# Comment on Announcements sub-forum



## JazzByChas

Since the title of this forum is* Comments* and Suggestions, I would like to comment on the fact that my previous post on the Announcements sub-forum is garnering more views, even though it is closed.

The shame is that no-one posted their opinions or sentiments...pro or con...

Well, in a democracy, if you dont' vote, you can't complain! So, if you want something in a forum like WR, you must "make yourself heard!"

*[So jump on your keyboards, and make yourself "heard"!!!*
_*Vive La Révolution!*_
*Viva La Revolución!
Long live Democracy! ]*

Good luck, all!


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## Fernando

So, I assume this is a kind of "Virtual demonstration". 



> In the meantime, PMs are available for all sorts of networking with those you would really like to get to know on an extra-linguistic level.


Is Cuchuflete encouraging some kind of dirty thing?


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## JazzByChas

Oh no! On the contrary...Cuchu is simply saying that whatever we do on a "social basis," i.e. outside the immediate auspices of the forum, must be done "on our own time, i.e. via PM's or emails, and are not to be posted in the forum, unless I misunderstand him.

*[Edit: I have noticed a lot of people want tutoring or to be penpals...It dawned on me that those who might want to tutor, by whatever means, could announce this as well]*



			
				Fernando said:
			
		

> Is Cuchuflete encouraging some kind of dirty thing?


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## nycphotography

Well, personally, I was somewhat dissapointed to see it dismissed, case closed.  However, this section seems to be fairly general, so if I wanted to have a get together, I'd probably just post the message here (in comments), and link to it in a couple other places.  I'm pretty sure (hopeful?) that the mod's wouldn't delete it punitively, and it would serve its purpose.

Besides, how many meetups do you think people really plan to plan?  And if it turns out to be a fair number, then its never too late to reshuffle the section titles.

Maybe its no big deal.

Chas, does this mean we're all invited to your house in Tampa for New Years??  I'm sure us northerners could use a little sunshine *wink*


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## Mei

Hi all there,

I'm sorry Chas but I will write in spanish....  (it's still so early for me)

Creo que el "Announcements sub-forum" es una buena idea. Es una manera de dar a conocer nuestra cultura, ya sea, cosas que sólo haces en casa, con la familia o incluso a nivel nacional con las tradiciones. 

Sinceramente creo que muchos de los problemas que hay en todas partes, ya sea una disputa familiar, una discusión en el trabajo o incluso una guerra es debido a la falta de información. Tenemos que charlar más y conocernos mejor, sólo así, a mi parecer, nos respetaremos y viviremos mejor.

La información es poder. (entiendase "poder" como herramienta para conocernos mejor,  )

Saludos

Mei


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## JazzByChas

Actually, John, I guess in fairness to the mods and administrators of this forum, I believe "Comments and Suggestions" would be for making the same about the Forum and its machinations...I could be wrong, but I'm sure a Mod will enlighten us...



			
				NYCPhotography said:
			
		

> However, this section seems to be fairly general, so if I wanted to have a get together, I'd probably just post the message here (in comments)


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## geve

Actually this raised another -related- question in my blonde brain :
We sometimes see (at least in the FR=>EN forum) people asking for someone to chat via msn, or to be their e-mail buddy, in order to help them practise the language... or even, sometimes, someone who wants to meet someone in their area who speaks a specific language, like there or there or there or...

Could an announcement forum or something alike, be the place for this kind of posts ?


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## Mei

geve said:
			
		

> Actually this raised another -related- question in my blonde brain :
> We sometimes see (at least in the FR=>EN forum) people asking for someone to chat via msn, or to be their e-mail buddy, in order to help them practise the language... or even, sometimes, someone who wants to meet someone in their area who speaks a specific language, like there or there or there or...
> 
> Could an announcement forum or something alike, be the place for this kind of posts ?


 
It would be great, I need to practise a lot!  I think that it would be better to talk with people that use the lenguage you are studying everyday.

