More Critting Needed, Critical: Too many uncritting critters Options

[Guest_Jox_*]

Ok, not quite critical but take a look, anyway..

I've noticed that Lori's popped into a couple of threads to remind us that those particular ones are for critting and the submissions were going considerably off track.

She is right.

I am as guilty as anyone so I think I may be able to suggest what was happening. On one thread a collaborative poem was set up and thus people kept adding. On another we did discuss the work but it rather changed into a few people chatting about Shakespeare's Greatest Hits.

So, in neither case, was anyone being in the least awkward or unhelpful; we simply wandered off the path.

I actually had to ask Alan to pop into Socrates to see one of my works (thanks, again, Alan) because too few people are there. I think, perhaps, we need to get about and do some serious critting - it will benefit us all. Sure, banter is fine and there are forums for that. Moreover, the crit forums will never stick rigidly to critting. However, there is much critting to be done and we do let people down if we don't all "get stuck in". After all, that is why most of us came to MM in the first place - to learn and improve.

Here endeth this evening's lesson. You may now boogie to Shakespeare's Greatest Hits with Bacon on Sax and Chris Marlow on glockenspiel. (Watch out for Webster with too many symbols!)

Signed, One of The Guilty Ones!

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hi Cleo !
Just been browsing around and thought I'd add a suggestion.
I don't know anything about constructing websites and i'm a pretty new member, cheeky me...  
1. Wouldn't it be better for automatic tracking to occur when one posts a poem or makes a critique? I'm sure a lot of members don't tick on "track this topic". I was fortunate to have Tao as a guide when I wandered into MM... very good one, too !! Where is he, by the way?
Miss him....  :)
What I mean to say, is that perhaps one could just tick somewhere if one DOESN'T want to track the topic. It's really motivating to receive comments on one's IN TRAY, at least in my own case I come scattering back to MM asap.  It's a good reminder.
2. On the subject of critiques, I get the impression that a certain group participates a lot and their tiles get lots of visits. Ain't complaining, I get my fair share, which I enjoy immensely. But I'm making it a policy now to look down the list of posts and click on the ones with the LEAST visits. I think it helps to expand participation and I get lots of wonderful surprises, reading work that's only had a couple of visitors.
Anyway, these thoughts came to my mind recently and I thought I'd paste them here.... hope they are welcome...  :)
Hugs,
Psyche    

Hi Sylvia!  

To answer your questions, here goes:

1. Auto - tracking ON: I for one, am not sure if Ikonboard has such a feature as the board is designed with the user in mind. The "Track Topic" is set in a way so each user can choose which posts they want to receive notifications on. Not all want to get an email every time someone posts anywhere on MM, as we average about 100 posts per day and so this is not a feasible solution. There are other things one can use on MM:
[*]New Posts link up near your control panel (this will show you new posts for the day or since your last log-in.
[*]Track this forum (this will allow you to track all posts in a forum for 60 days and send you an email when a new post occurs).
[*]Track this Topic (this will allow you to track all posts in that tile for 60 days and send you an email when a new post occurs).
[*]Colored markers - there is a legend at the bottom of the forumboard that indicates by color which forums have new posts AND when you go into a forum, the individual threads will have a colored key as well.
[*]Sorting - you can also sort each forum by 'descending order' by 'last post date' which the current board default.
[*]Control Panel - in your CP, you can see which items you have marked for topic reply notifications and how many days are left before you will need to renew them.

2. I have raised this point to our staff (not recently though) to make sure that any posts with few or no replies get attention. I also go back a few pages and do not always start on the first page as you already know those are getting responses. Hopefully, that'll 'bump' as I call it older posts for fresh visits too!  

I also sent a PM to Tao yesterday as he is missed?  

Hope this answers your questions...

~Cleo