Poll: Music Banter Journals League, continue or no? Please vote.
 

A message is going up in the Journals Update thread but has to be passed first, but basically I'm asking anyone who reads or is involved in the Music Banter Journals League Table if they still want it. Response has ranged from lukewarm to apathetic, and it's a massive amount of work for me, so if nobody cares about it I'd just as soon wind it up.

Please vote as your conscience dictates, and let me know.

Thanks
TH

I think the main thing is that people are not sure what exactly it's for.

If it's about showing what journals are popular or currently being updated then just looking at the order of them in the journal forum does that.

If you enjoy compiling them then feel free to carry on, otherwise just put it down to an idea that never really caught on and use the time to do something else.

I haven't seen many negative comments on it, Trollheart. There was a couple of comments at first, where people didn't seem to fully grasp how it works or is calculated, but unless theres some comments outside of that particular thread, I haven't seen any.

It is a little difficult to understand exactly how it's calculated but I do think it's a fun idea and it may just create a little healthy competition. It doesn't even need to make complete sense to achieve that. I mean, you have outlined some guidelines as to how points are tallied that do make sense, in the sense that we would be able to follow what it is you are looking for and the criteria you're using, but I think confusion would come in where you consider (as if I need to tell you this, I'm sure) that it must be extremely difficult to choose criteria on how to rate, award and rank users journals.

I say just feel out how people respond to your question, and how much of your time you really want to invest into it and decide for yourself if you feel it's worth it. If the authors of the journals are looking at the league table as harmless fun, which I think is what they should be viewing it as, and you're happy to do it then keep it up!

Whichever way you look at it, I think your contributions to keeping our journal section alive and bringing attention it are nothing short of brilliant. You can do that with or without the league table, but the league table could potentially create some amicable competition and laughs, and that isn't a bad thing.

Honestly, I really don't care either way about it now but if it's something that you are having fun compiling then continue it but if you feel like the amount of work by-passes how much fun you are having keeping it up then let it die. I know there are a few people that are into it and think it's a great idea. Everyone else has just keep kind of so so about it. I don't think I've heard anything negative about it so I don't get why you feel that way.

Ooops, I already replied to this in the other thread!

Anyway, I don't mind either way. I love your member journal update thread, Trollheart, but I like it because it's great to read updates of what other members are creating in their journals. I don't really use/pay attention to the league table but more use the content of your entries to catch up on what's happening in the journal forum. But if others want to keep it then I don't mind either way...

I think the League Table is fun. It's good for a gas and I don't know how much competition it's gonna start, but any would make it worth it for me.

I voted to keep it, with the provision that journal keepers are given the opportunity to "opt out" of the weekly competition. Some people simply don't enjoy participating competitive ventures and shouldn't be force to compete against their will. I've already sent a message to Trollheart suggesting an "opt out" option for those who don't want to participate in the weekly ranking charts.

I'd also like to add that Trollheart has done a hell of a good job encouraging forum members to express themselves and making the forum a better place for all of us.

Absolutely!

:clap:

Couldn't agree more. I have lots of journal ideas I never act on but even the increase in the thought I've been giving that lately has a lot to do with what I see as Trollhearts attempts to make that section of the forum a more prosperous environment.

Agreed! :yeah:

Voted "What's the League Table?" I've obviously missed out on something here.

We can't tell you about it... You have to figure out what we're talking about, then you win the free table.

TH,
It is Summer and everyone is on vacation. When it starts getting colder your journals will be active again.

Perhaps why I made my return to MB, it's Winter here...

They aren't inactive now. Theres a healthy amount of posts every week it seems.

Exactly and more people are starting to post in their journals again.

Opposite of what Crazy is talking about.

I'm used to websites that have 2 or 3 million members...

well whoop di doo.

We don't have that kind of traffic around these parts.

Whoop de do yourself. You were saying it like critical.

wut? saying what like critical?

Hehe, I don't think she was meant it as a slight on this site, but yeah we'll never have two million members. I don't even think I could keep up with that. We do have a small group of users currently writing frequent journals though and it's interesting to keep up with.

That section of the forum has never been completely dead, but I would say its current level of activity is healthy.

He's right it wasnt meant that way Im just saying to OP the hardwork might pay off when it gets even healthier busy than it is so not to stop bc he enjoys it and so do a few others.

