CB/AB Issues.

[10ClarionSt]

Even now Ed, you are still quite vague about why you terminated CB. It looks like your action has cost you many contributors, who seem to be settling in very nicely elsewhere. Perhaps this was the REAL reason you did it. To rid this site of certain users.

I know. You could have just banned people. But that wouldn't be very tactful would it? It could be harmful to do that. So, just close CB. People leave. Desired result. QED.

[dotjhawkes]

Hi TCL, I haven't settled in anywhere else, I log on to CS and it is like the worst days of CB, just endless drippy stuff that is meaningless. CS was different when we first joined, but all the interesting Yanks have disappeared and now it is just the same CB stuff regurgitated. I wish there was a chat category on here, but it is fine for now as far as I am concerned.

[jno]

my theory is that CB was just too much trouble for everyone. AB Ed and the monks must have spent an hour or two every day just deleting objecitonable posts. Who needs it? The business model is presumably for a low-maintenance site providing a Q&A forum: a social service that doesn't bring in much money but doesn't cost much either. CB probably consumed as much editorial time as all other sections put together. This doesn't mean that any individual user was a problem, just that the whole section wasn't cost-efficient. Does that sound plausible?

[dotjhawkes]

It does jno, and as you know, I am hoping for that lottery win to invest my winnings in a new CB. Should we do a syndicate do you think?

[B00]

Well im somewhere else- but im not ashamed to say I miss CB terribly (sad? me? you betcha!) i'd be back like a shot if it came back.

Dont think it's gonna be though- is it?:(

[Peri]

Hi all. I have been away but now my computer is back up to speed and I have my own laptop also so I know I will miss Chatterbank - once I learn to master this thing that is. I am not up to speed with all thats been going on but hi everybody how are you all. Any scandal.

[dotjhawkes]

Hi Peri, not heard of any scandal, why what do you know? Tell, tell, go on!

[Peri]

Well over here in Ireland we have the scandal of the 73 year old priest who has fathered a child with his long term 30 something partner - is that scandal. How are you dot

[dotjhawkes]

That Peri, is indeed scandal! I am fairly well Peri, i need a holiday! So this priest, did they sack him? Or give him a medal! 73! Oh well, God works in mysterious ways!

[quibbmedusa]

Hi guys!! i miss it too, im hardly ever on here these days, i miss cb and im not settled anywhere!! miss you guys!

[january_bug]

jno - I think you're business model idea was almost certainly spot on... except that you said "low maintenance", when I'm sure you meant "zero effort". I presume you people have realised that "the monks" clearly don't exist, as monks or as other human beings of any sort. It's a one-woman band and it got too much like hard work, so it was better/easier to take it back to how it started.

Still - I'm generating work, cos every single time I post, ABE has to come back and remove it!

10CS - I think you are also right, and it has worked. You might also be interested to know that when one certain (former?) user of CS joined one of the alternative forum, one person immediately left, and another ensured that a swift exit would always be possible. However, you are spot on in my case... I certainly hardly EVER come back, although that wasn't down to the closure of CB as you know. For most others though, that is the reason. And I bet the other categories have suffered at least slightly, from a thinner bank of members to assist with queries, quandries and questions.

[january_bug]

Sorry - I typo'd. I meant "(former?) user of AB, more specifically CB".

[Ward-Minter]

you are still are honey bunny though JB, and that will NEVER change.

[jno]

bug you have a fair point: though there are no doubt people around to set up things like CB in the first place, and feed the yaks, there doesn't seem to be a deputy Ed. It's notable that CB closed down just before AB Ed went on hols - otherwise there would have been a vast heap of chat, much of it censorable, piling up for two weeks and nobody to hose it down. But don't deprive users of your helpful advice in other categories.

[AB Editor]

Hi

Don't really see a suggestion here, but I love the "one woman band" comment! The single editor/moderator set up the AB has makes it appear that way, but thankfully employment health laws and indeed managment prohibit it!

As Jno so gloriously put it, CB required more moderation time than was currently available but more importantly - user situations, like the photo sharing and the influx of users - not the loyal CBers who actually used the category to chat, but those that joined just to break the rules and cause technical problems, made us review and decide to temporarily suspend the category in order for us to have a rethink and, if possible, to bring back a much better product. Using what we learned during our first "chat room experience".

 

[dotjhawkes]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, so it is coming back! Or am I reading that comment from ABED wrongly?

[October]

I read it as "a possibility" Dot. Long time no speak btw, you ok ?

[dotjhawkes]

Just warming up Octy, thanks for asking, how are you? (In a technically suggestive sense of course)

[Woodsz]

May I suggest that I'm allowed to say hello to Peri, whom we haven't heard from in a long time, as well as the rest of you nice people. That I'm missing like Hell

[dotjhawkes]

Peri was here last night, i chatted with her, but i think it was removed woodsz

[libertie]

I personally don't think that AB is any worse off now that CB has gone! There are still lots of people contributing to other categories, many of whom have been around for ages. I'm sure that many new people to AB were put of by all the bitchiness and crap that was a regular feature of CB..just a shame that all the genuine folks had to suffer!!