Cheers

Mei


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## Flip

Hi,
Good idea, very good idea. Maybe it's so easy to learn a language if you know the different forms to think and live of the people over the world. It's not only comment an specific theme!!
I'm sure to learn a lot of new words, phrases and culture of people around the world.
Good luck!!
(sorry for my english)


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## Agnès E.

May I remind you our rule # 7 : 


> Don’t use the forum as a chat board; use the private message (PM) feature (PC users, click the member’s name) if you want to send a personal message to another forum member.


These forums have not been created in that purpose, and the aim of their creator is not to provide a possible chatroom. There are hundreds (thousands!!!) of chatrooms on the net. Although direct contact is also a good means to improve language skills, WR is not and will not be, by choice, one of these chatrooms.


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## JazzByChas

I must say that I agree wholeheartedly with Agnès. This forum or any other forum, is _*not*_ a venue for _socializing_. That can be done outside of the auspices of this forum. This forum was designed for the dissemenation of linquistic information between fellow linguists, and the discussion of culture and its effect upon language. That informaton takes many forms, but at the heart of the matter is the person who is _learning_ a language. We must, above all else, consider them. I'm sure that if we put our minds to it, we can create announcements without having to intrude upon the purpose of this forum, but hopefully create a synergy to the greater goal of the forum: to promote language and the learning thereof!



			
				Agnès E. said:
			
		

> May I remind you our rule # 7 :
> 
> These forums have not been created in that purpose, and the aim of their creator is not to provide a possible chatroom. There are hundreds (thousands!!!) of chatrooms on the net. Although direct contact is also a good means to improve language skills, WR is not and will not be, by choice, one of these chatrooms.


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## gian_eagle

Hello everybody!

I was previously talking to JazzByChas about how the liberty of _Foreros_ of asking for the creation of new sub-forums could be managed... like the one he said (here) about an "Announcements" section, I was thinking that there should be a section of literary/poetry work, as,with permission of Agnès, I liked how she (Agnès) was writing short and nice poems on the Congrats Section, and I bet there are very creative people like her in WR. I, myself, would like to express here in other ways, like writing short stories to be read or corrected.

And, due to the fact that there is a Cultural Discussion section, I think It shouldn't be a problem to have a literary/poetry work (by _foreros_) on WR as well.

Mr. and Ms. Moderators, do you think the creation of these kind of sub-forums might be possible?

Thank you in advance for your concern.


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## french4beth

This is a fantastic idea!  Maybe we should wait for better weather, though! It's been pretty frigid around here this month... there's a nasty ice storm headed up the East Coast of the US  

There are also a few professional translator's organizations that have occasional get-togethers, so if someone is attending one of those events, they could post that info in an 'announcement' forum. I recently attended a "Pow-wow" in NYC that was listed on proz.com & met a ton of really nice people  (all different languages, from many different countries) and made a lot of useful contacts. You have to be a registered user to access this part of the site, but registration is free. BTW, this is an international organization.  In the US, there's ATA (Amer. Transl. Assoc.) & they have annual conferences + links to local chapters.

Or we could just do something on our own!

IMHO - I think that we should be pretty specific about what we mean by 'announcements' as I don't want people to start posting their c.v.'s or advertising for translating jobs, though. I imagine this 'announcements' forum would be strictly for socializing, networking, etc.

Great idea  !


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## katiebridle

geve said:
			
		

> Actually this raised another -related- question in my blonde brain :
> We sometimes see (at least in the FR=>EN forum) people asking for someone to chat via msn, or to be their e-mail buddy, in order to help them practise the language... or even, sometimes, someone who wants to meet someone in their area who speaks a specific language, like there or there or there or...
> 
> Could an announcement forum or something alike, be the place for this kind of posts ?


having just posted one of those sorts of messages. I wholeheartedly approve of this suggestion!


