View Single Post
arteggio
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Within
 
2019-06-09, 11:00

Quote:
Originally Posted by kscherer View Post
There are folks hanging around who have been hanging around for 15 years, and we want the place to survive. Thanks to all who care, and to those making the effort to make it happen. Live or die, fight, claw, and snap, this is a piece of home, and we want to keep it!
Dang, you just got me to realize I've been on here about ten years now, and I've got artifacts in Minecraft that are seven years old!

This perspective helps me greatly appreciate AppleNova. I used to be on Brighthand and 1SRC, but they went downhill with the death of Palm. Neither MacRumors nor Reddit come anywhere close to AN in terms of community.

Re: Entry Essays:

Quote:
Originally Posted by kscherer View Post
Why the hell not? Maybe that's what sets our forum apart from the others. Maybe we can ask for something very similar to that. Maybe less words (250) and maybe there are beer-goggle judges who decide whether or not to let the bastards in? First post has to be at least 250 words, and some dickhead like me will fact check/plager-y check and then submit for votes by the standing members?
I also found this idea absurd and then amazing! If they can't get into college, why let them into AN! Let us be a walled garden of intelligence and wisdom.

Quote:
Here's the way I see it: AN is about smart, engaging conversation and we need to continue to foster that, even when it becomes heated. At least our members are sharp enough and intelligent enough to have a discussion—even when that discussion becomes an argument. At the end of the day, most of our membership can write 250 words. We should make that a prerequisite.
I say cheers to this, because have any of you been around MacRumors over the last couple years?? Tons of active users + little to contribute except cynicism = online hellscape. I see the aforementioned integrity as what sets AN apart from the rest of the internet.

But along with what has been mentioned, what if these essays also contributed to the blog that was being discussed earlier in the thread? "To join AppleNova, write about a unique way you use your Apple devices in your life" or something to that effect. We could get meaningful, unique content headlining the forum. Outsource AN's content to the people who want to get in! Not only would we old-timers be qualifying the new people, we'd probably learn a thing or two!

Furthermore, advertising that "your response/contribution may make it to the top of the website" incentivizes new people to join and offer up their experience for the greater good. Now they have not just a community and forum to share within, but a platform to be briefly broadcast upon, if not long-term if they wanted to write more content. This is similar to MacRumors, but with the community on the front instead of paid writers.

There could also be a different prompt for each month or quarter, which new members would have to respond to but which also invites current members to offer up something as well. Heck, these prompts can be cast as ballots by the people who have a genuine curiosity about how people go about XYZ or made ABC better for their workflows, etc. Look at this whole thread as a broad-enough prompt that got us all engaged and moving; this approach can be expanded and capitalized on.

Plus, if someone takes the time to write a submission essay for a forum, you know they want to be here.

And yes, expanding the platform this way would take extra "work," but look at all that we already take time to ponder and write. It's inspired and genuine, not forced or required. If the system is set up right, it becomes a windmill of incentive and inspiration on the parts of both new and old members alike, and it Just Works™. New members want to share their experience and "get in," some old members want to critique and qualify those applications, others want to write their response to the next upcoming prompt, etc.

AN could become a whirlwind of activity, interest, hype, and contribution, which I believe was the goal of this thread.



(This is my nearly-500-word entry for continuing-qualification!)

Quote:
Originally Posted by kscherer View Post
(if I ever land in Detroit you bet your damn britches I'm getting drunk with 709!)
What, I thought 709* was in the Pacific Northwest! This alters my worldview!

*It'll be nice to have a forum where users are auto-emphasized.

Last edited by arteggio : 2019-06-09 at 11:15.
  quote