The Future of BoL

[Sarah]

Wait... who is Brittany? :P

I don't remember a Brittany.

[MichaelaAnn]

Oh...well I just assumed we were talkin' about switching hosts. O -o

Ah, now you guys are pressuring me. :P

I'm kidding...take a look if you want. @_@ http://luxspelunca.net (be warned...it'll look empty to the unregistered. And registering might freak out some members since we don't really have college age people on there. No offense. :P )

*looks at main board...sees embarassing spammy statusbox.*

*facepalm*

Well, you're lucky enough to be able to see the status box, which is basically the dump heap so people don't let out their spamminess in threads. That's the excuse at any rate. :P

@ Madeline: Well...I think partly the fact that it obviously hasn't gone through any changes in the last few years. :P

(Plus if BoL is being revamped anyways why not go all out? It also might disassociate people with whatever qualms about it they had before. If they come back to try again and it looks the same, they're going to jump to the conclusion that it hasn't changed at all. People judge books by their covers, what can I say? :P )

[CiCi]

She used to come on chat way back when! I think I"m friends with her on facebook....but now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't seen her post in forever. Hmmm.

[Tyler]

Ah, Brittany! I haven't talked to her in ages. I'm friends with her on Facebook too though.. She's majoring in Graphics and Communication Design.

[MGibson]

I am contemplating terrible things for that one person, whoever he/she may be, who voted for option 2.

[MGibson]

Hey, I never stopped using it. Even when I was in Europe having you know, a life, I still used BOL. However, I don't see us getting many (if any) new members. Because of this, maybe we do need to redefine what BOL actually is and acknowledge that it's a hangout for old, crusty, graduated home schoolers.

I would even go so far as to say that BOL's recent "death" may give cause for a separate board for new, younger members. In a word, that maybe Draper's suggestion from way back when would actually be appropriate now. Let's not kid ourselves here-- some of us are nearly 30. Several of us are married and a few have kids of our own. We're not going to have any thing in common with 15 year old new members, if we get new members at all. It does seems a bit silly now to expect that a resurrection of BOL will mean anything but a place for grown up graduates to chat.

My proposal(s) would be to either

a) We redefine what BOL is... We stop spreading the word to new, young members and change the definition from "Uniting Catholic Home schoolers Worldwide" to "Uniting a Couple Dozen People Who Were Home schooled 5-10 Years Ago Worldwide." but otherwise leave as is.
b) We redefine BOL for ourselves as above, but create a new forum for new, younger members. This way, we get to keep our old topics and jokes and the youngsters also have a chance to create their own "culture." I don't know if we'd even get new members at all... I just think it would be a shame that this generation of home schooled kids won't have BOL.

But look, if we're going to bring it back, I'm going to be slightly peeved if those of you who have just voted to bring it back post like crazy for a couple weeks and then disappear, leaving BOL a ghost town like before. I know we're all busy-- I'm busy. I literally LIVE at my job, I have real life friends, I am learning another language... but for as much time as we spend on facebook, twitter and reading Catholic mommy blogs, you can spare a couple minutes to check in on BOL.

Honestly, I think redefining what BOL might make that easier. Our topics can be a little more "adult," giving us room to write topics that might interest us more than "Who has had gelato?"

I recognize almost everyone here. It is currently like a family. Let's keep it that way. Oh, and I vote not to start bringing in squeaky little kids. BOL should be redefined in favor of it's old and progressing audience.

[EvvyKasei]

I really like the older people, speaking as a noob-ish person. I am always hanging out with my sister and her friends, most of them well over 18... so it doesn't bother me. I've always been around older people. And it's not something that would bother my parents because you're all seton grads (O'hohoho. College connections) I'm only a year from graduating and jumpstarting into my adult life so... really it's all level playing field. You guys all make me wish I was a wee bit older, wish I coulda been here in 2008 for the hay-day. And actually I was in seton at that time so I could have been if only I'd explored the seton forums earlier... Hm. Oh well.

