Post #183508 by joefla70 on Wed, Aug 31, 2005 7:03 PM

On 2005-08-31 09:56, aquarj wrote:
But I also don't really understand the complaints that are apparently coming in about TC getting offtopic. As Velvet Ruby points out, people can easily customize their own experience here, by just choosing what topics to read.

It seems to me that if the "problem" that brought about these changes was a shift of emphasis from tiki related topics to non-tiki related topics, then forcing people to devote more time to talking about tiki topics seems kinda weird. And I just don't see that removing access to beyond/bilge for non grand members is going to help.

If it were a money issue, then I have no problem saying that we should all pony up the $ to pay for the cost of running TC by getting grand memberships. But if the changes were really brought about by concerns that tiki central was getting too far away from tiki, then I don't think the changes are going to help. I think it will just alienate people who won't pay the money for grand membership. I have to admit that I spend a lot of time perusing and posting in beyond/bilge, so I will mostly likely pay the money to get the grand membership, but I just don't think that is the way to get people to post more tiki related topics. I agree with Swanky on this completely. People have gotten to know each other and want to talk about other things with them besides tiki. I post tiki related topics, but I also have a lot of fun posting in beyond/bilge. If Tiki Central was made to JUST be about tiki, I think that the comradarie that exists between the TC members would be diminished, and I don't think that is a very good thing. And for those people who don't like to see the non-tiki posts, they can choose not to view them. But it seems like this change has been brought about because people don't want other people talking about non-tiki topics on TC. Hanford, its your baby, and you put so much time, effort and money into running this site... and for that I thank and commend you. You also strive to make TC a better place, and you seem to value feedback from members, which I think is great. But having said that, the change seems to be a move towards censorship. It would be one thing to say that TC is only for tiki discussion - period. But if there is going to be a beyond tiki and bilge area, then I just don't think its right to regulate the contribution to the posts by saying that there needs to be more tiki discussion and less non-tiki discussion. That's my two cents.

[ Edited by: joefla70 2005-08-31 19:20 ]