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TB Followers - Top issues TB should address in 2016? [flame free]

TB Followers - Top issues TB should address in 2016? [flame free]

 
Old Nov 29, 2015, 2:33 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by mia
That's only a tiny portion of TalkBoard's responsibility.



There seems to be a great deal of angst about the reality that TalkBoard is an advisory body lacking the power to enact its decisions without the consent of the Community Director or Internet Brands. This is a trivial distraction, don't let it paralyze you. Your job is to make recommendations, not decisions. If your recommendations are supported by persuasive reasoning and evidence they will be well received by those who make decisions.
Agree.

Originally Posted by Dovster
Mia, as someone who served two terms on TB, I can guarantee you that items which were very crucial to the membership were put completely off limits to us. We were told in no uncertain terms that they were not within TB's purview -- we could not even discuss them, much less make recommendations about them.
Moderation was put off limits. TB & Mods have dif responsibilities. I say that as someone who served 2 terms too. No idea what the 2nd one was.

Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Was your TB service during the years when Randy was running FT?
Yes, but the wall btwn TB & mods is still in place. The 2 serve different purposes.

Cheers.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 2:45 pm
  #17  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Was your TB service during the years when Randy was running FT?
Yes.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 2:55 pm
  #18  
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Originally Posted by Dovster
Mia, as someone who served two terms on TB, I can guarantee you that items which were very crucial to the membership were put completely off limits to us. We were told in no uncertain terms that they were not within TB's purview -- we could not even discuss them, much less make recommendations about them.
And so we shouldn't try again? My attitude is that if it needs fixing, TB ought to make the recommendation on behalf of membership.

Folks have been making good suggestions. I don't think we should fall back on "well, we were told to leave that alone".
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 2:59 pm
  #19  
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Originally Posted by Dovster
...items which were very crucial to the membership were put completely off limits ....
The inability to accomplish everything does not mean that nothing can be accomplished.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 3:10 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by dchristiva
And so we shouldn't try again? My attitude is that if it needs fixing, TB ought to make the recommendation on behalf of membership.

Folks have been making good suggestions. I don't think we should fall back on "well, we were told to leave that alone".
I think (although am not 100% certain) that one of the items off-limits Dovster was referring to was moderation/moderators. That was true under Randy & is true under the current CommunityDirector. So TB can talk itself blue in the face, but that's not going to change. Again, the 2 entities serve different purposes. If you or any other TB members have problems w/ the separation of church/state (ie, TB/Mods), then the appropriate thing to do would be to PM the CommunityDirector.

Originally Posted by mia
The inability to accomplish everything does not mean that nothing can be accomplished.
Agree. Silly to think otherwise as TB over the years has proven.

Cheers.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 3:22 pm
  #21  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock


Agree. Silly to think otherwise as TB over the years has proven.
Really? Let's look at the past four years. Other than establishing forums and setting its own internal rules (including term limits) what has TB accomplished?
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 3:53 pm
  #22  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
I think (although am not 100% certain) that one of the items off-limits Dovster was referring to was moderation/moderators. That was true under Randy & is true under the current CommunityDirector. So TB can talk itself blue in the face, but that's not going to change. Again, the 2 entities serve different purposes. If you or any other TB members have problems w/ the separation of church/state (ie, TB/Mods), then the appropriate thing to do would be to PM the CommunityDirector.

Cheers.
I wasn't specifically speaking of moderation. If FT wants those two things to be separate and distinct (TB and moderation), then okay. But I think there are a myriad of other topics that may warrant discussing until TB is blue in the face. If authority has solid logic for why a topic is off limits, fine. But until then, I think TB owes membership persistence with respect to constructive recommendations. Further, I think TB ought to demonstrate some creativity and get ahead of the curve on some things that would make FT an even better place.
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 6:44 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by Dovster
Really? Let's look at the past four years. Other than establishing forums and setting its own internal rules (including term limits) what has TB accomplished?
Well gee Dov, given establishing forums is within TB's purview & also sorting out some other internal rules, what do you want TB to accomplish? In 4 years (well 5 if you go back to my original being on board), TB accomplished a lot.

As FT evolves/matures, there aren't going to be a gazillion things for TB to approve. That doesn't negate TB, as mia & B747 mentioned above.

TB has gone on record asking IB to move forward w/ things that are not technically w/in TB purview but in hopes of adding some weight to it. But let's back up a bit - what exactly did TB do during your term other than establish (or not establish) forums? No, I don't want to get into a pissing war w/ you but seriously give me a break. You're starting to sound like oz, who of course walked uphill in the snow 30 miles etc etc

Originally Posted by dchristiva
I wasn't specifically speaking of moderation. If FT wants those two things to be separate and distinct (TB and moderation), then okay. But I think there are a myriad of other topics that may warrant discussing until TB is blue in the face. If authority has solid logic for why a topic is off limits, fine. But until then, I think TB owes membership persistence with respect to constructive recommendations. Further, I think TB ought to demonstrate some creativity and get ahead of the curve on some things that would make FT an even better place.
I was speaking of moderation because Dov said there were 2 things off-limits. Given the mod stuff has always been off-limits that had to be one of them. I have no idea what the other was. My comment re: blue in the face was specific to that topic, although you're trying to expand it beyond what I intended.