Perhaps this should be a board geared more toward older seton people. I mean since I'm graduating soon I'm starting to worry about when I am older... I'll have no place to go. It could be open to younger people, but only if they are okay-with the older people. And if parents complain then you can kindly point out it's a board MEANT FOR older seton grads, which would then put all the blame on the kid. :P (And see it being open to new people would provide probably a small but steady supply of posters)

I mean it's not like you guys want this board to explode like swc or something right? :P Prolly just wanna keep it alive for it's history amiright?

Bol should be "Haven for Seton Survivors" XD

Just my opinion on the matter I see presenting itself. I don't pretend to know a lot about the bol community (I know some people in it but you get what I mean) But... well I have a problem solving brain and I want to lend a hand of help and suggestion if I can.

[Beea]

But Evvy, I'm going to be an old Kolbe grad DDDD:

Anyways, this is making me wish I was more involved in BoL 3 years ago instead of just making an account and disappearing off the face of the earth

So, yeah, like Evvy, I'm rather a noob when it comes to BoL so I won't pretend to know anything about the board. (Or anything much anyways.) But, from what it sounds like, you guys just want to keep it like a small family group? I can see that...but I honestly don't see a problem having young and old members together.

I mean, what's the common thing that unites BoL-ers? Homeschooling, right? So what if some people are like, 10 years older than some of the new members? I actually find talking with old homeschool grads to be quite interesting and I can also learn a lot from them! Graduating myself now I can offer some good advice to those just starting out. I don't quite think that age should be a barrier, if you catch my drift.

I've been on plenty of other boards where we have teenagers interacting with people in their 20's. (And I don't mean in a creepy weird way...that would just be...yeah...) but I think the older you get the less age really matters.

I saw some people talking about a split; but why can't there just be a group created with all the older BoL-ers with special forums just for them? As in, the rest of the board can't see it? Experience running a couple forums has taught me that this is quite possible if people wanted it to happen. Then you could just clean up the rest of the board for the rest of the younger members and still have posts trickling in while the older members could have their own little corner of BoL. (I'm not quite sure I'm making sense here...)

Anyways, that's just my 2 cents. Like Evvy said, I don't know much about the board and I'm not too entirely sure of what everyone wants but it's my opinion on the matter...hopefully it can help some

[MichaelaAnn]

Evvy said: "Perhaps this should be a board geared more toward older seton people. I mean since I'm graduating soon I'm starting to worry about when I am older... I'll have no place to go. It could be open to younger people, but only if they are okay-with the older people. And if parents complain then you can kindly point out it's a board MEANT FOR older seton grads, which would then put all the blame on the kid. :P (And see it being open to new people would provide probably a small but steady supply of posters)"

But...but...

Are y'all just gonna keep me in the closet then? :'{

Like an unused Christmas decoration. >.<

:P


All joking aside though I have a confession to make...

I'm feeling kind of out of place on BoL lately. :\ That only used to be minimal a while back, but now for some reason I'm having trouble readjusting to being on here. Everyone on here have known each other for five billion years (give or take :P ) and as such make inside jokes a lot that I don't catch, and some have even met in person...and I feel like kind of an intruder. :[ I'm not blaming anyone for this, it's just the situation that occurs from me being so much newer and younger than everyone else. It can't really be helped I think. So I kinda disagree with Evvy and Bria...age DOES matter, longterm. At first, not so much, but after a while it gets to be a bit straining always worrying about whether people think you're ultra immature or not, or being afraid to go into debates and such because you're afraid that your age automatically makes your opinion inferior (true or not, I'm definitely feeling paranoid about that). When you're surrounded by people who are 10x more mature than you and 10x more experienced (and ten years your senior even) you get uneasy about making anything but spam topics and really small posts. At least, I do. :P I feel like an alien on here.

/"feelings" rant :P

Now following Evvy's idea bout making this an older setoners only forum...I actually could help you guys recruit people there. I know several people - on SWC especially - who might be interested in that kind of thing.

