MM Questionnaire, sent via email to all members today Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Dear MM member,

Mosaic Musings is always looking for ways of improving the site for members to allow you to be more involved.  We'd appreciate it if you could spare a bit of time to complete our questionnaire so that we have some idea of what our members think of the site. ALL member feedback is most appreciated!

Please reply with your suggestions as we value the opinions of our members. I will also post this questionnaire in the Cuneiform Chronicles forum should you wish to respond there in public. Could you also indicate in your reply if you give permission for me to post your thoughts in the public thread, and if so, with or without your member name please?


1. How did you find out about MM?

2. What persuaded you to join?

3. How long have you been a member of MM?

4. How often do you log onto the board? If less than once per month, what can we do to encourage you to become more active?

5. What do you enjoy most about MM?

6. What do you like least about MM?

7. Do you find the staff and other members friendly and helpful? If not, please explain why.

8. Do you find the board easy to navigate? If not, what changes would you like to see?

9. Do you have any suggestions for improvements on MM?

10. As an active member, have you at any time read the rules (Terms of Use and forum participation rules) of MM?

11. Had you read them before/while registering or sometime after active posting?

12. Are the critiques given thoughtfully written, constructive and positive? If not, please explain why.

13. When receiving critique and feedback in a poetry forum, does it interfere with your process of improvement for the poem at hand if another member posts their own poetry into your tile?

14. When receiving critique and feedback, does it interfere with your process of improvement to your poem or story if others become involved in an unrelated discussion?

15. Do you have any other comments (especially any which would help us to improve MM)?



Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire in advance!

Lori Kanter aka Cleo and the entire MM staff

Lori Kanter
Manager
Mosaic Musings, LLC
PO Box 39
Stow, MA 01775
USA

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi Sylvia,

I was intent on precisely making other points that I missed an important one myself.

I also hope that nothing puts you off posting. You have an absolute right (and duty I'd say) to post whatever you feel right. Banter should never put anyone off. I actually think banter is an important way of winding down a tile / competition - whatever. Banter is not meant to be excluding - it is actually meant to be inclusive of the whole group. I can see it might be a tad confusing for a newbie but not for established members like yourself. It is part of belonging to something; a slight hurdle for anyone new; I accept that but a great comfort for others and, providing that we make newcomers welcome - I always try to say "hello" on-line and send them a PM (though I must miss some) - I think banter is fine. I'm really puzzled that you feel excluded - I'm sure you and I have chatted to each other in similar ways on-line.

I am doing the next Flash on 28th (this coming Sat) so please do join in - sorry to sound patronising but - you are an excellent writer and I'm sure out flashed will be the better for your being there.

>F>However, just to warn you all - I actually find myself holding back on the banter sometimes because of the risk of incurring one, hehe!

Fran is that really so? In what tiles have you done that please? I think that absolutely terrible. I‘m really upset by that. I'm perfectly happy for you to campaign to abolish Wizards but not to hold back because of them. I'm minded to deluge your tiles with zillions of posts to compensate. C'mon now that is not in the spirit of things at all. No one should be put off posting - that is what I’m trying to say to all. We should be able to post about anything without looking over our shoulder all the time. Or were you just trying to be comforting?

As I said, I do think Wizards valuable. I don't think I really said why. It is this. We write to be read and to have people discuss, appreciate and take interest in our works (don't we?). Wizards are a recognition that such has been achieved. To me they are actually more important than competitions. When voting in comps there is seldom a clear and obvious winner - this is art, not sport. So competition seems a little unfair - but I fully support them as an encouragement and stimulus. However, Wizards do recognise reading and interest and debating about the work. That is the essence of writing. Put it like this: I'd prefer two thousand people read my work rather than I won X number of prestigious competitions but was read by fewer people. (Money aside, of course!) I write to be read. Crit forums are for help - nevertheless Wizards do show people are interested. Having said all that, again, I recognise I have "benefited" much from Wizards so I shall not fight too hard to keep them - but I think their demise would be a great shame; I would scrap competition awards first - and I'd prefer to keep those.

Hi Fran,

>F>Alan pointed out to me recently that trying to control poets is like herding cats (you have a fun time, Lori! ). One person's freedom of speech is another's offensive harangue. One person's investigation of power in politics or religion is another's undermining of deeply personal beliefs.

I think the following is agreeing with you and Alan!

Yes but the essential is that we’ll have repressive political correctness without being free to speak. I probably upset people with my views on the RC Church - and the British monarchy. But why should I not be equally able to be put out by poems which mention “God” as kind and wonderful or comments that the late Princess of Wales was good? No, these views must be able to be aired.

Because I don’t agree with them or other people don’t like my views, we have democracy and free speech; it is essential that we disagree. Without disagreement we have nothing worth using. People really should not take these things personally. If I say “You are stupid for thinking / believing that,” - I have made an unwarranted personal attack and the person would be entirely right to be offended. But I try always to attack things, philosophies, outside people etc. I actually have almost no beliefs - I don’t believe in beliefs, if one likes, so I tend to oppose others’ beliefs being imposed. To me such is simply an attempt at a political take-over. But why on Earth should people not praise God in a poem, in a discussion, in banter? I assume believers think enough of Him to speak up for Him? The fact that I could choose to find such beliefs offensive (as they offend my sense of human responsibility, justice etc) in no way means I would wish to gag such people. I shall argue against them but never seek to gag them. People should not be offended by debate - to be offended by such simply means, I think t, that they are insincere or insecure in their beliefs. I have not yet met a monk nor a priest nor a lay preacher (and I have met and debated with very many) who is in the least offended by my atheism. Why? because they are confident in their beliefs and they are, indeed, delighted to advance their points of view and hope to convince me. I would argue that deeply help beliefs without a willingness to argue are (as we have highlighted in the R101 debate) what is driving the World to World War III. People with deeply help beliefs have an important duty to debate, else such beliefs can endanger all the freedoms we have fought for. And art is usually one of the first things to be repressed by those who seek to gag for their own ends.

>F>I think Alan also has a valid point when he says he feels like an outsider everywhere. So do I. Poets are renowned for feeling alienated. It ought to be part of the job description.

I thought it was! And it is most writers, I think - not just poets.

>F> I very much doubt that any of us who write serious poetry are happily ensconced in our own local or national environments enjoying TV reality dance shows and dreaming of winning the lottery (at least all the time).

I loathe reality tv and would apologise to the USA again for this vile British invasion. Sorry. Really. Dreadful mind-killing stuff.

>F>I will admit to having been a very academic, lonely child - a square peg in a round hole at my school - and I am still minutely aware that I don't 'belong' now, though I can 'fit in' these days.

I have never thought that I belonged in the human race at all. I’m sure many would agree. I have always got on far better with dogs.

>F> I realise that many of us are in the same boat - I am no longer so alone.

That is how I feel and debate (between different views) and banter (which includes people) is, for me, the essence of writing and responding and the essence of everything intellectual that is important. MM has supported that and I’d loathe us to stamp one person’s / one group’s view of what is politically correct upon the being that is MM. Don’t seek to gag - oppose intelligently by argument and debate. Just because I don’t agree with you doesn’t mean you can’t convince me and, even if you can’t, I want to hear your views. Write a poem, a short story or comment that my work is intellectually incoherent and explain why. It is all helpful.

Thanks, J.