darshhan wrote:This will only hasten what Shiv ji calls as "death of BRF". For eg. on Indian Army thread probably only you along with 2 or 3 more posters will be posting. More than half of the current generation suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder(including yours truly) and has serious impulse control issues. Asking them to do research is like teaching a monkey to write. Extremely difficult if not impossible. Instead of making the forum more open, your suggestions will further limit both the audience as well as the no. of active posters.
Thank for elucidating one of the points made by me in a succinct manner.
Now, let me ask you this:
What good has having 'N' number of posters on military forum done to the forum? Has it added any new perspective or body of knowledge to the forum and those reading it as guests? What is the signal to noise ratio on each and every thread?
If the forum has become a joint of posters 'with attention deficit disorder' and who are loath to do even an iota of research, may I ask what is the need for them on the forum? Has it simply become a place where people offload their 'feelings' about subjects?
And have you ever wondered what it does to overall ecosystem for discussing a topic? Go to the archive section and pick-up any military thread up till mid -2000s and see the quality of debate and discussion - where have those posters gone and why?
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Bottom line is this - BRF ( when I say BRF, I mean the military forum) can be what moderators want it to be. There are two course of actions which can be taken:
1. Active Moderation - Military forum will have what can be described as 'quality' discussion and not become a sounding board for people's feelings. Now, you can very well point out as to how quality is defined - this is something which can left to consensus and common sense of the moderators. Moderators put down guidelines for the discussion and ensure the discussion stays within certain bounds. This will automatically encourage more meaningful discussion and posters desirous of making comments and opinions will at least do some research.
2. Passive Moderation - Moderators only ensure that discussion remains civil and with-in a very broad framework of what is defined as 'military'. This is where we are presently. The discussions meander along without anything being added page after page of a given topic.
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Remember this - BRF is as good as people who post on the board. Over the years, it has gained a reputation of being a place where serious discussion(s) happen and information and knowledge is thrown-up. That is why people come to BRF - they seek information. This reputation will exist as long as such information/discussion continue to happen.
No good discussions+information means that people will over time not have BRF as main referencing - the top of mind recall will fall.
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I'm just one of the posters on the forum - many have come before me and many will come after me.
We all have our reason to be on BRF - What attracted me to BRF was the quality of discussion on subjects which are not generally discussed at other places. I knew some stuff and BRF added further to my knowledge base. I'm not here for a monologue - I'm here for a dialogue.
That dialogue is not happening. For me, at-least.
There are many learned BRFites with whom I've discussion(s) over e-mail than BRF.
That discussion should be on BRF. But is not. Guess why?
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Coming to your point about restricted number of posters on BRF in military threads - one of the points I made was to widen the participation base - this wider base will definitely throw up knowledgeable posters and people willing to learn and do some hard work.
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My main issue with current set-up is that people are not willing to do even basic research - the whole forum is like a sounding board for feelings.
I don't think this is what it was meant to be.