Difference between Chat and Forum

[vladsch]

Bill's pull-up of the classic restoration thread by Larry got me reminiscing about the time when I joined these forums a year ago.

There was a lot of meat in the threads here. I remember reading the archive for a month before I posted anything. I actually read every thread in the restoration forum. It was well worth it.

When I tried to catch up after an absence of a few months on what I missed I quickly realized that the effort of going through the threads was more trouble than it was worth. I probably missed some good ones but most contained more noise than signal. Some threads looked like a chat session transcript rather than a forum thread.

This got me thinking that not everyone here understands the difference between the two and hence the reason for noise pollution in the threads.

Here is how I see it:

A chat is an ad-hoc conversation. A chat is spontaneous and ephemeral (short life span). The reply lives long enough to scroll off the top of the screen so there is no need to put too much thought into replies. It is the closest thing to a bar-stool converstion using text.

A forum thread is a cross between verbal and written communication and is preserved for historical reference by others. It requires more coherence and organization. Sticking to topic is vital otherwise valuable information is drowned out by verbal diarrhea.

A few remarks for the purpose of humour are very good to liven up the subject and put a human face on it. Nothing but humour would only fit in a "Razor Jokes and Gags" forum.

A forum reply is not about who replied the fastest or the most but who gave the most interesting and/or useful information. A question is valuable if it has not already been answered or if it is asked in a new way that requires re-thinking of the old answers. Repeating the same thing over and over has no value. Forums have a search function for that.

I feel that forum posts should be useful to anyone reading them months later. Just like they were when I first joined SRP. This is what attracted me to this community.

Many "old-timers" who were valuable and interesting contributors have moved on. Did the change in quality of content have anything to do with it? Not sure, but it was probably a contributing factor.

I am concerned that the quality of content has slipped in the last year and I would hate to see this trend continue.

Am I the only one who feels that way or am I the only one voicing what some of you are thinking?

NOTE: This inquiry is not for a detailed transcript of meandering thought processes but the conclusion of such.

[ForestryProf]

Signal to noise ratio has definitely slipped. It is increasingly difficult to wade through all of the posts even after a couple of days. Not quite sure when it happened, but for a while, there seemed to be an 'unfortunate' emphasis on number of posts as a measure of seniority.

Just an opinion from your friendly neighborhood crumudgeon,
Ed

[urleebird]

Vlad, I couldn't agree with you more. I have contributed to the problem, myself, and will try to knock it off. The changes in the subject matter and the tangents bug me the most.

[steve]

If a new member can offer the results of his thoughts - I enjoy this site excatly because of the blend of information and commaradarie(sp?). If this was an information only site, it would be as dry as an online medical journal and lack the community aspect, which I find very appealing.

I suppose a moderator could move a thread that starts to get a little chatty and off-topic to the "off-topic" area.

As a new member, I can say that I found the forum threads very informative for the information I was interested in. Yes, if I tried to read each and every post for several months, I would be overwhelmed but since I only needed to find certain information, the search was a great tool. Also, with the amount of new people joining increasing and the site's age increasing, it isn't necessarily a bad thing for people to repost.

[Lynn]

Actually it is not the worst problem around. Initially when we started a bunch of years ago, there was a lot more purely technical information so to speak. As we grew there has been an ever increasing amount of just plain old discussion. A few years ago we felt that so long as we created a barber shop like environment for our ever increasing population to not only get great information, but have a place to come and talk, we have done a good thing. Open for suggestions and I can only hope that we continue to have as much fun as we have had growing to this level. Super group of people and by the way, spread the word about straight razor shaving.......hahahhaha.

Lynn

[FiReSTaRT]

I'll side with Steve on this one. If you want plain razor information, just get Bill's CD and Lynn's DVD. If you also want some fun discussion with great people who know their stuff, then join the SRP.

[JerseyLawyer]

I have to admit that I've been pretty guilty of this myself, in the month or so I've been back here. I can't remember what I was like the last time around, it was so long ago.

Anyhow, I do like the camraderie, but I also agree with Vlad and Bill that we should be more careful about the amount of "fluff" we put out there. I will try to be more cogniscent of that myself in the future.

[vladsch]

I like the comraderie and think that it is an essential component of these forums but when I joined SRP was more of a gentleman's club than a barber shop.

The barber shop characterization eliminates my concerns because the rise in fluff content fits the intended model for these forums whereas my original characterization of SRP as gentleman's club did not.

[HoekmanX]

Hear Hear!

[azjoe]

First, I generally agree w/Vlad's original premise ... we have allowed ourselves to develop some bad habits. I try to refrain from replying if I can't add something other than a me too, nice job, that's beautiful, or whatever comment... but I'm not always successful. So, I also will try to stifle myself more in the future and avoid hijacking threads with purely lighthearted comments, at least in the main forums.

I see nothing inherently wrong with striving to keep the more focused forums (restoration, razors, hones, etc.) more "on target". However, anything goes should rule the day in the Off Topic forum... and maybe some latitude is appropriate in all the Forums. There needs to be some levity and camaraderie here... this is, after all, a community of friends who share a common interest. Friends should feel free to chit chat... at least a little, don't you think? Even if this were the Mens Club, I for one wouldn't want it be "stuffy"!

The fact is, no matter what we do, as our membership grows the number of posts per day will continue to increase... thus making it even harder to keep up, no matter how focused and concise we get.

Hell, even those that seemly read/reply to (almost) every post may eventually have to give it up. (my bad... )