some of the recent threads seem to have disappeared ?

Paul. That goes for new messages also.

Hi Paul,

I recently did a little "spring cleaning" on the front page of the message board. Nothing has been deleted. However, certain topics were "suppressed", which is to say that they were moved to the back of the pile and away from the front page. I do this whenever the front page gets dominated by certain select individuals or topics, which tends to discourage activity from other people, especially newcomers.

When a topic has been suppressed, you may still bring it back to the front by posting another reply. I may or may not re-suppress it thereafter... It depends on the reason I did so in the first place. In the case of the recent messages, it had more to do with the sheer volume of int'l standard technique topics than anything else (These in particular are a huge deterrent to the average passerby). So I won't bother acting upon it again unless the same thing happens. If one or two find their way back to the top, it's not a big deal.

If you have a user account, it's easy to find discussions you've participated in by using the "My Messages" tab of your user account area. If you don't have a user account, now would be a good time to create one.

Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com

well if it is that much of a nuisance, i won't contribute any more.

Paul. Stay with it. This is likely to happen and did. I put a young lady onto this site and directed her to Learn the Dances. Mainly to watch the heel turns plus the posture. She drifted to the message board and saw something she didn't understand which was CBMP and CBM. So she asked the person who was teaching her. He hadn't got a clue on what she was talking about. I think you can draw your own conclusions from that. Sites with technique as a theme are a thorn in the side to some.

"Sites with technique as a theme are a thorn in the side to some."

We seem to be missing Jonathon's point.
This site does not have a theme. It covers all aspects of ballroom dancing and if it is to be useful it must be attractive to all visitors, from casual curiosity to serious inquisition, and from all around the world. We are lucky that because of Jonathon's background this America based site has some very good coverage of International style.

The front page lists the most recent topics to tempt the visitor to venture further. If all those topics have similar subjects and/or come from the same authors then the casual visitor may well turn away thinking there was nothing here of interest to them.

The threads are still there, and still as valid as before. They just do not dominate the site.

There's only so much one can display on a home page. Currently, the message board portion shows the most recent posts, whatever the category. This could well lead to a situation where certain topics "dominate," such as International Standard Technique. If one were to click on "Dancetalk" at the top menu bar (or More Topics below the Message Board display), one could easily navigate to a display that more truly shows the diversity of topics discussed on this message board.

Perhaps the user could be given the option to display more readily (e.g., on the home page itself) the most recent posts within a topic or category of his/her choice.

Inevitably, some topics lend themselves to more in-depth technical discussion than others. Maybe the newcomer/casual observer could be forewarned of the content in some way (a la MPAA ratings ).

Would it not help when posting a new message to ask people to choose a Forum.

That's what the drop-down box is for. People are supposed to select a forum when they post a new message, but many (if not most) either overlook it, or choose the wrong forum for their topic. Needless to say, I do a lot of clean-up work.

At any rate, that's irrelevant to this discussion, as the homepage displays all forums. No matter what forum is chosen for a particular topic, it will display on the homepage.

PaulW was under the mistaken impression that we don't appreciate his contributions, or that we are opposed to discussions of a particular topic (eg Standard technique). Nothing could be farther from the truth. However, when the entire homepage is domainated by the interests of two or three people, thereby discouraging participation from the public as a whole, it diminishes the utility of the website overall. I think I came up with the perfect solution, as it clears up the homepage but still allows the somewhat private discussions to continue between the participants. And those topics will still reappear on the homepage, but not in such overwhelming amounts.

But hey, you win some, you lose some. I may have lost one user, but four more will come along to take his place, now that the homepage looks more inviting. The last time I lost a user, it was because I *didn't* do anything about the problem. These are the kinds of judgement calls required of a moderator. I am totally content with this decision.

Regards,
Jonathan

Jonathan. I see what you mean. Perhaps if you change the address to read (Choose a forum) numwits like me will do so. Keep up the good work. Cheers Dave