pgss wrote:
There had been a discussion about what a new messageboard should be centered around. Some said it needed to be a board on which the old members could chat on about all the things they've been discussing before (including private lives in the old days).
I guessed a board mainly based on a group of people will not gain many new members. It'll be a 'clique', to throw in a word that has been used before.
Absolutely, yes, but some of us didn't see that as a bad thing.
We already constituted a 'clique' at CQD, albeit a rather nice one that positively tried to entice some of the hundreds of registered members to post. But it always came down to our little group of chatters, didn't it?
And it's the same on most forums, even massive ones I've belonged to like atease (the main Radiohead fan board) - over 10,000 registered members, but a very small core group regularly posting, and that mainly to chat to each other about anything and everything except Radiohead!
This is what community is made of I think, that personal contact and the bonds of friendship and camaraderie that can result if you get a particularly simpatico group of people together. It's a different and separate thing from a group of individuals visiting a fan board to talk about the artist, although it grows out of that, obviously. At CQD, I think you had two distinct groups for whom these differing experiences were valuable in their own ways, but the main core group tended to fall largely into the 'community' idea, which is why I felt that a new board centred around 'the community', rather than 'the artist', would likely last much longer. I remember for quite a while before CQD actually ended, Duncan and I were talking about this and we both agreed that the ideal thing would be a kind of 'cafe in cyberspace' for our core group, a place that was about
us and our wide interests, where members could drop in daily just to hang with each other for a while. I think it could have worked. Stina would have had her own thread if people wanted to keep talking about her, but there would have been a pretty wide musical/artistic focus as well.
pgss wrote:
This also makes clear that I myself cared more about holding this group together than to create a board mainly about Stina, as I think of it. New insights for me. Sadly it never worked out the way I hoped it would.
Oh sweetheart. [b)] We live and learn. You DID create something here - look at Wirbel's post above - this board is important to a new group of people who want to talk about Stina. You've given them a place to do that, so don't feel too badly.
As for our little group, I guess we just have to accept that our moment has passed, life has moved on, and we just keep in touch privately, those of us who are still talking to each other.
Who knows, maybe that 'gathering' will happen one day.
Well, that's me - I'm getting wed in three days time, have to focus on that and whatever adventures await me in the future. Good luck to all, enjoy the board in your own way, and here's hoping Stina rewards your loyalty with more music eventually!
