Well Wishes...

R

ross raddi

New member
Hello everyone,

Yes... this is the real Ross Raddi.

I don't plan on being a part of this community. A part of me would love to, but I have my reasons.

Having said that, I have some advice from someone who's been around the block a bit and unwarranted advice is my specialty. Take it for what you will.

1. The signup agreement should be strictly upheld. Keep it to the love of figs.
2. I would strongly consider capping the member list from time to time. The first 2-3 years after Ourfigs was created was its best years. It reminds me of what I recently witnessed at the Long Island festival. A close knit group of people who love figs. Leave the forum open; eventually, you get enough bad apples, which ruins everything. 1 bad apple counteracts 100 good ones. I guess if #1 is upheld to a high degree even at a high member count, then problem solved? 

Anyway... best of luck to you all. Take my advice or not, I'm sure this place will have more class than any before it.
 
ross raddi said:
Hello everyone,

Yes... this is the real Ross Raddi.

I don't plan on being a part of this community. A part of me would love to, but I have my reasons.

Having said that, I have some advice from someone who's been around the block a bit and unwarranted advice is my specialty. Take it for what you will.

1. The signup agreement should be strictly upheld. Keep it to the love of figs.
2. I would strongly consider capping the member list from time to time. The first 2-3 years after Ourfigs was created was its best years. It reminds me of what I recently witnessed at the Long Island festival. A close knit group of people who love figs. Leave the forum open; eventually, you get enough bad apples, which ruins everything. 1 bad apple counteracts 100 good ones. I guess if #1 is upheld to a high degree even at a high member count, then problem solved? 

Anyway... best of luck to you all. Take my advice or not, I'm sure this place will have more class than any before it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the wishes and thanks to your contributions in the fig community. 

I agree with a small group of friends, this forum feels like the Cheers TV show at the moment.
 
I agree, a smaller amount of members is better. Any guest can still browse the forum and all the content. I browsed ourfigs as a guest for 2 years before I signed up. I barely posted at ourfigs for almost 4 years but i was on the site very often learning.

 It takes a while to gain experience and be a positive influence. It's easy to just create 'noise' without real content Which many new growers can do. The extra noise can drown out the most valuable content. New growers should learn, and ask questions when they can't find the information they need.

Forums need to be a fun and relaxed place,  but also remember the forum is a repository for information and experience.

We want to help new growers to get to levels of expertise and understanding far quicker than we will (or did already)...as well as share valuable information between experienced growers.

Spread the love, information and fruit so we can all thrive!

I agree the forum should be careful about bad apples. The fig mafia could easily have sent undercover hit men.
 
@"DCallahan"#71 There is no cap on the amount of people who can join. I do understand Ross's point. The more people you invite the more problems you may have. (More Drama) But I think that would not look good for the forum. I welcome everyone one. As long as they are here to talk about figs and to join in the conversation's. The more fig lovers that are here. The more we all learn. The better for the community. That's my thought's anyway. :)
 
GoodFriendMike said:
@"DCallahan"#71 There is no cap on the amount of people who can join. I do understand Ross's point. The more people you invite the more problems you may have. (More Drama) But I think that would not look good for the forum. I welcome everyone one. As long as they are here to talk about figs and to join in the conversation's. The more fig lovers that are here. The more we all learn. The better for the community. That's my thought's anyway. :)
Click to expand...

Same, it should be a place where all fig hobbyists can go.
It's not likely there will be hundreds of main stayers...even on the old place there was really a core number that posted all the time.
Others just came and went.
 
@"GoodFriendMike"#9 @"ktrain"#2 
It is refreshing to me to hear your position.   In my opinion if a cap was created then it would basically be a death sentence for the forum at that time.  Because as it was stated people come and then go.  There would be a dwindling pool of posters. Information and content drive these platforms.  Sure it can be annoying seeing new members ask some of the same questions.  And yes some people can be annoying and create "noise" but I believe there's a blocking function that can help filter out some of what you don't want to see. 
I'd like to see a way to encourage more people to post and not just be in the background.   I've talked to a few people in person that say they've come on the old place for years but never engaged.
 
I believe as we get rolling, working the bugs out and ironing the sheets...lol
We will be working on ideas to engage people into the conversations.
I encourage people on social media to join us here and share their experiences, either successful or not.
We can all learn from one another. :)
 
@"DCallahan"#71  - I've been working on some bugs... (no, not the wasp from my other thread) Sorry for the late reply. It's a fair question and one that deserves an answer.

I understand Ross' point but I don't think an exclusive group is in the spirit of what we're trying to do here. We may get to a point where maybe we might reach out to members who haven't posted in 3 years to ask if they still want to be on the books... but right now, all we want is a healthy community... and communities are built on good people.... lots of good people. 

If anything, as we iron out the wrinkles.... I think we want to spread our wings a bit wider, and connect with friends in new ways. All of us here are fig nerds... no doubt about that... but we're other things too... I want to go there :)
 
I don't like the idea of capping membership.  Then it becomes known as a club. That's not the goal of any forum.  When you allow more participants to join, some of them think outside the box with their ideas and they become an asset to the community.  I watch a lot of videos on growing figs and every now and then I pick up a new piece of information and tuck it away for future implementation.  You want to encourage new ideas on how to grow anything in my opinion. New ideas and continual learning keeps our brains from going to mush. 

There is always going to be drama of some sort wherever you go.  That's just life, human nature, as people can get carried away with their views on anything.  Some consider it as passion. As long as you have good moderators, hot topics can be monitored and there are consequences for those who don't follow the rules.
 
I am glad Joe and Kevin recognize the value of keeping an open community that is welcoming to anyone wishing to join.

I can't help but think about what happened to Tomatoville, a once-thriving mega forum about growing tomatoes. I tried to get in for years but never succeeded. Neither did many others. Eventually, a group of enthusiasts started a new forum, open to everyone. What happened to Tomatoville is it withered. If you go to the main forum now, you will see all the 2024 threads fit on one page. The main thread of 2024  is where is everyone?

People get old, sick, busy, burnt out. Many get tired of answering the same questions over and over again. Many left for the new forum. Some, as they learned a lot, decreased their time on the forum. Too many reasons to mention. But the point is that any thriving community needs a continuous supply of new blood to keep it going.

P.S. I would be cautious about believing that whoever made the OP is, in fact, Ross. Besides, I place little value on the advice from someone who isn't or doesn't plan on being a part of this community.
 
Didn't Ross cut himself off from the public a while back? I wasn't one of his followers so I don't know any details.  Maybe that explains his suggestion for capping membership.
 
@"Oak Fig"#32 . I actually didn't know you were a member on this forum. Of course I am so happy to see you here. So much of my home Orchard resembles your advice. I certainly hope you will not be a stranger here, because your opinion has such weight, and value to me. I hope I see you all the time. Let me like your post in person..... On the other hand I fervently hope that it was the real Ross.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top