I could also help you recruit younger people too though. :P

[EvvyKasei]

[quote="MichaelaAnn"]Evvy said: "Perhaps this should be a board geared more toward older seton people. I mean since I'm graduating soon I'm starting to worry about when I am older... I'll have no place to go. It could be open to younger people, but only if they are okay-with the older people. And if parents complain then you can kindly point out it's a board MEANT FOR older seton grads, which would then put all the blame on the kid. :P (And see it being open to new people would provide probably a small but steady supply of posters)"

But...but...

Are y'all just gonna keep me in the closet then? :'{

Like an unused Christmas decoration. >.<

:P


All joking aside though I have a confession to make...

I'm feeling kind of out of place on BoL lately. :\ That only used to be minimal a while back, but now for some reason I'm having trouble readjusting to being on here. Everyone on here have known each other for five billion years (give or take :P ) and as such make inside jokes a lot that I don't catch, and some have even met in person...and I feel like kind of an intruder. :[ I'm not blaming anyone for this, it's just the situation that occurs from me being so much newer and younger than everyone else. It can't really be helped I think. So I kinda disagree with Evvy and Bria...age DOES matter, longterm. At first, not so much, but after a while it gets to be a bit straining always worrying about whether people think you're ultra immature or not, or being afraid to go into debates and such because you're afraid that your age automatically makes your opinion inferior (true or not, I'm definitely feeling paranoid about that). When you're surrounded by people who are 10x more mature than you and 10x more experienced (and ten years your senior even) you get uneasy about making anything but spam topics and really small posts. At least, I do. :P I feel like an alien on here.

/"feelings" rant :P

Now following Evvy's idea bout making this an older setoners only forum...I actually could help you guys recruit people there. I know several people - on SWC especially - who might be interested in that kind of thing.

I could also help you recruit younger people too though. :P[/quote]

You're perfectly mature. JUST LOOKAT THAT LONG REPLY YOU GAVE.
No but seriously you are mature Mic. You fit in well as far as I can tell. You're not too loud but you're not too quiet either. You're good don't worry.

And you're obviously okay with older people, you're not gonna go running to your mom and dad because a 23 year old said hi or disrupt the peace of the wise old BOL fogeys. d:

You're 10000x more mature than I was at 15. >.> So in hindsight you got nothin' to worry about darlin.

And don't worry Bria. I was saying that as a general thing... xP

[Draper]

So I kinda disagree with Evvy and Bria...age DOES matter, longterm. At first, not so much, but after a while it gets to be a bit straining always worrying about whether people think you're ultra immature or not, or being afraid to go into debates and such because you're afraid that your age automatically makes your opinion inferior (true or not, I'm definitely feeling paranoid about that). When you're surrounded by people who are 10x more mature than you and 10x more experienced (and ten years your senior even) you get uneasy about making anything but spam topics and really small posts. At least, I do. I feel like an alien on here.

I think MichaelaAnn has a very insightful point here, particularly in regards debates. Debates used to be the heart of BOL, at least for me and those who ended up being my closest friends: Joe, Avrilyn, and Sissi. By the time I joined BOL, I was already on the older-side... 17 or so, and there weren't that many members more than a year older than me. Tim and Luthien, are the two that come to mind. Debates would have been drastically different with a bunch of grad students participating, and I probably never would have been as involved, too afraid of being logically brutalized by those who had already had Philosophy backgrounds. As it was, whenever I got in a debate with Tim, I ended up conceding after a few posts (whether I fully understood his reasons or not).

It is sort of like learning how to fight. Yes, it is good to have a teacher, but you also need practice against others on an equal playing field. If you only practice against a master, you will be beaten everytime and have trouble gaining confidence, which perhaps is more important to debate even than it is to fighting.

[Sarah]

I think Michaela made some good points, too... It's not just about maturity, it's that a 15, 16, 17 year old high schooler is at a much different place in her life than we who have graduated, have jobs and children... We just have different interests and perspectives which might have a difficult time meshing.

