I threatened to start this thread on the "Abortion is a blessing and abortionists are saints thread" http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=2654

OLO posters can do much better with forum threads. I think the discussion is more civilised than it was a while back, but the topics are less varied.

Where is the topic thread discussing the announcement that the government will be building the National Broadband Network? Where are the mainstream threads on the G20? Is North Korea a threat, and if not, what was the missile launch about?

There's been a climate change meeting in Copenhagen, and another in New York, but no mention on threads.

Why doesn't anyone ever post something about the latest book they read?

Maybe I need to look out for guest posters. Someone who doesn't have time to write an article, but can do a quick 300 words with no expectation that they will stay on the thread.

Anyway, interested in your feedback. There must be hundreds of conversations worth having that we're not having, but could.

I think Graham that survival is becoming a salient issue.People are working longer and harder for less,hence there is less time for analysis.This is not a good outcome for anyone.

Arjay, who is working harder and longer for less? Appart from most small business owners that is.

I have just received notice that I have to pay normal rates + double time for the first 4 hours then double time and a half for any additional hours this comming easter Saturday because someone has decided that it should be a public holiday.

Never used to be until recently so work that out.

rechtub and thats a lurch away from an important thread, having had a few threads knocked back, [except the ruling ]I understand the reasoning here.
We should get away from politics now and again, Arjay is right concern is however focused on our daily fears.
However I am right now heavily involved in you subject.
I my state only those who work on that day are paid extra, it has always been paid at double time and one half all day in industry's I know of.
Start a related thread and I will come.

Point taken, Graham. We do tend to see the same few people starting threads and I must admit that I'm rarely one of them.

I'll try to do better

<hangs head>

I rarely post thread topics here due to the rail roading they get. Can't be bothered any more.

I'd LOVE to talk about some of the things you've suggested and have considered posting them here, but went nah, so I post them in my personal blog.

MY most recent topic was talking about investing in the stock market now. One company's stock is .40c - (stick with me) - where mid last year it was 2.50.....good time time buy now?. Stuff like that, through to global politics, computers, gaming, organ donation, transplant, theatre, movies, books etc and I have double posted there and here, but meh. The pool has been proven to be too shallow time and again.

People just can't seem to let their personal gripes go and just discuss here.

Hey Antiseptic, I'm not pointing the finger at anyone, I'm trying to spark a conversation about conversation in the hope that it might generate some threads that we all agree are worthwhile.

I sometimes throw myself into the fray if I think it is lagging too much, and start a few. But I don't like doing that, because it stops being a forum and starts to look more like a blog!

its because of fear grayham

i have tried to post topics 5 times,but they were so full of errors of fact you turned them down,where as i feel the private responses you gave for their refusal were valid,...i feel they would better have been as a corrected post,on an actual thread

one that comes to mind on the qld upper house[i incorectly called the senete,it made other points i feel we should fully have been developing higher understanding on..but that was not to be..the post was refused and the will to post went with it

no one is perfect,im full of error,but am well aware of my errors,i have a different and'unique'way with facts,but i feel my error[if error]should be publicly corrected,or,asked to validate,just as peoples biases should be publicly rebutted

while im on the topic[because i see more articles resulting;if only to put something up]is the links direct..straight to comments,whereas i feel they should go to the article posted

my other point is the 5[4?]comment limit that applies to the articles topics,we need to keep back comment in case some one rebuts a point[knowing the limit lets their rebuttal stand for 24 hours,be it right or wrong]

my other comment would be that of censure[banning]having gone through this process at other forums..[as well as here]and despite your very fair and civil way of banning ...it still has a negative affect on posting..you must be aware certain posters are good at getting banned those they cant refute with facts

i feel we are adults here and can rebut[or make our own case]that error is best revealed where the error[or lie]is made..[at the post]

i hate posting what i feel simply are truths or facts i have been conned or decieved into believing, ....but then getting the dreaded private communication[you are suspended]

the self censure dosnt help the free expression[or free correction of further comment]if fools say foolish things let the reader decide

i feel if we are aware enough to concieve the problem we must be man enough to take public correction[not cry to the moderator for censure]

Graham,

I think this site is excellent.

It is rarely censored, it allows people to vent their frustrations, it allows people to discuss and debate with people they would never meet in real life openly and it caters for a broad cross section of the community.

Furthermore it enables people to express opinions that maybe in real life they would be less likely to do.

Whilst we crow about free speech there are all manner of ways in which free speech is curtailed.

A simple example is a Govt worker who wants to discuss openly a problem concerning the Govt. or even just their political views. This site empowers these people through their being able to post under a nom de plume.

THIS IS A GOOD THING!

