Most of us are not completely satisfied with our (lack of) administration. So, how would you feel in if some members / moderators open an alternative community site with a blog style front page for stuff like album reviews and a forum?
Before you answer, feel free to reflect on these possible pros and cons :
- Possible Pros
- We can manage our (new) site closer to how we like - in a way that promotes the community rather than a way which makes cash
- Power over the design
- Front page in blog layout which makes album reviews, articles and so on indexed and more visible (with cross-posting to forum so that any blog post is two-way synced to a forum thread, blog post comments turn into forum posts and vice versa)
- Free webmail for members on the domain (f.ex tore@newdomain.com)
- Potential for hosting member blogs (f.ex tore.newdomain.com)
- "Secret" forums that you need a certain post count to get into where we could share stuff we don't want to share with anyone but the community (members pictures, birthdays, links)
- Possible Cons
- It can damage/kill the MB Community
- Some members see the new site as a betrayal to this one and the community and refuse to partake in it
- If split into two smaller communities, one or both may die because they don't have enough activity to be sustainable
- Should everyone make the move, the new site's relative invisibility compared to the old leads to a low income of new members which in turn could lead to a slow death of the entire community. The site would have to build momentum before it becomes visible and gets influx of new members and it may not live long enough.
- We'd mostly have to start fresh with threads and posts
We are not doing this now. It's simply an idea some of us have entertained and we're well aware of the dangers of doing this. Whether the idea is awful or brilliant depends to a very large degree on how the majority of the MB community feels about it. F.ex if only half the members here support the idea, it's a horrible idea. If 100% support the idea, then it's brilliant! The poll requires you to ignore others though and just vote how you would feel based on you and yourself.
I expect this thread may generate some drama, but if it does, I will interpret that as a sign of health and that people care
Still, just be aware that currently, this hypothetical new site is pure imagination and none of us would want to do something which has a significant risk of damaging our community.
So, how do you feel about it?