[EvvyKasei]

Are you fellows perhaps making the implication that age is more than just a number?

If it is, and well, I won't deny that's a possibility, I've met 60 year olds who are about as mature/smart as a cockatoo.

So really now. Aren't we all children in the end anyway?

And obviously since there's more than one new member, we've got plenty equal playing field. You oldies would add spice.

It's not like we're going to be talking about abc's. And I'd like to point out that common interests are NOT defined by age. I don't judge people by their age, I judge them by their actions and intentions. I'm mature enough to accept that people are going to be absolutely moronic or surprise the world with astounding intelligence no matter what age they are, and as annoying as it is, it's a human thing. Life, time, is not linear, it's circular. Being 25 isn't some magic thing that makes someone instantly more intelligent. You're not 'ahead' of someone maturity-wise because you're older. I do find that often it's the opposite. Graduating college doesn't mystically transform someone into a mature person. Sure they can be chalk full of books and quotes and know the answer to every math problem on the planet, but ultimately, that doesn't make them smart. It's rather superficial to believe that true intelligence is gathered by how many years you live or how many books you've read. It's even more superficial to believe you're 'more advanced' then someone younger (or in some cases older) than you. We might as well be racists and sexists. People grow and change, people are all different. Age, isn't anything more than a number. Just like skin color and gender. (gender IS important to factor in sometimes but, no, a woman can hunt and kill an elk just as good as a man can. And where there's a woman who can hunt elk,there's a nerdy man somewhere who can't.) And social status isn't anything more then an invented thing, invented by people who want to control every aspect of life because ultimately they're afraid of death.
There's a few things that are invented for good, like children shouldn't cross the street alone because the drivers usually can't see their short little bodies...

I think everyone here is mature enough to fully grasp the point I am trying to get across. Without throwing things like "WELL WITH YOUR LOGIC SHOULD CHILDREN DRINKKK??" Actually on that note, wine is healthy if taken in moderation. I'm sure there's a few children who could easily handle the responsibility of alcohol much better then 70% of adults.

My point is that sectioning off the board in itself is an act of immaturity. :P We can all post together. We're not sitting in a room together, think about it, all we are are little pixelated pictures on the screen. No harm will come of that, so long as we're mature enough not to let it.

I've debated with 32 year olds, and they LOST to me. I'm not shy because of age. And I will never, ever feel that someone is more intelligent than me because they're older. If I think you're smarter than me you have earned it. My parents are smarter than I am, I don't believe that because well "oh parents are just smarter than their children." I believe it because I've been through hellfire with them, and they've proven me time and time again that they are extremely intelligent and problem solving. So I listen to them. But uhm.

Some 30 year old on the internet is going to get a fancy run for their money, so help me.

My parents taught me not to be afraid of adults. Because we are no longer in an age where all adults are worthy of such high respect. I honestly don't believe there ever was an age like that. But they also taught me, that when there is a good adult, I better respect them with the up-most graciousness I can compose. However I am courteous to every living thing in a general sense because I do believe there is a God, and I do like the way he does things. So, thus, I do like being respectful to all the things he made, even if those things are infuriating me.

I have to point out that if you're all so mature and wise then the children shouldn't feel intimidated around you. I don't ever feel intimidated around people who are smarter/more learned then me, I feel awed and excited because they can teach me new things. However, I admit I can get intimidated by hateful bullies at times.

It's up to you how you want younger people to feel in your presence. Mic isn't trying to fan your opinions, she's basically saying she's terrified of SOME of you because you're so aggressive and quick to ruin someone's day just so you can huff/puff and be right. (No, thankfully, not all of you are like that. I like some of you very much) And anyway, If you were smart, you'd see that. You've probably been this way since you were young, thus proving my point further that age is a number. It's so easy to say you're smarter and better than someone because of your age, it's so easy to pull out collegic quotes and smack around children who don't know any better. But it's a really sacrifice, and an admirable feat, when you manage to stand in a group of kids and be admired for how kind you are, and how much knowledge you share. To be remembered by those kids when they're older, as the person who taught them much of what they know, in a kind, loving manner. As Christ would.

