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Welcome to Andy from Social Knowledge LLC

Andy R said:
Regarding Administrators, I always rely on the members to manage the sites in our networks. I have learned that they are the most passionate people on the topics and that empowering you all is very important.
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As one of those passionate people I hope that my passion won't be rudely interrupted by a host of obtrusive ads.

In a way, I welcome this change. But I would like to see the forum have a real identity. Currently, with the basic vBulletin template, it doesn't have that. And looking over other Social Knowledge forums I can see that many retain the basic template. (And I hope you don't add that ugly footer with SEO links to all forums, local and global in the network. Yes, ugly.)

I would also expect if you were managing a network of forums to keep them consistent. Not only in a brand identity sort of way, but in the actual software. I noticed that your vBulletin and vBSEO version numbers are all over the place from forum to forum. Not a big deal just now (although this forum is two versions off the current release) but I would hope to see them all consistent by the time vB3.7 is officially declared stable. Or this one at least, as none of the others interest me.

I agree that members make the forum what it is. But it takes an admin to be present to effect the suggested changes. Sadly Darren couldn't do this in his absences and all the ideas over time were pretty much buried in the Suggestions forum of good intentions.

Oh, and by the way, I accidentally turned off your Top 10 Stats bar. Whoops! :eek: I have some admin powers and this was obviously one of them. I thought I was turning it off for me personally as I hate the thing.
 
Andy R said:
I am going to ask Janet (a person who helps me with other communities) to join us here. She is really good at team building and training.
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Is she going to make Stewart stand behind Darren and have Darren catch Stewart as he falls back? Or will they go out for a round or two of paintball against the Yoga forum?
 
Stewart said:
As one of those passionate people I hope that my passion won't be rudely interrupted by a host of obtrusive ads.
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The current ad layout will remain the same for all logged in members. You probably noticed the big block with the 300x250 ads when you were on the other SK sites. Those are there to get people to register, it's been effective. Once you are logged in they are removed. I do plan to put those guest only ads in place here, at some point.
Stewart said:
In a way, I welcome this change. But I would like to see the forum have a real identity. Currently, with the basic vBulletin template, it doesn't have that. And looking over other Social Knowledge forums I can see that many retain the basic template.
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I hear you loud and clear. I am actually working on the first two custom skins for two of the sites right now. I will post threads to solicit input on identity, branding and interface design input before we start designing. I can't give an ETA on that now but we are on the same page here.
Stewart said:
(And I hope you don't add that ugly footer with SEO links to all forums, local and global in the network. Yes, ugly.)
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Sorry you don't like the look and feel of the footer. All the SK sites have links to the other sites. They are one of the leading referrals for traffic from site to site.

Stewart said:
I would also expect if you were managing a network of forums to keep them consistent. Not only in a brand identity sort of way, but in the actual software. I noticed that your vBulletin and vBSEO version numbers are all over the place from forum to forum. Not a big deal just now (although this forum is two versions off the current release) but I would hope to see them all consistent by the time vB3.7 is officially declared stable. Or this one at least, as none of the others interest me.
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Please cut me some slack, you don't have to critique every small detail of my small business. Social Knowledge is small business (1 person), I try my hardest to serve the communities, as you can see they are all healthy and vibrant. Community management takes a lot more work then most people think! Of course you know this because you have been doing it single handedly here. I think you are doing an amazing job and hopefully we can point our efforts in the same direction.

Forums are not super high profit operations, I accomplish what I have by leveraging economies of scale. Social Knowledge is not Google or Yahoo or other Mega Corp. company so it's more like a Mom and Pop shop. I do have people I work with like Janet, Jeff, Brent, etc. They each help in different areas. Janet helps with writing tutorials, sharing with the mod/admin teams experiences from other sites and how we handled things (and if they worked or what we learned if they failed). Jeff is a programmer and helps with functionality development and site migration, etc. Brent helps with some server and vBulletin configuration.

@ Sparkcatcher - Sounds like you want to be part of the exercises!

I guess the way I said that was a little wrong. Janet helps me on forums going site to site to see what the various admin and mod teams are dealing with. She is good at helping identify new mods and then training them and making sure everyone is chatting about how to deal with issues. To tell you the truth this site might not even have any issues that we have to deal with. I need to go read up in the mod forums about what has happened in the past. That sure would be nice. Unfortunately more traffic = more members = more posts = more trolls to deal with. I hope you all can appreciate my desire to help the community grow while also keeping quality high.
 
Andy R said:
Please cut me some slack, you don't have to critique every small detail of my small business.
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Not a problem. Indeed, I don't know how long you've been doing it. Let's just put it down to me having invested four years here and I'm curious at the whole 'new management' thing. That, and my knowledge of many web topics. (Did Darren forget to ay I'm a handful. :p)
 
Andy R said:
Janet helps me on forums going site to site to see what the various admin and mod teams are dealing with. She is good at helping identify new mods and then training them and making sure everyone is chatting about how to deal with issues.
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Cool. It looks like Moto's Christmas wish may come true!
 
Litany said:
Mine is. I run it like a protection racket and beat people up if they don't send me enough presents. I highly recommend it.
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I fake images of my members in compromising positions with rent boys and blackmail them (the members, not the rent boys). Works a treat.
 
Now that vBulletin 3.7 has gone Gold, will the forum be getting upgraded in the near future. I, for one, can't wait to see this place with thread tagging and extra anti-spam facilities.
 
Great call Stewart!

How about I move the forum to my servers tonight and upgrade to vBulletin 3.7 tomorrow night?
 
And even better, this is all happening on CST, meaning I don't need a timezone chart to figure out the timing. How refreshing:cool:
 
Andy R said:
.... I always rely on the members to manage the sites in our networks. I have learned that they are the most passionate people on the topics and that empowering you all is very important. I am going to ask Janet (a person who helps me with other communities) to join us here. She is really good at team building and training. That way we can spread the load over a group of people so keeping our community up-to-date should be easier...
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Thanks for the warm invitation, I'm really happy to be here.

I live in eastern Washington state and am a musician. My trio tours (mostly regionally) from time to time and I teach music theory and composition in master classes at universities and colleges in the Pacific Northwest. I occasionally write reviews for music journals and especially love reading biographies relating to movers and shakers in science and the arts.

I'm looking forward to spending time here, getting acquainted with the community and implementing some of your excellent suggestions.
 
Hi and Welcome Janet! You already answered my 'standard' question, so I'll move on..What intrument(s) do you play? I have a houseful of musicians, but don't play or sing myself. In fact, they usually beg me NOT to sing..I don't understand why...
 
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