The fact that some people get heated and are blunt is also a good thing.

I find all posters most enlightening and wouldn't be too critical of most I have read.

So the place is full of left, right, middle, far left, far right, christian, non-Christian, strange , weird and wonderful people all speaking their minds - this is what a modern democracy should be.

As for the topics I think they are as diverse as the people who comment on your pages. Guest posters would be an interesting concept to try but I worry about people who don't reply to the topic they start.

Even with the modern pressures of "the credit crisis" and just surviving we see people willing to give their time to debate robustly on all manner of issues.

My only worry is that most of the people here are wrong and I am always right... lmao

Graham, I do appreciate the effort that you put in, to make OLO
such a great forum.

I can think of a number of topics to debate, and I do prefer the
General section, as the 4 posts a day make it easier to discuss
a topic, rather then 2 posts.

Where most of us are probably in a similar situation, is that we
can each only spend so much time per day on OLO. So I often
see many topics that interest me, but I tend to select one to
three at a time and focus on those.

Luckily my computer is also part of work, so I can sneak in and
catch up on a few posts, when I really should be working :)

I suspect that this is not so uncommon on OLO, but we do all benefit.

So thanks.

Dear Graham,

I'll add my thanks to Yabby's as well.

OLO does have quite a varied
choice of topics - not only in the
general discussion area but also in the
article section. So there's a good balance.

Perhaps the reason some topics may be by-passed
on OLO is that they've already received very wide
coverage in the media.

On the whole, my feeling is that OLO does keep up to
date with current issues.

Allow me to add my vote here. OLO has been an excellent find for me, too many other fora are full of "personalities" and personal attacks.
I've enjoyed the discussions, and while feelings can run high sometimes, everyone seems to keep more or less to the spirit of this forum. I agree more variety would add to the attraction, but that's up to myself and those others who want it to provide it, surely?
Keep up the good work guys!
And my personal thanks to those who contribute, even to dispute me, it's providing me with exactly the intellectual stimulation I have sought, and I'm learning new things regularly, always a good thing for a G.O.M, lol

antiseptic your post made me think is it time a gave up starting threads.
StG,s? well not for the first time made me question did he/she mean me?
I try to post threads of interest, and I try to question my side of politics too.
In threads like power without glory[a thread that may yet be repeated] .
33% wage increase questioned the sanity of some trade unions, and gave me a place to again say there is a difference in unions.
Our name is OLO and Australian politics, I once posted on a forum called Australian politics, only it ever came near this one, it did not however reach these heights.
Politics and unionism are my life, and in truth I say it as I truly think.
GY has never to my knowledge censored us, however just maybe questioning why some post but not others is censoring?
Yes we need to talk about many subjects, want to I am sure, but note few post on some threads now.
Rather than knock those who start threads why not start a few?
I promise to look

Belly. Wasn't talking about you in particular. Just the lack of interest in some of the great threads that have been posted in the past by many people.

...and I'm a him.

There seemed to be a period not so long ago when it was extremely difficult to get threads going without them being taken over by people with axes to grind.

We lost some really great posters but also, it seems, we have now got a whole different cast and crew as well. I had just about given up posting as the effort of fending off personal attacks became just too wearisome. But it seems that some of the more ardent axe-grinders have either disappeared or pulled in their horns.

Perhaps individual threads might not be so long if they are no longer interminable stouches and excercises in infantile name-calling,but perhaps more people will bring their individualism to light?

Over time I have learned a lot here: not least of all the diversity of thought in our community. There are some real treasures on this site whose comments often lead me down all sorts of untrodden paths. I would have hated to lose this link to Australia now I'm so far away.

I don't have much more than just a feeling, but I get the impression traffic is down a bit on OLO. Of course it is difficult to tell as a mere user, given that users have no access to site statistics like the numbers of unique views per page, click-through rates, revisitation statistics, external link posting, Digging, viewer to registered user ratios, and so forth.

Site statistics can be such fun!

An elementary approach to the provision of such information by OLO exists in the 'Today's most popular articles', 'This week's most popular', and 'This week's most discussed' classifications on the 'ON LINE opinion' page (where new articles get posted) here: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/ , but even these classifications are somewhat ambiguous and unquantified to the OLO user. I sometimes wonder whether it would be possible to provide more specific information, maybe even make the site more inter-active. For example, the foregoing classifications only relate to article discussions: there is nothing to indicate General Discussion popularity (unique views and revisitations), at either the topic level (whole thread) or individual post level, other than the visible number of posts.

Perhaps a 'vote up/vote down' feature similar to that used for Ubuntu Brainstorm could be incorporated into the Forum? That way users (and, separately, unregistered viewers) could get to vote for or against a general discussion topic as such, and for or against individual posts. Would that stimulate discussion?