Really it's all a matter of who's being a deliberate bully, and who's not.

You've all obviously had your "time" in life from the way you're talking on here. Why not settle down and prune and care-for those you consider young-lings? Honestly. Where's that catholic sense of universal family? Where's the love in that? How sad.

I know this board means a lot to most of you, I can feel the history of this board. And that's exactly why I want to be here, it's amazing. I like being around older things, I can learn a lot. I just wish that some of those old things would open up and see it that way too.

[Beea]

I really rather agree with Evvy here.

Like I said above, what's the one thing EVERYONE has in common on BoL? Homeschooling, yes? Or am I wrong? If we are all homeschooled, or were homeschooled at one point, then we should all have something common to talk about every once in a while, right?

I do get the fact that we're not going to have everything in common and maybe there are some topics that only old members want to discuss among themselves. But like I said in my post above, why can't there just be a separate group for the older BoL-ers for them to discuss whatever things they want and then the forum can just have both old and new members?

Anything else I have to say would pretty much be echoing what Evvy said. There's no reason the old un's and young un's can't coexist in the same forum.

[Sarah]

Evvy, Beea... I am in an aberrant state of speechlessness right now, so I'm gonna let someone else take the reigns on this one. :lol:

Tyler? Draper? [i]Andy[/i]?

[Izod Foldger]

I guess I'll bite the bait and take some reigns. I agree with Evvy and Beea. I also find it disheartening how two new members join BOL, become active, and then all we can do is discuss why they don't fit in based on the differences we have (age) instead of the similarities we have (Catholic homeschooling). It doesn't seem to be a very charitable and constructive way to keep members.

The vast majority of forums on the Internet do not have separation of ages and thus consist of members of all ages together, but for some reason some on BOL feel it's abnormal for a forum to have a wide range of ages. I'm not saying that those of different ages don't generally have less in common; I'm just saying that's it's not out of the ordinary for a forum to have a wide range of ages, as most are usually wider than BOL, whose oldest members are merely around 30.

If someone would like to make a new separate site and reserve it only for younger members, then they can do as they wish. There are also already other Catholic homeschooling forums with a younger population, but none that I know of that are mostly Catholic homeschool graduates. So I don't see why anyone feels they need to change (and possibly destroy) BOL when they can make their own site or go to another one.

Of course, I'm all for getting new members, just as long as it doesn't involve destroying what we have. And if we can't get consistent new members, then we can just accept what we have, which is a good place to hang out with friends we've known for years. And that's a good thing too.

Aside from that, I think this topic has been overly discussed in the past and should die. Unfortunately Evvy brought it back after a couple weeks of no posts. ...And I was trying to stay out of it.

[cinny2]

If someone would like to make a new separate site and reserve it only for younger members, then they can do as they wish. There are also already other Catholic homeschooling forums with a younger population, but none that I know of that are mostly Catholic homeschool graduates.

And then there's the Seton Alumni and Career Development Message Board, complete with a setonhome.org web address. Except Set-n (and, apparently, former) juniors and seniors are allowed on and make up the most active user segment. I'm not about to go onto a board dominated by a bunch of high school kidlets arguing about whether a member really broke up with their girlfriend and feels sad/depressed and the best method of getting over said sadness/depression and post a serious meaty topic about searching for a job or pondering major life choices. Even a post about grad school's pretty much out of the question, since I'd want more answers than "No wAy dUDE!thAts cOOL. U mst b 2 Smrt. me h8 skl." "u lie!" "u can't be in grad school, I saw you at the prom last year" and the like. And yes, I used a wee bit of hyperbole in my example responses.


Also, I agree, I wish this thread would die. Vanish, ideally. It looms over everything like an evil dark foreboding cloud implies there'll be a severe weather alert on Channel 2 news at 5.


