Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

I would like to make a suggestion...

Can we have a closed forum section for members only for some of the more heated discussions to take place?

I was looking through David's thread about increasing the participation for future votes in our club.

Just to be clear, I don't think there is anything wrong with discussing ways to increase participation in future votes, and if somebody has a good idea for it for the betterment of the club, by all means it should be brought up and discussed.

However, topics like this one, and many others that have popped up in the forum lately, tend to have a lot of bickering back and forth throughout them. I'm not pointing fingers or blaming anyone.

The coming election for the PR position is what made me think of this. I run a business where I help other businesses to market themselves online. That includes everything from tweaking their websites, to social media marketing, to improving their rankings in search engines, to online reputation management. One thing that drives me nuts is when I work my butt off to drive more traffic to a client's website, and they refuse to make the necessary changes on their site to increase sales or conversions.

I lurked around this club for a long time before I ever joined. I was an avid player of the old BG games, and had visited here several times over the past 10 years. Each time, I saw several threads of, what appeared to me, petty bickering back and forth. It turned me off each time. For some reason, I did finally decide to join last summer.

Now I go back to the PR position. They have a difficult enough task as it is getting the word out about our club and driving up our membership. If I visited the club in the past and was turned off by some of the things I saw in the forum, I'm sure I have not been the only one. It's impossible to know how many recruits may have been lost because of it.

On top of that, when it comes to improving the club's relationship with JTS and HPS, I have to be honest. If I was running their business, I would be a bit hesitant with some of the things that go on in this forum. I would probably keep the club at arm's length rather than embrace the relationship. Same goes for reaching out for new relationships on other gaming related websites.

Now, I am not suggesting censorship by any means. I'm just suggesting that cleaning up the outward public appearance of the club would probably go a long way to making the new PR officer's job a lot easier in the future.

Am I crazy?

Well put Mike. I'm in favour I have to say, and from previous threads I'd say several others are too.

I am also in favor of it. I even sent an email to the cabinet a few weeks ago about it.

_________________
Général David Guegan

3ème Régiment de Grenadiers - Bataillon d'élite du 3ème Légère
2ème Brigade
Grenadiers de la Réserve
Réserve
La Grande Armée
--------------------------
"From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step."
Napoléon Bonaparte

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.
Groucho Marx

Salute!

Having a sub forum is not necessarily a bad idea in and of itself for membership only discussions.
But it will not suffice for the antidote to turning people off to the bickering and boorish behavior that you are concerned about.

It will only delay that reaction to the point of when you are an actual member - and then you will wonder why did I ever join this crazy-town?

Whether you lose a potential member before they join, or lose them after you join you are still losing a member.

I would rather see the membership conduct themselves appropriately throughout.

Regards,

Absolutely.

_________________
Field Marshal Sir Edward Blackburn, 1st Duke of Aberdeen K.G.
85th (Buck's Light Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
16th British Brigade
7th Division
III (Peninsular) Corps
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards

Here here, never were true words said and that was why I backed out of the running and I believe my post said as such, but I came back because I wanted to make a difference. Everything said in this post is correct and if this continues in 3 or 4 years time there won't be club because we won't get new members and you know what I was asked a question how do entice the old inactive members back and how do we keep those interested we do recruit well I'll tell you and it doesn't take a genius stop the bickering, those three words. Stop the bickering.

Todd,

I agree. No fighting would be a better solution. In the absence of that, I think this is a good alternative.

You are right. There might be some members that drop out because of what they see after joining. However, there also will be some who never would have joined that meet people that make them want to stick around despite the bickering. Overall it would have a net positive impact I believe.

Even more important though, if the PR officer is going to reach out to places like a gaming enthusiast blog, I believe most of them are going to visit the website and the forum before ever making a decision to endorse the club or even mention the club on their site. If they see some of the past voting threads, for example, they are likely to tell you or Mark to go fly a kite.

Exactly and you know what my partner Kelly has read some of the stuff on here and believe me her words were "The position of Public Relations Officer is not workable" and that's an outsider looking in.