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## Fernando

Agnès E. said:
			
		

> May I remind you our rule # 7 :
> 
> These forums have not been created in that purpose, and the aim of their creator is not to provide a possible chatroom. There are hundreds (thousands!!!) of chatrooms on the net. Although direct contact is also a good means to improve language skills, WR is not and will not be, by choice, one of these chatrooms.



As JbC has pointed out, this is not a proposal for creating a chatting sub-forum (which I am strongly against) but a place to meet other foreros and I support his proposal.

I, on my part, do not wish to have any contact in the real world with other foreros. I am happy in my deep little basement with just a candle and my little nice cockroachs, but I assume other people can wish such disgusting contacts.


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## Isotta

I have been encouraged to pipe up.

I wonder if I prefer keeping you all as you are in my mind. Then again meeting doesn't seem as mad as it would have in June when I first posted, after months of reading the same various idiolects and even discovering people I already knew from my real life. 

That said, I'm not terribly invested in the idea--nor am I against having an announcement forum. 

I am curious, though. Who would moderate it? How difficult would it be to organise? Would it be visible only to those with a certain number of posts? Or to the whole Web? 

Z.


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## VenusEnvy

gian_eagle said:
			
		

> I was thinking that there should be a section of literary/poetry work, as,with permission of Agnès, I liked how she (Agnès) was writing short and nice poems on the Congrats Section, and I bet there are very creative people like her in WR. I, myself, would like to express here in other ways, like writing short stories to be read or corrected.


Gian: I'm not really sure how this question ties in with the original one posted by Jazz. He is asking about an announcements forum, while you are asking about a poetry forum. I think yough ought to open another thread about this if you'd like to discuss it further.

In addition, someone recently brought up the idea of a Literature Forum, which seems similar. Take a look there to get an idea of the response that you could expect to receive.


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## JazzByChas

I would think that we could come up with some guidelines and rules. Some of my thoughts are:

1) It would certainly need to be moderated...as is the case with all the other forums, this would be no different;
2) There should not be any posts in bad taste, e.g. _"Hey all you hot foreras...for a good time, call Mr. Thinks-He's-A-Stud!";_
3) There might need for a pre-requisite amount of posts before you can actually make a post here, say 50 (off the top of my head!);
4) This forum should not be visible in the Dictionary, or to non-registered members, or to the rest of the web;
5) Only one post per announcement, i.e. all announcement will essentially be "locked" after one post...these are not discussions. All the "discussing" will need to occur offline in PM's emails, or whatever means the interested parties choose to communicate!
6) The things I said here

Perhaps these might help give some insight to others who read this thread!  



			
				Isotta said:
			
		

> I am curious, though. Who would moderate it? How difficult would it be to organise? Would it be visible only to those with a certain number of posts? Or to the whole Web?
> 
> Z.


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## Isotta

Perhaps if the forum were to have closed threads only, and people could submit announcements to be posted by moderators? 

I don't have any idea of how much of a _need_ this is--I am not even a frequent PM-er--do you think that many are interested but are hesitant to post their ideas?

Z.


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## JazzByChas

Isotta said:
			
		

> Perhaps if the forum were to have closed threads only, and people could submit announcements to be posted by moderators?



*Acutally, this is a good suggestion as well...will be a self editing type of function which puts the control in the hands of the moderators*...




			
				 Isotta said:
			
		

> do you think that many are interested but are hesitant to post their ideas?



*Yes...I definitely believe this!!!*


Z.


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## Isotta

JazzByChas said:
			
		

> *Acutally, this is a good suggestion as well...will be a self editing type of function which puts the control in the hands of the moderators*...



Plus I think it would be self-selective and wonder if it would make for a smaller moderation task. I think people who have been around contributing for a while would sooner PM a moderator than a newcomers, especially those who are here to post one chat message. I don't know though. Perhaps moderators receive mass volumes of PM's as it is.

Z.