I think TB does listen to input from members, has implemented things members would like, and has tried to get (within its limits) ahead of the curve. But if you don't think it has, and given you're in your 2nd year of being a TB member, I look forward to your specific suggestions moving forward now that I'm back on TB & I'm sure FTers do as well.

Cheers.

Last edited by SkiAdcock; Nov 29, 2015 at 7:03 pm
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Old Nov 29, 2015, 8:11 pm
  #24  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
Well gee Dov, given establishing forums is within TB's purview & also sorting out some other internal rules, what do you want TB to accomplish? In 4 years (well 5 if you go back to my original being on board), TB accomplished a lot.

As FT evolves/matures, there aren't going to be a gazillion things for TB to approve. That doesn't negate TB, as mia & B747 mentioned above.

TB has gone on record asking IB to move forward w/ things that are not technically w/in TB purview but in hopes of adding some weight to it. But let's back up a bit - what exactly did TB do during your term other than establish (or not establish) forums? No, I don't want to get into a pissing war w/ you but seriously give me a break. You're starting to sound like oz, who of course walked uphill in the snow 30 miles etc etc

I was speaking of moderation because Dov said there were 2 things off-limits. Given the mod stuff has always been off-limits that had to be one of them. I have no idea what the other was. My comment re: blue in the face was specific to that topic, although you're trying to expand it beyond what I intended.

I think TB does listen to input from members, has implemented things members would like, and has tried to get (within its limits) ahead of the curve. But if you don't think it has, and given you're in your 2nd year of being a TB member, I look forward to your specific suggestions moving forward now that I'm back on TB & I'm sure FTers do as well.

Cheers.
I can see that this TB has little or no interest in trying to advance FT beyond where it stands today. I suspect it's in everyone's best interests if I leave the board rather than try to convince folks of anything they don't want to be convinced of.
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 12:31 am
  #25  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
Well gee Dov, given establishing forums is within TB's purview & also sorting out some other internal rules, what do you want TB to accomplish?
What I want is immaterial. The fact is that establishing forums (and possibly removing existing ones) and setting up your internal rules are the only things that are within TB's purview.

TB is an elected board with no real authority at all. I am not blaming it for doing almost nothing as it is not empowered to do very much. That is the reason why most FTers don't bother voting for it and, as seen in this latest election, not very many want to serve on it.
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 1:58 am
  #26  
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I won't touch anything that could be interpreted as discussing moderation [maybe I shouldn't even write this], but otherwise at times I've suggested that if we have a potential suggestion for FT we should discuss it and consider making a formal recommendation even if doing so isn't exactly within our powers or could involve something other than what the CD would prefer, with the understanding that as usual the CD is free to either take our advice or ignore it.

What I don't think we should ever do is to vote on something that's unclear or self contradictory. We especially should never vote for a motion and then tell the CD to interpret it differently or not to implement it immediately. If we can't arrive at a consensus in most cases or cannot work out the details of our recommendations, then our advice simply isn't very useful and we lose the valuable role we have been given to try to improve FT.
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 2:14 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
I was speaking of moderation because Dov said there were 2 things off-limits. Given the mod stuff has always been off-limits that had to be one of them. I have no idea what the other was.
Yes, there was another extremely wide area which was put off limits to TB. I cannot publicize what it was as that would be a violation of the TB rules which I automatically agreed to simply by accepting election to TB.

Not only was TB prohibited from making any recommendations in this area but we were specifically told in the TB private forum that we could not even discuss it.
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 3:46 am
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Dovster
Yes, there was another extremely wide area which was put off limits to TB. I cannot publicize what it was as that would be a violation of the TB rules which I automatically agreed to simply by accepting election to TB.

Not only was TB prohibited from making any recommendations in this area but we were specifically told in the TB private forum that we could not even discuss it.
Could this involve Randy's decision to sell FT to IB?
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 4:19 am
  #29  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Could this involve Randy's decision to sell FT to IB?
No.
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Old Nov 30, 2015, 4:29 am
  #30  
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Originally Posted by Dovster
No.
OK I see that was a bad guess as you served 2004-05 and 2006-07, which was definitely well within the Randy period.

Was it something with the composition of TB? I know in the early days TB members were appointed, apparently for indefinite terms with some being removed at times, and then gradually TB morphed into an elected body somewhat later.

ADDED: I don't think that's right either as elections apparently started back in 2001. However I've noticed that Randy didn't usually announce the actual election numbers until much later.

I'm about to give up on trying to guess what could have been a big contentious but super sensitive issue during this period about which Randy would have been so adamant.

Was there something in the terms of service then?

Last edited by MSPeconomist; Nov 30, 2015 at 4:38 am
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