General Discussion
Why is the Discussion section being treated as if it were a general noticeboard?
There are separate sections for News, Events, Notices, etc.
And very useful and informative they are too.
But why are News, Events, Notices posts also in the Discussion section?
If I want to see what's in the local News, Events, Notices I can click on the relevant section.
By all means post a news item or event in the Discussion section, but then write something or ask a question to start the discussion/debate.
Otherwise it just devalues the whole point of having a Discussions section in the first place and Discussion topics that may be important get overlooked/lost in a list of events/notices and news items.
Or is it just a way to get more views as traffic is linked to advertising revenue?
I get this site is a business, but it's not functioning well for users.
Thanks for the feedback @Teign.
News and notices have always appeared on the discussion forum so users can discuss them. You can click on 'General' to filter them out. Prior to now, there haven't been any notices for about 10 years!
Most users stopped posting events after Covid, and so a change was recently made to encourage users to start positng them again. Part of this was to automatically post events on the forum as the event date got nearer. But as lots of upcoming events have been added in one go, it has overwhelmed the discussion forum a bit. This should settle down, and I'm monitoring it, so please bear with me for the time being.
I will change it in the next update so logged in users can opt out of seeing them. This can already be done by unfollowing notices, but at present it still defaults to showing everything until you click 'My Interests'.
@Webmaster. No problem. You’re welcome.
But I don’t think you understand the points I’m making.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but news items posted by Dawlish News (which is mostly the Mid Devon Advertiser/Dawlish Gazette as there are always links to their online papers) often don’t receive any comments at all. These posts don’t have the effect of stimulating debate. And I doubt any journalist employed by the MDA, Gazette or DevonLive has any intention of checking Dawlish.com for replies in order to debate their stories with us. And you're not going to join in any debate as the webmaster/Dawlish News. Why don't you add a question or opinion when you post as Dawlish News, Events, Notices, etc in order to start discussion? Or just leave them out of discussion.
Same for Events, Notices, Dawlish Weather., etc. Someone only replied about the Quiz because the start and end time was the same. Which you corrected. So I assume you’re the one transferring posts in other sections over to the Discussion board. In any case there wasn’t any discussion or debate as there wasn’t really anything to discuss. Who’s going to discuss the Rotary quiz, what is there to discuss? This should be in events.
The News item on the banking hub is of interest, but it’s better when a member of the public posts something in the news and poses a question or offers an opinion about it for others to discuss.
Why even bother having separate sections?
I don’t see Discussion items appearing in the other sections.
Events seem to weirdly reappear in bulk late at night, when nobody had added another comment. I thought posts appearing at the top of the list were those where someone had most recently posted a reply to something. Surely in order to change this it’d require admin privileges? Otherwise why can the likes of Dawlish News and Dawlish Events just boost their post to the top of the Discussion section? Especially when they’re not here to engage in a discussion. Do they have administration privileges or is it you? It’s your website, I’m just giving my feedback and as it stands it has the effect of discouraging debate as valid discussion topics and threads just get lost/forgotten about in all the other news items, events, notices, etc. There’s just too much in the Discussion section.
I’ll be transparent; I think a local online discussion forum to discuss local issues like the Manor Park bridge, our Councils and representatives, over-development, employment as well as more light-hearted, humorous topics, etc is a good thing. I also accept that it’s free for a reason and you may want to portray Dawlish in a positive way that encourages tourism, trade , etc/a certain image as the associated business are your bread and butter, whereas members of the public posting the odd comment are not and are only important in terms of views or selling data to third parties.
Maybe I’m wrong and you don’t mind some of the views I and others have expressed regarding our local Councils and politicians in particular – but it does seem like a lot of posts relating to events, notices, news, etc appear when some of us post or comment about things that are critical of local politics or the state of the town.
Why should I need to filter out posts that are unrelated to the Discussion section? It doesn't solve the problem of the discussion forum not working in any case. It also doesn’t make sense, you may as well just have one noticeboard and be done with all the other sections.
The discussion section has always shown posts from all the groups you are following by default. When someone signs up, it automatically makes you a follower of General Discussion, News and Notices. You can join other groups, although not many people post on them now. An old example is Cooking with Tallyrand. This is just the way the site works.
The only thing that has recently changed, as I mentioned above, is that the Notices group is now being used after being idle for about 10 years. There are a few teething issues to do with automation, as you have pointed out, but these will get ironed out.
Users that don't want to see Notices in the list of discussion threads can unfollow the group. To do this, go to Notices>About and click the unfollow link, as shown below. You can follow the group later if you change your mind .
Similarly, if you don't want to see News in the discussion threads, you can go to News>About and click the unfollow link. You can follow back later if you change your mind.
As far as what subject matter is posted, I have always encouraged users to post anything they want as long as it is legal and with the terms. This site has no political allegiances.
The News section is there to provide convenient links for users and for users to comment on if they want to.
If you flood a discussion forum with posts that are just pieces of information that evidentlly aren't leading to discussion, then the discussion section becomes devalued.
Just unfollow Notices @Teign, as I've explained, and your experience on here will be the same as it has been for the last 10 years.
@Webmaster I already have, can't unfollow Events though.
You miss the point, most people will not be aware they are following everything by default, they'll just see one general forum that they assume is Discussion, flooded with pieces of information that evidently aren't leading to discussion. The discussion section becomes devalued. Me unfollowing Notices and other sections won't make a blind bit of difference to improving and encouraging discussion on the site, because of the defaults (as you explainrd) that the majority of people won't be aware of. A few may read this thread and possibly change their settings, but within days it'll slide down the list and nobody will bother reading it because of all the events, notices, news, etc. the same for other discussions worth participating in, which is entirely my point.
Can't you see the bigger picture?
Do people comment more or less than they did in previous years? It's hardly thriving.
Or maybe people just use other platforms instead of this site now. Or they're just too disillusioned with what's going on locally, nationally, etc to engage with news of falling house prices, paedophiles, cuts to the NHS, the cost of living crisis, etc to bother commenting much anymore. Have you ever thought of changing it a bit from how it has been over for the last 10 years? It's more of a noticeboard than a discussion forum, regardless of the filters.
@Teign, events are posted under Notices, so if you unfollow Notices, you won't see events in your discussion list.
I am fully aware the site is old-fashioned, over-complicated and needs simplifying. I will eventually modernise it, but it is what it is for the time being.
@TRB.
I presume that all you want then is a platform where you can moan about everything and anything.
If you are not interested in anything happening in Dawlish, events or notices, then why not scroll past those listings.
After all, no one is forcing you to read them.
@Carer Then you'd presume wrong. Your comment is actually pretty flippant. My posts so far have covered the lack of Councillor integrity, wasting taxpayers money, ignoring local people,etc.
Discussion/ debate tends to focus on topics where there's disagreement, difference or the need for improvement. If you're not interested in discussion, then why not scroll past those listings?
I am interested in events, etc in Dawlish. I'd just rather they were separate form the Discussion forum for reasons given above which would improve the site, in my opinion. Did you actually read the thread above?
@Webmaster, I can accept that. No problem. Just offering some feedback and I've unfollowed Notices, etc now. Glad you took it in the spirit intended; constructive criticism. On relection the issue probably isn't the format but some of the users' attitudes and their capacity to engage in discussion and the ease with which they take offence.