-Elizabeth

[Tyler]

tl;dr

[Tyler]

Okay, I skimmed. I think the younger members who are against the sectioning feel this way because they feel like they're going to be left out of something. To that I say: perhaps, but you will make your own something. The older community may seem interesting to you, but it's in sort of a hybrid state right now.. A lot of discussion is being limited, because (1) some young members, as Michaela pointed out, feel that something they might want to post is a bit too "immature" for our average audience, making them self-conscious, and (2) something that an older member might want to post can of course be a bit too mature for the younger audience. Boards with a younger average age tend to be a bit more.. youthful and energetic.. which is fine, but it can be wearisome for the older members, whereas there's a lot more discussion about beer, controversial politics, child-rearing, etc on Catholic boards that aren't specifically aimed at the younger generation.

So really, though you may like what we have now, I think the best way for the Bored to realize its potential is by the split that Draper has proposed.

[Tyler]

That is, if we want BOL to continue its lifelong mission of providing fellowship for home schoolers.. Of course, we could just do as Eric is saying and redub it a homeschool alumni or conservative Catholic message board and go on.. But when I think of abandoning the cause, I think of how lonely I would have been when I was home schooled if I had been without BOL, and I want to do my best to help other kids from feeling that.. you know?

[Izod Foldger]

So really, though you may like what we have now, I think the best way for the Bored to realize its potential is by the split that Draper has proposed.

Well, let's just say that the secret to BOL becoming a booming place again is to change it to a forum for youngsters. I don't believe that's likely as resurrecting a forum is always a hard task, but some here apparently do feel for some reason that younger members would flock here if the older members were gone.

Now, BOL is currently a place primarily of Catholic homeschool graduates. There are no other Catholic homeschooling forums primarily serving Catholic homeschooling graduates. There are, however, other active Catholic homeschooling forums for highschoolers which are "realizing their potential" for Catholic homeschooled high schoolers. So my question is, while BOL is the only one serving the Catholic homeschool graduate demographic, and there are other Catholic homeschooling forums for high schoolers, why does BOL feel the need to cater to an already served population at the expense of an under-served population?

If some younger members join here and feel they can fit in well with the older, then I'm all for that. And if some younger members feel they cannot fit in with the older, then they can simply spend time on the other forums which are predominantly full of high schoolers. But us, we don't really have another Catholic homeschooling forum we can simply go to.

It's kind of like if we were a church with the only young adults group in town, and we had 10 members, but there were a few youth groups in town which averaged 30 members. So if the goal was to have as many members as possible, then perhaps our church should change the young adults group into a youth group and then we'd have 30 members. But then where would the young adults go? See, I don't really see the ultimate goal to necessarily be to have as many members as possible.

[Beea]

A lot of discussion is being limited, because (1) some young members, as Michaela pointed out, feel that something they might want to post is a bit too "immature" for our average audience, making them self-conscious, and (2) something that an older member might want to post can of course be a bit too mature for the younger audience. Boards with a younger average age tend to be a bit more.. youthful and energetic.. which is fine, but it can be wearisome for the older members, whereas there's a lot more discussion about beer, controversial politics, child-rearing, etc on Catholic boards that aren't specifically aimed at the younger generation.

So, what's so hard about making a separate group for the older members with their own little forum to discuss their "more mature" topics by themselves without fear from the interference of the younger members?

You don't have to split the board to do this. A group can just be created with a forum that only they can see and no one else can on the forums. That way, you don't have to worry about self-conscious or immature teens. Give me an admin cp and I'll do it in 2 minutes (I'm not being literal here of course...just pointing out that it's a quick fix and something REALLY easy to do)

If that's all you're worried about, then why not just make a group? That way, the older members can have their mature discussions and still mingle with the younger ones if they choose. You're not splitting the forum, and you're not changing much either. You're simply creating a place where it's "safe" for the older BoL-ers to discuss their "mature" things.

