum, of course.

For me it started when I decided to sign up to become a beta tester for an online dial up community that was run by a local newspaper. I had a baby in the house and yearned for some conversations that went beyond baba, momma and daddy. From there I went into the world of Christian forums, some of them long gone now, but I have friends from those old ones. What I like about the various Christian forums is that we tend to keep in contact and some of us even sent Christmas cards by snail mail for years. So to answer the question, it was for adult contact and then for like-minded friends.

(groan) I guess it's true that the more we read, the more words we'll use. I think teachers expected that to come from good literature and not AI LOL I'm sure you'll come up with better words to substitute very soon. I wonder what the new word for 2025 is going to be that becomes all the rage?

You really think that elevate is less used normally? Maybe we see different sites on the internet, but for the past 2 years it's been overkill to the point that I'll leave site after seeing it! It's become a huge pet peeve for me to see "elevate" because I know that people...and companies...like to hop on the word bandwagon. One year it was "populate" at the place where I worked. What I've done if I use AI to write, is to go through and flag the words that are overused by other marketing/advertising/etc... and I'll get my thesaurus out and choose synonyms that might appeal to more audiences, those audiences who might also be sick of overused terms.

I've never been successful with social media, but then again I haven't dedicated as much time as I probably should have. I think to really get a site popular through social media that a lot of energy needs to go into getting followers and then giving them reason to keep following, or even sharing posts/information. That can be a full time job in itself!