Salute!

It is my experience that any internet based club that has a posting membership (loosely or strictly controlled) that involves matters of debate, the conversations can become heated at times.
Bickering, etc.

That is part of human nature.

What we can do is strictly enforce the codes of conduct that the club has.

For example, right now there is still a post within a thread here in this very forum where two members are referred to as an a#@ and a human s@%t.

Cleaned the language up, but I hope you get the point.

That I would submit should not have been kept in print longer than it took the forum moderators to be informed of it - let alone still remain weeks later.

This kind of talk is what we (in my opinion) should be concerned about.

Regards,

Gentlemen

In theory I agree with Mike's suggestion of a Members Only Forum (MOF) but can certainly see where Todd's coming from.

Is a Topic posted in the MOF, is it transferred when it gets too "hot", what happens when a basic Topic gets hijacked if its transferred the original poster looses out?

Who decides the issue of what is posted where The Cabinet, an appointed set of moderators?

Again taking up Todd's point a little banter is acceptable but resorting to foul language is unacceptable.
The word "retard" was used in one thread and while this may not be classified as foul language
I consider it totally "beyond the pale".

_________________
Jim Hall
Field Marshall
Commander Anglo-Allied Army

Call it The War Room.

Anything to do with club politics, policies, changes, etc. goes there.

Anything.

That forum still has the same rules. No personal attacks. Keep the language toned down. No special rules. I'm not at all suggesting it should be a "anything goes" type place.

Banter between the armies, discussions about the games (who does that ), historical discussions, etc. all stay here.

I had posted in this thread immediately following Mike's first post. Apparently I did something wrong as I do not see it contained in this thread. You would think after 3,000 posts on the last four years, I would have learned how to operate this dang, infernal contration that they call a 'computer'.

In any case, it is all about attitude, and that is something over which each of us has direct control. That is definitely something that we can change, but we have to be willing to do so. I am not convinced that everyone is so willing.

I will be more than happy to create a subforum later tonight when I get off from work. Someone will just have to give me a name as to what it will be called. I do not think that it will be anything more than a Band-Aid at best, and can visualize problems in its administration. I do not think it will solve the problem. After opening the doors and lighting the lanterns in the new establishment, I will probably never grace the doorstep ever again. Those who want to fight and squabble can have at it. I do not think that such behavior is in any way benficial to our club, and I want no part of it myself. As the Club President, I have been intentionally dragged into a lot of unnecessary mud puddles by persons demanding my individual response. That ends today. I, and our Club's Cabinet members, will not be dragged through any more mud in our public forums. Some of us dedicate a huge portion of our time to keeping this club running, and that is where we need to remain focused. I have too many things to get done for our club, and no time for this perpetual conflict.

Post your suggestions of a name for the proposed subforum, and I will set things up for you tonight. All posts thereafter that either start, or develop into controversy in any other forum, will be moved to the new subforum. The bickering in our publically accessible forum ends tonight.

I see a subsequent post to my writing. The 'War Room' it is then.

Exactly, the rules would be the same but since people seem to have problems adhering to decorum when things get heated it would at least get these kind of threads out of the public eye. Also for those who have no wish to partake in this sort of "dialog" it will make it easy to avoid.

_________________
Field Marshal Sir Edward Blackburn, 1st Duke of Aberdeen K.G.
85th (Buck's Light Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
16th British Brigade
7th Division
III (Peninsular) Corps
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards

How about "Club Management and Organization"? Nice and benign.

_________________
Field Marshal Sir Edward Blackburn, 1st Duke of Aberdeen K.G.
85th (Buck's Light Volunteers) Regiment of Foot
16th British Brigade
7th Division
III (Peninsular) Corps
2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards

I would not be willing to even remotely relate what I have seen in the Rhine Tavern recently, or what I expect to see in this new forum, to 'Club Management' and 'Organization'. I do not expect anything in this new subforum to be "nice and benign".