I'm not about to go onto a board dominated by a bunch of high school kidlets arguing about whether a member really broke up with their girlfriend and feels sad/depressed and the best method of getting over said sadness/depression and post a serious meaty topic about searching for a job or pondering major life choices. Even a post about grad school's pretty much out of the question, since I'd want more answers than "No wAy dUDE!thAts cOOL. U mst b 2 Smrt. me h8 skl." "u lie!" "u can't be in grad school, I saw you at the prom last year" and the like.

Then don't

I honestly don't see a problem posting a more "serious" topic in a forum that has less "serious" topics though. Honestly, isn't that what the different sections are for? If you don't want responses like that then don't post. Or just ignore the posts.

Well, let's just say that the secret to BOL becoming a booming place again is to change it to a forum for youngsters. I don't believe that's likely as resurrecting a forum is always a hard task, but some here apparently do feel for some reason that younger members would flock here if the older members were gone.

If some younger members join here and feel they can fit in well with the older, then I'm all for that. And if some younger members feel they cannot fit in with the older, then they can simply spend time on the other forums which are predominantly full of high schoolers. But us, we don't really have another Catholic homeschooling forum we can simply go to.

It's kind of like if we were a church with the only young adults group in town, and we had 10 members, but there were a few youth groups in town which averaged 30 members. So if the goal was to have as many members as possible, then perhaps our church should change the young adults group into a youth group and then we'd have 30 members. But then where would the young adults go? See, I don't really see the ultimate goal to necessarily be to have as many members as possible.

I agree. I highly doubt a ton of new members would come just because the old ones left. BoL doesn't have to change. Like I keep saying, if the older BoL-ers really feel that they absolutely have to have a different place just to discuss more "mature topics" that are unsuitable for younger members, then make another group that the other members can't see. Otherwise, just leave it as is. If a new member can't handle the forum, they can't handle it and they're going to leave anyways. If a new member can handle it, great! Shouldn't you be welcoming that member?

Unless, like the post above me said, you guys are trying to get as many members as possible, in which case the whole split becomes an even more absurd idea considering you would want all the members on one forum if you were trying to get the most. Correct?

[MichaelaAnn]

(TL;DR at the bottom if you're interested. :P )

I think Tyler and Eric both have the best points.

The idea I was trying to relay before is that having a mixed audience is going to have a lot of drawbacks on both sides, like Tyler said also. Younger and older members are gonna clash whether we try to keep it from happening or not. Yes, having a board with mixed ages DOES work and it works quite well in a lot of circumstances, but the numbers have to be large enough to balance it out. As it is...BoL is so tiny that we're elbowing each other in such close quarters, if you will. :P If there were enough younger members on here with me, I wouldn't feel so self concious about making posts about topics I consider fun. Tyler hit the nail on the head in his post:

"Boards with a younger average age tend to be a bit more.. youthful and energetic.. which is fine, but it can be wearisome for the older members, whereas there's a lot more discussion about beer, controversial politics, child-rearing, etc on Catholic boards that aren't specifically aimed at the younger generation."

That's exactly what I mean about the clashing. I could really care less about Beer and child-rearing (even if I do like controversial politics XD), something that's probably normal since I'm only sixteen, but for y'all it's the cool thing to talk about which I can understand objectively; I'm sure you guys would probably find some of my favorite topics to be pretty boring too. :P

And obviously we can't really demand of each other to talk on topics that we don't find interesting just for the sake of "unity". Where's the fun in that? :P However, if there were enough members of varying ages the problem would solve itself and we wouldn't even be having this discussion. As it is though...Have you see the long list of birthdays in the next week (not visible today cuz of my birthday)? Everyone besides me and Gizmo Sarah are turning at least twenty.