Thank god. Forums with too damn many members where every thread has three pages of two word posts after the first ten minutes of it being put up are the worst.

Feelin' the love here guys! :love: Thanks for all your kind comments.

I think I look at the journals section in the way I do because for a long time it was my one and only home here. I never ventured out and in fact I posted so much there that it got a bit silly (we're talking like four posts a day, every day!), to the point that I was called (jokingly) a "journal-updating fiend", a title I can't deny.

But once I got out into the forum proper I began to make some new friends and it just seemed like that time in my journal had sustained me through some pretty bad times in my life, and I thought others would probably get the same enjoyment out of it, if only they tried. I wouldn't claim I'm responsible for anyone starting a journal, but I know people like Unknown Soldier, Big Ears, even the mighty Batlord himself won't mind me saying that I think I was at least an influence on their beginning theirs. I've done all I can to encourage people to try, and by and large, when people do they generally seem to enjoy it.

The journal section is certainly busier now than it has been in a while, with new journals springing up almost every week. I understand that for those for whom the sun shines writing a journal may not be top of your priorities, but I don't see any real slowdown; if anything it's the opposite, as I think DJ mentioned.

The update thread has been a big success and I'm glad about that, as it was greeted initially with a less than lukewarm response but has now garnered a lot of interest. What I love about the journals is that there is no set of rules you have to follow: really, if you want to write about the birds of western Europe or cakes of the world, you're as welcome to do that as someone writing a deep treatise on the impact of death metal on music, or someone investigating classical composers of the 18th century. You can, literally, do anything, as my Couch Potato and Batlord's Batcave have proven.

So thanks for the compliments; I'll always do all I can to encourage participation in the journals, and to let people know what's being written there, as we all want our stuff to be read. The table I'm leaning towards winding up; I know a few people want it kept but it really is a huge amount of work and I have four journals to look after, plus the update itself. Somewhere in around the fringes of that I want to fit in my pathetic little life as well, and more to the point, Gavin's idea of an "opt-out" would I think kill the whole idea and skew the table. Perhaps competition is not the best way to do this; some people have admitted (probably not seriously) that the only reason they update is to move on up the chart. That's not the reason you should update, and I would not want to encourage that kind of thinking.

I think at this point the decision is more or less made. Maybe I was just looking for an excuse not to have to do this any more. It really is a pretty massive task to take on and for the slight return in interest I can't say it's worth my while. But thanks to all for your comments, and rest assured, whatever happens, the update thread will continue, and only grow more interesting and detailed as time goes on.

Thanks again guys and continue to post here if you have any more views; I'll sleep on it but think I've decided to wind it up. Sorry to anyone who genuinely enjoyed it, but I can't really justify that amount of work for so small a percentage of the journal members.

Toodles!

Trollheart, you are doing a fantastic job making the Journal section more lively and keeping it going. If you like to do the table, then do it man. If not, drop it. It's up to you. Do what you like. :)

At least you're one of the bright ones on here that understands how it works.:wave:

Btw I'm one of the ones that's voted for scrapping the league, quite simply because Trollheart' s talents would be better suited elsewhere or in another project. I don't feel he'll ever get back what he puts into it and it takes up a lot of his time as well.

Trollheart has basically transformed the whole journal thread by both helping and encouraging others (he certainly helped me) and the amount of journals being updated on a regular basis is quite astounding! I think he should be made up to president asap.

The **** are you talking about, mate? I know that if I update more often than once a week I get more points and that if I make my posts different than just a review I get more points. Other than that I'm confused as all hell.

So... I asked before and no one answered: What's the League Table?

Check out the Weekly Update Thread. You might see it.

Sorry Jansz. It is, or was, a (so far) short-lived attempt to create a kind of Premier League Table (English soccer) so that each journal could earn points through posts, views, comments and so on, and the best would climb to the top. Bit of a stupid idea it would seem, as it wasn't terribly well received or supported, and I stopped doing it after a month due to the amount of work involved versus the small return. Powerstars thinks it's worth re-jigging and trying again; I'm not so sure but will be interested to see how it plays out.

If you want to see examples, check the last few updates (though not the most recent) in the Journal Update Thread.

I don't those that voted against it thought it was a stupid idea at all ( I didn't at least) what I did think though, as a concept it was flawed in its criteria for something that doesn't require a league table. Most league tables show things from best to worst and I don't think a journal thread should be about this.