what do people use TF for?

Excuses, excuses, Artashes

Actually, I suspect this thread is dead. Nevertheless. . .

Some of the problems that I see--here, and elsewhere--could be lumped together under "ownership" or "curation" issues.

I've noticed that online forum posts frequently fall into one of two styles. They are:
1. I need information.
You (this is a non-specific "you") post a question. Someone answers. Someone else may add to that answer. A third or 4th or 5th person may add more, or may say "Man, you're f*****d, here's the real answer." Frequently, because people read the question but not the existing responses posters# [2-n] may repeat a previous answer as if it is brand-new.

You're not having a conversation, you're playing 5-card draw or maybe Go Fish with miniscule packets of information.

2. Here's something I read or saw that I just gotta share.
Again, no conversation required. Sometimes it's a link to the poster's website, sometimes it's just the forum equivalent of those irritating group emails of cats making coffee, or donkeys with heads where their tails should be. I'd place rants in this category too.

TF seems to be good about discouraging such posts, or else I don't read the groups where they appear. But in many forums--on LinkedIn, for example--they're endemic. And irritating. And conversation stoppers--especially when the number overwhelms both questions and attempts at conversation.

Actually I'm not clueless about why there's so little conversation here. At least among the US participants, there is little school training in debate or argument as a viable conversation form. You're not taught how to nurture your ideas into a sustained exchange, something that takes both thought and time. You're not taught, as a rule, to present ideas in a way that encourages discussion and debate rather than cuts it off. And without a sense that you need to "own" the discussions you start--that if you continue to participate in conversations, add more ideas or comments, summarize the posts others submit or otherwise follow up--you sometimes can engage the lurkers.

Instead, you back off, as Derek did here in his 1 April post, when he said "I was really just trying to be annoying." Or someone announces "everybody's entitled to an opinion" or another anodyne statement that really means "I'm bored with this discussion, already [and you're a jerk if you continue it]." Or you start shouting, or calling your conversant names, as a way to have the last word because the last poster, as everyone knows, wins.

;^)

i'm not trying to back off. people are reading, but no one is participating.

i was trying to get under someone's skin so they'd ad least jump in and do as you did and say at least people are seeing it, or they're busy will reply with a more lengthy response later, but unfortunately, you were the only person who who cared enough to respond to it. the forum says there's 2 other people reading this thread now, as i type. get in on this.

To be honest I signed up a while back but never used it. I stayed on a partner forum if you want to call it that is mirrors this one and I never gave this forum much thought. I am busy so chatting on forums isn't something I have time for.

But, what I want to use this forum for is to build relationships with people, chat, advertise my services, and overall be a good influence on the forum. I like helping people and good forums like this one help people by having good people on the forum. Not to bash WHT or anything but that forum is filled with nothing but rude people and help isn't always there. But, I look forward to being an active member of the forum.

see, now that's what i was hoping would happen.