Hi Martin,
Mmm... just because a post doesn't give some practical technical/pedagogical advice directly related to Moodle doesn't mean it's not useful.
I've always appreciated the Lounge (thanks for having created it) as a free space where we can never be off topic and can air our views on anything. I think it's extremely useful.
Cheers,
Glenys
Hi Visvanath,
You're right to pick me up! I meant any topic that's not technical or not covered in Using Moodle or other Moodle forums.
Cheers,
Glenys
Hi everyone - discussion duly split
For sure, I was just explaining the original reason about the scale and this course.
I don't facilitate these forums anymore
Actually the Lounge already has two moderators - users with the role of facilitator in the course - see http://moodle.org/user/index.php?contextid=55&roleid=3. I think they're doing a fine job.
There are two facilitators in the Lounge already (and I think I have worked out that if you look after a course you must be a facilitator and if you look after a forum inside a course you must be a moderator) - myself and Frances Bell. We tend to take a back seat unless there is obvious spam or a need for splitting discussions, as I don't think it's welcoming instantly to delete a post or reproach a user for not reading the instructions properly and asking something technical. You yourself make the point that This forum has been the connection between Moodle and the world around it. What kind of first contact would it be if we said "Go away - you're asking the wrong question in the wrong place?" I lack confidence hugely in the Real World and for sure I'd never darken the doors of such a Lounge again if my thoughtless oversight e got me reprimanded In the past I used to respond saying "you'll get better help in the Using Moodle forums" but following your comments Visvanath I don't even encourage them by replying now. But I don't feel happy about that. (Perhaps I should resign as facilitator
) I see this as a temporary issue actually, because I am bearing in mind that Helen says there will be a revamp of Moodle and of the forums this year. The Lounge will be included in the main forums then and it will be much easier to move posts. I would love to be able simply to move a technical post from the Lounge to its appropriate forum but I can't do it in the way that I can do over in the Using Moodle forums (and do on a regular basis) For that reason I am holding out just for now
EDIT: Just noticed Helen was posting the same time as me!
Hmm. I'd rather we focused on a bit more high level conversations. ie Don't sweat the small stuff.
Visvanath, in every online forum I am in there are occassional gusts of off topic behaviour, spamming, FUD, trolling and a steady low level "noise" and I just live with it. And do my best to not be a cause. Sometimes I succeed.
I vividly remember in the Clarion forums in the mid 1990's, in my first month as a member, an irritated guy threatening to set up his muscley servers to spam the list into submission if he didn't get his way.
And the political flame wars that simmer as people ask "is educational politics appropriate in a Physics teaching list?" in PHYS-L and PHYS-LNR. Both these lists have survived over a decade. I know where to find the delete button.
Things are quite nice most of the time here.
My 2c worth:
In my lighter moments I'd like to rate some posts as FUD, Cool, Me To, Just Chill, RTFM, Try Google, Waste of electrons, Very cool, +1, Spam, Tro-o-ll or Ha Ha.
Hi Derek,
I'd love to see those rating options on some public forums.
Hi Derek
The light touch, that is it!
And here is a fitting quote, from the Prologue to Alice:
Lay it where Childhoood's dreams are twined
In Memory's mystic band,
Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers
Pluck'd in a far-off land.