I am not suggesting OLO should be obliged to provide such access to site traffic statistics (it is, after all, a privately run site), but, if practicable, such would be an interesting exercise in transparency seemingly in keeping with OLO's stated objectives. It might stimulate greater interest in OLO as a barometer of opinion as to true topicality of issues.

Perhaps greater ease of interaction with UNregistered viewers could be achieved. A viewer topic suggestion board with an appropriate word or character limit, perhaps like Twitter's,

>>'I don't have much more than just a feeling, but I get the impression traffic is down a bit on OLO'

Yeah I think that too. I blame Col's absense. He brings in the crowds. A natural Entertainer.

Actually I really blame the 'established' users. They're a bit of a clique.

I have a few really good topics but I don't want to post because I feel they're not controversial enough and will generate boring nodded agreement and empathy. General love ups don't generate advertising revenue for Graham.

You're all right. The forum has slowed down a bit, although the overall site is still travelling well. I did send some posters to purgatory for various reasons a while back, and you can probably all work out who. Experience says that removing people who were making a lot of noise leads to the site quietening down for a while then picking up as others find their voice.

I think I may have been too laissez-faire in the past and that the tone of the conversation may have been lowered as a result. Hopefully the tone being better (at least I think it is) will lead to a broader and more fruitful conversation.

We used to run a Yahoo groups discussion group and I ended-up pulling the plug on that as it just shrank to a small vitriolic conversation between just a few who ran the same arguments endlessly.

If this forum could be made to work better than it has it could be a hook for getting better contrbutions from a wider pool of authors as well. We do receive complaints from time to time from writers about the way their pieces are treated in the forum, and I frequently understand exactly why they complain.

Imagine if instead of the abuse they sometimes cop they got some quick feedback on their ideas which helped them to refine what they were saying, even if it was feedback that they didn't agree with.

Other than organic/permaculture type forums, I have only really contributed to this forum and the old Rights at Work forum. Both are of a high standard and opened up interesting comment and debate on politics and other lifestyle issues.

I am pretty happy with OLO and you do get an insight into the personality of the other users but the main satisfaction is in sharing ideas. I don't get a sense of clique even though it is obvious that some posters 'know' each other as well as one can on this medium.

Some of the article writers are pretty brave with their content, particularly those who condemn a whole section of society to irrelevance merely for not agreeing with their point of view. If I was writing similar I would expect a barrage of comments and would not play the disingenuous victim. But I think a couple of the more vitriolic article writers don't actually know what their thoughts imply - or maybe they do!

To Graham and the crew crew of OLO, I also think it is a great site and I almost get the feeling that many of us are sitting in a room somewhere sharing our thoughts.

Although I lock horns now and again, I have the upmost respect for most of the posters although I must admit I feel sorry for the ones who can't help but insult people they don't even know. They must lead a misserable life!

Keep up the good work. And belly, I would love to discuss easter saturday, I think I will call it 'why the extra public holiday'.

Cheers

I will come rechtub, yes we are better than a few months ago.
And I share the idea we can do better.
But we just have to understand some threads do not interest us all.
I too posted in your rights at work forum, it had things we do not have here, but while Forrest has good ideas maybe those of us who can, could pay something to help.
I read most threads but no way want to take part in some, is that wrong?
With respect StG I looked at your easter movie thread ,may look again, but will not post.
Room exists for all subjects but human nature says not every one will look at them all.

Graham

"The forum has slowed down a bit, although the overall site is still travelling well."

I think you need to work on the glitches in the system which to my mind are becoming more prevalent. I just wrote a detailed response to your new $43B thread, and when I went to preview it I got a grey screen with nothing but the following in the top lefthand corner - <tr bgcolor="#DB9C00". Not sure if it's relevant to anything or not, but I do know my work's gone and I won't be re-writing.

We shouldn't have to be writing our every post in a Word document first and transferring them across, purely to guard against the odd but increasingly annoying occasion that our work goes missing.

I'm a long term user of OLO and appreciate its benefits enough to stay with it regardless, but I wonder how many newer and less patient contributors you're losing through these stuff-ups.

Another time it happened I followed some sort of trail (couldn't begin to describe what it was now) in the hope of retrieving my lost work. I ended up in what looked a bit like a graveyard of I presume missing posts though I'm not sure, but there were pages and pages of them and with no seeming logic in their order, so I soon gave that a miss and won't bother with it again.

Do you really have any idea as to the extent of this problem? Is there a simple and easy way we can report it, every time it happens, so that you can start to get a proper handle on its pattern of frequency?

I value the site, but as you can probably gather through my tone I am losing patience with it.