Looking for feedback and advice

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009 08:28:08 -0700 (PDT), cbpotts wrote: (clipped)>

rctq is the only site I read regularly -time spent at the keyboard is time taken away from quilting!

Yes!

Maybe if (shudder) this group disappeared.

Don't remember, maybe 10 years or so.

Older than that.

Why do you think it is a community? Not to be too negative, but simply putting a website up doesn't make it a community. OTOH, it's pleasant to look at, except for the ads (but OK, you need them), and there are things that would maybe interest me besides quilting. But I do hate calling it a hobby, that's far too trivial a word for something I spend so much time doing. Roberta in D

Just RCTQ.

Absolutely.

More hours in the day? Most of the RCTQers here moving to the new group?

over 12 years

You don't have mine there.

Don't like the noise. There didn't seem to be a quilting group. It's an attractive site, color-wise.

Not giving any idea of why you are asking the questions; and being so rude as to finish your age ranges at 50, is impolite and not conducive to receiving helpful replies. You have lost me for one. . In message , cbpotts writes

Roberta, thanks for your answers. Regarding the community thing, I think your question is valid and appreciate it. We have every desire to make this a community, not just a website, which is why I'm seeking insight from an established community as to how it works. The more information I get from people willing to help, the better job we can do making our site a place where people are able to develop the relationships like you have.

Sandy, there is a quilting group. It's in the Arts group. That's one we had in from the beginning. There are a couple of members, but no one wants to be the first to post I guess and this is a new site. Thanks for looking and for your comments though.

Patti, my apologies for not extending the age brackets. It was definitely not an intended offense. I'm 2 years away from turning 50 myself so I should have thought of that. I'm sorry that you don't appear to allow for an oversight like that and jumped straight to calling it rude.

Doesn't have to be intentional to be rude. An awful lot of rudeness, when analyzed, is pure thoughtlessness.

Me, I took it as "if you're over 50, we don't care to hear your opinion." So you didn't get it. But if you're serious about wanting a critique *and* to make friends in *this* community, turning around and attacking Patti for pointing out a flaw isn't the way to go about it. That doesn't fix the "oversight", it compounds it.

--pig

It looks as if you've put quite a bit of work into the site however, to be honest, it looks like a much smaller version of About.com. It's hard to say what I like or dislike about it since I really can't see much without joining. I wouldn't join simply because I do belong to many forums and newsgroups already.

Ok, where to start .... I spend too much time online, including on several "community" sites of various types. If I were a young thing starting a career it would be in the area of online community building. So I am very interested in what you're doing. But you're going about it all wrong. Research can be done in better ways. This group is very tight knit. We fuss and argue and love and pray -- a real community. I spend time on other boards where the same community exists. The commonality is need, interest and ease. If the site is hard to find, navigate or post on, the community can't develop.

I'm not interested in another quilting group. This is my quilting home and I'll stay here. I might visit your place and even post a time or two, but we humans tend to be creatures of habit and comfort comes from the known.

Your site is nice to look at, but cold. It looks like every other commercially-created website working to get members and clicks. No, you don't already have a quilting community. You may have a couple quilters who joined, but without a welcoming group you have no community. A community forms, usually through serendipity, to meet a need. Not the need of the person hoping to make money on ads, but the need of people who might join.

I wish you luck, but suspect that your site will whittle down to one or two interest areas where people will happen upon each other and come back often. Many of us would like to make a living through the web, but that has proven to be an elusive goal. If you're a quilter, come back and let us know how the business is doing. But be sure to tell us about your newest quilt project and a pic or two of the grandbabies holding a quilt would be good.

Good luck, sunny

I didn't notice that age range thing until Patti mentioned it. Do we get to pick one we'd like? I'll have to think about it. Polly

"onetexsun" Ok, where to start .... I spend too much time online, including on

5 groups - RCTQ and four focused on longarm quilting (although I mostly read those rather than post)

Yes

I need more time in the day. As it is, I spend too much time at the computer! A new group would have to offer something unique or different to interest me.

Since about 1995 or so - I don't read this through Google, though, if that makes a difference.

Older (I didn't take it that you didn't want an opinion if we didn't fall into one of the age-groups - I kind of read "etc." into it!)

I think it's an attractive site, but it took a while to find the quilting section - and that would be my only interest. I don't have anything at all against the site or what you're trying to do, but time is a factor for me, so I probably wouldn't join.

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009 10:28:08 -0500, cbpotts wrote (in article ):

This is the only group I read regularly.

Yes.

I'm not sure. Maybe a particularly nasty flame war or troll.

I've been reading this group for quite a while. Maybe as long as I've been quilting which is 10 years.

30-40

It varies. There are some groups, like this one, that I have stayed in over time, but I add and drop others as needed. I tend to stay with free groups, as I am a frugal person.

Yes, I'm not very chatty (just my personality), but I do read and join in now and then.

It would have to have some kind of added benefit, that I want/need and is not available in any of my current groups. This is the group I read most and I don't see it going away soon.

I joined this group in 2003. I don't understand your other question. Google has not taken over Usenet. Google is just one of many servers that provides a means of accessing the Usenet groups.

You don't seem to want my answers as I don't fit into those age groups. You are excluding both the young and those older than 50.

Not really. I have a given amount of time for browsing the internet and I'm satisfied with my current groups. If someone else looks first and highly recommends a new group, then I might take a look. However, looking would not guarantee that I would join (my needs may differ). I've seen many sites try to start new groups, but most of them fail because they do not provide some added benefit that is useful to many.

morning and happy Monday. I'm hoping you can help me with

Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer these questions for me. First off, I do sincerely apologize for the age ranges I neglected to include. Insult was not my intention. Second, I had the opportunity the opportunity to talk to one of your membership indepth via a chat program today and she confirmed what is shown here. We've had a lot of success in various areas of our social network, but none of it has been in the Arts area (quilting, crocheting, dance, painting, etc.). The family aspect is a huge factor, as shown for the support and loyalty you all have here. It's a wonderful thing and one that I hope we can develop over time....and time is another factor.

Please believe me...it is not, nor has it been, my intention to try and pull anyone from this forum to ours. We simply wanted to see what made this as successful as it is.

Again, thanks for all your help. Wishing you all well on your needlework.

Christiane

od morning and happy Monday. I'm hoping you can help me with

I did not take offense at anything -- I just mentioned that you seemed to be excluding some folks, including me. Given that there are specific groups for many things, you could have been indicating that you only want folks in the age groups that you listed.

The main reason this group is so successful is that there are many caring and welcoming quilters in it. They freely share quilting and other information, as well as their time. A few other reasons are:

*The group is free -- I would not belong to it otherwise.

• This Usenet group does not allow advertising, so I don't waste time trying to find what I want to read, as opposed to what someone else wants me to read. I'm certain there are other reasons, but those are the main reasons why I joined and stayed.

Bev in TX