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## JazzByChas

I am sure there is a better way to "channel" requests for posts to an Announcement board. They could probably be sent to a general email address, e.g. "AnnounceRequests@wordreference.com" warn: No, this is *not* an active email address!  ) and the mods (and admins) could sift through this on their own time, then add what they think is appropriate to the Announcements forum.



			
				Isotta said:
			
		

> Perhaps moderators receive mass volumes of PM's as it is.
> 
> Z.


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## gian_eagle

VenusEnvy said:
			
		

> Gian: I'm not really sure how this question ties in with the original one posted by Jazz. He is asking about an announcements forum, while you are asking about a poetry forum. I think yough ought to open another thread about this if you'd like to discuss it further.
> 
> In addition, someone recently brought up the idea of a Literature Forum, which seems similar. Take a look there to get an idea of the response that you could expect to receive.


 
THANKS! Well, actually this comment of mine was in someway related to what I spoke with JazzByChas, about the Foreros' liberty of suggesting new sub-forums, like the "announcements" one.

I already posted on the Literarure Forum. My intention was not to deviate from the subject.

I hope that, in a short-time, there will be a solution for the creation of the Announcements sub-forum


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

To my PM on the purpose of an announcements forum, the point of which was not clear to me, here is what Chas replied: 

"Well, let me elucidate:

1) You could announce informal meetings of forer@s, like casual parties where one could get together with the others over wine and cheese (or whatever beverage you like) and just have conversation;
2) You could announce formal meetings of forer@s, like language/linguist conferences, or teachers conferences, or the like;
3) You could announce your special interest group meeting, either on line in or person (in or near the place where you live), such as the local Anglophone club (like the other Jean-Michel (LV4-26), or the like;
4) If you feel you have talents as a tutor, you could announce your availability for tutoring, either in person (again if the students live near you) or via email, IM, and the like;
5) Any other linguistically/culturally oriented subject you would like to announce!

You get the picture?  

Ask me any other questions you like!

Chas."

And here is my reply and view on the issue:
Sounds like a very good idea.


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## mkellogg

Hi Chaz and everybody,

I understand the desire to have more forums covering other needs of the community here.  Announcements, literature, poetry, pen pals, even off-topic chat.  These are all areas that many people would enjoy having here, and many of them are good ideas in general.

I'm Sorry, but I have no plans to open any of these forums anytime soon.  First, there isn't sufficient moderator manpower nor willingness to moderate such forums. Second, these forums are growing at at amazing rate (+50% more posts compared to September).  We want to concentrate on doing general language forums and continue doing it well without distraction by other ideas.  Third, some of the suggested forums (like literature) are outside of the WR Forums' core purpose, which is basically vocabulary, grammar and other linguistic issues.

I also want to add one more note.  I have seen quite a few references to democracy in the forums here.  I just want to politely remind everyone that WordReference is a business, not a democracy.  Like any good business it listens carefully to suggestions, of course.

And thanks for the suggestions,
Mike


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## SamQhest

mkellogg said:


> Hi Chaz and everybody,
> 
> I understand the desire to have more forums covering other needs of the community here.  Announcements, literature, poetry, pen pals, even off-topic chat.  These are all areas that many people would enjoy having here, and many of them are good ideas in general.
> 
> I'm Sorry, but I have no plans to open any of these forums anytime soon.  First, there isn't sufficient moderator manpower nor willingness to moderate such forums. Second, these forums are growing at at amazing rate (+50% more posts compared to September).  We want to concentrate on doing general language forums and continue doing it well without distraction by other ideas.  Third, some of the suggested forums (like literature) are outside of the WR Forums' core purpose, which is basically vocabulary, grammar and other linguistic issues.
> 
> I also want to add one more note.  I have seen quite a few references to democracy in the forums here.  I just want to politely remind everyone that WordReference is a business, not a democracy.  Like any good business it listens carefully to suggestions, of course.
> 
> And thanks for the suggestions,
> Mike


Ok, ahora todo queda claro...


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