Modus.Ponens wrote:Mkoll wrote:
Modus.Ponens wrote:Besides, what's wrong with asking people who enter, and people who leave, what they expect and what they didn't like? We, the most active forum members, may be somewhat unsynchronised with what many people want. If what they want doesn't go against the forum's principles, what is wrong with that? I really can't see anything wrong with that. Can you explain me what would be wrong?
I don't see anything wrong with that. Neither do I see much point in it either. I mean, what do you expect will follow if the moderators and forum staff have some poll results? What could they do with those results? What would they use the information for? What would they change?
And I don't think this forum is here to cater to "what many people want". This forum isn't trying to sell a product. This forum is not competing in a marketplace and trying to be better than other forums. It's, as the top of the page says: "A Buddhist discussion forum on the Dhamma of the Theravada".
~~~
Granted, I'm not a particularly creative type of person so maybe I'm missing something. If that's the case, please enlighten me.
If you do a tracking of you personal spendings in a month you will discover that the thing you waste most money with is very often not what you think. This also happens with companies. It also happens with our time "spendings".
The point is precisely that we might be missing something important that we won't know because we are never tracking it. The forum is not here to cater to people. It is here to offer dhamma to people.
The problem I see with that analogy is that I have a good idea of what I waste the most time and money on. And even if I didn't, I'd have a list of definite possibilities as to what it could be. I'd also know in advance the step I could take to remedy the situation; namely, to spend my time and money more wisely and frugally. The same goes with companies.
It doesn't apply here because we're not working with anything so concrete. Also, I can't even begin to imagine what's wrong, let alone imagine what steps to take in the direction of a solution. Say the forum is missing "something". What could that something possibly be? And what would be done about it? So far, we've come up with one example: change the forum software. Can anyone else think of any other possibilities else beside that?
~~~
Again, I'm not averse to the whole idea of
someone else doing this. If some members and staff want to work together and create a poll to apply to people, go ahead.
It's worth mentioning that I've never had to take an entrance or exit poll on any online forum I've ever joined at least a few dozen.