You get my point. :P

So I don't think the solution would be keeping it the way it is (Since it's only so active right now because it's still rather "new". If we leave it in this state six months from now it'll go right back to the way it was before it shut down), or making it an alumni forum with exceptions...but if we could gather enough people of several different age groups and accomodate the board so that it's user friendly for basically any age, I think we could strike gold. An age varied system would be awesome - and unless I'm mistaken was kind of the way BoL used to be before it fell ill - but it has to be in moderation. Over ten or so 22+ age members and less than four 17- isn't moderation. :P It doesn't really require a split (or even separated sections) if the numbers are large enough.

As Eric pointed out though, completely resurrecting a forum isn't easy. It would be a lot of work (but a split would too so why're we even debating a matter of it being too hard since our previous option was pretty well out there :P ), but I guess we and most importantly the staff need to determine whether it's worth it. It COULD be a merely alumni forum, like Eric was suggesting, but is that really in the spirit of BoL? It's worth a thought. But it's best to bear in mind that the majority of people who would be on here if it became an alumni board were the people who were here back when it was aimed to a younger crowd, and they won't just be alumnis forever, they'd have busier lives as they got older...so how could you keep a steady flow coming and going? It'd be back to the old drawing board again after a couple of years.

So while that would be the simplistic course of action, it's not the most beneficial in the longterm, the way I see it. Completely resurrecting the Board is kind of a grittier job, but it's not impossible. And it might gauruntee BoL more life span after the initial haul. As I said before...there are plenty of people who would probably go for it and join. Evvy and Bria are testimony to that. But not all of them will latch on so easily or willingly after they disappeared the first time they joined.

Which brings me back to...the Board needs a basic revamp. (I know y'all hate this topic but I think it's vital. :P ) As I said, the first thing people see is the external side of BoL. And while the Board seems fine the way it is to the members who have been here for a while, people still associate it's current look with the old dead BoL they first knew. They see it and say "oh nothings changed here" and leave. And note I said a "basic" revamp. I know I seemed to advocate a big huge deal before but I've changed my tune; All things considered, we're gonna wanna make this as minimally painful as possible, right? @_@

And I've already said I'm perfectly willing to recruit BoL some members of as many ages as I can find. *nod*

TL;DR

* A varied age forum is ideal, but only if the numbers are large enough to balance it out.

* If Bol stays only older members its lifespan might suffer, even if its revamp is easier.

* A more hardcore revamp (including recruiting) would take more time but in the long run would give BoL a richer vary of members and a longer lifespan.

(P.S Could Someone please enable smilies and BBCode in here? :[ )

[Beea]

I guess it all comes down to what kind of change everyone is interested in. And, it seems to me (an outsider I know) that most people here want the forum to just be a nice little place for a few friends to discuss their interests and whatnot.

There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it's perfectly fine. But, if it is what everyone wants, then perhaps closing BoL to the outside world is the best option.

Or do you want to keep it just an alumni forum with exceptions? If so, I still advocate for the group idea. It solves the problem of the awkwardness of "mature" posts while still technically keeping the board together.

And then, there's the question of whether or not you want to keep the board completely open to new members so as to give it new life. In which case, like Michaela said, I'd advocate for a revamp.

I was only offering the group idea above because I received the impression that everyone here didn't really want new members. Now, whether that is true or not, I don't know, but it's the feeling I get from reading the posts on here. If you're looking for new members, then changing the forum to make it look more appealing is something that should be considered. And then there's always the advertising. It wouldn't be easy, but it would be doable and I agree with Michaela that you could find some members who find BoL interesting if it could only be spruced up a bit.

Like I said, this seems to be totally a question of "do you want to change?" Do you want it to be some place to just talk with your old friends you met years ago or do you want BoL to live on with newer members? That's something the rest of BoL really has to decide.

For me, I'm perfectly fine with doing whatever so long as people find me tolerable. As a new member, I can say that I'm not here to try and change all your ways, traditions, or whatever. I simply came because I wanted to have fun and serious discussions with like-minded people. I'm just trying to throw my ideas out there and give my perspective on things.

[Izod Foldger]

I want new members. I just don't want to kill (put them into a little corner) old members to get new members.