What do you think the forum can do to attract some quality teachers?

[GrandmasterP]

Most of those teachers who work online have their own websites though.

Can't see why they'd bother with TTB apart from free advertising via product placements disguised as posts.

I'd rather hoped that we'd moved on from that.

Edited April 10, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[Apech]

Going back and reading your posts in this thread.

 

These two seem to be the essence of what you are suggesting (both posts quoted in entirety):

 

 

 

p.s.

 

I am searching for this. I think that the basic interview idea is a good idea for quality contributions to TTBs and I'd agree that the idea of "interviews" has been way under-utilized. (Though we might differ as to details of implementation... and I've not thoroughly thought through all of that, but am reviewing your idea.)

 

... just found it:

What would YOU ask Bruce Frantzis? then

The Tao Bums Interview with Bruce Frantzis

also

What would YOU ask Chunyi Lin? then

Interview with Chunyi Lin of Spring Forest Qigong.

and

TaoBums Q&A with Kosta Danaos

Right now ... why weren't these pinned? Why haven't we repeated this with other teachers?????

 

They are teachers! The sky didn't fall on our heads did it?

Edited April 10, 2014 by Apech

[GrandmasterP]

Is there a link to where Kosta Danaos answered those questions please?

I can find the questions but not his answers.

[Trunk]

First of all, we seem to have some mis-understanding, mis-communication, different memories:
I've never objected to interviews. I think they are a good idea.

I've mentioned all of the following ideas...
within TTBs:
- signature links to any external sites
- embedded videos
- interviews (with ?s gathered from community)
- PPD's
- participation as a member

The structure of TTBs supports them with no changes.

Why haven't we repeated this with other teachers?????

Have at it. No one is stopping you, nor anyone else, from doing interview projects. No one has *ever* been stopping anyone from doing interview projects. It's totally available and totally under utilized. The natural filter (of choosing who is the worthy teacher) is the process of "gathering questions" and that is totally determined by membership (not mods). If some member has the energy to gather questions from the community and pose the questions to whomever they choose and posts the questions & answers ... that opportunity has *always* been there, totally under utilized. Go for it. Anyone can do it. Any time. No one is stopping you.

... why weren't these pinned?

No one ever suggested it.

They are teachers! The sky didn't fall on our heads did it?

As I've listed previously, I'm not opposed to everything with teachers. As I've stated ad nauseum, I'm only opposed to teachers (or *any* member) totally controlling on-going conversations (in google searchable areas). The interview nicely circumvents that, without incurring the risks. The interviewee can be a member, or not, read the resulting thread, or not - no limitations there.

Interviews are quite different than having a teacher's section identical to a PPD but google searchable.

[skydog]

Thank you Trunk your doing a great job of modding

[liminal_luke]

An idea....

 

What about a pinned thread of "teachers statements." Any teacher who cared to could make just one posting with whatever they wanted to tell people about their classes or programs. This thread would not be open to discussion about the system from anybody else, nor could a teacher make more than one posting in the pinned thread. It would simply inform bums about the teaching. A teacher would be defined as anyone who charges money for classes, workshops, or materials such as books.

 

Other than this one "teacher statement" thread, the teachers would have the same status as everyone else and anyone who wanted to comment on the teaching could in the regular forums where everyone has equal say, as always.

 

Might be an additional way of getting information out there in a way while preserving, to my mind, the generally egalitarian flavor of the board.

 

Liminal

[Trunk]

What about a pinned thread of "teachers statements." Any teacher who cared to could make just one posting ...

 

Two things we've run into with that idea (neither one insurmountable barriers, just 'problematic'):

1. TTBs staff (format from a management pt of view) doesn't 'see' teachers. It becomes problematic when staff choose "who is a worthy teacher". (With interviews, it's totally member driven.) So, we'd need a model in which anyone could make just 1 post (or some limited number, say '5' or something)... that becomes .. (wait for it...)

 

2. The Articles section!

The articles section was originally made with the idea that someone would be posting... "an article" and it wouldn't turn into a huge conversation, and that people wouldn't be posting a gazillion articles. That we'd have just a few quality posts: bing!, articles. However, technical restraints were never put in place to restrict 1. how long the conversations could be and 2. how many posts a person could make - so that section became a de facto discussion area and we had never surmounted the hurdles to re-organize it into an actual articles section. ... oh, and the 3rd hurdle: how to filter out what is worthy of being "an article" rather than just a "mediocre post"... but I think the solution became: limiting the number of posts / member would be the filter to that. If people only had 1 (or 3 or 5) articles, hopefully they'd have incentive to make 'em quality.

[skydog]

post was good at temeto

Edited April 11, 2014 by skydog

[zerostao]

why would it be a problem if an article led to a long discussion?

edit> why limit the amount of articles a person could contribute, as long as they met the article criteria?

Edited April 11, 2014 by zerostao

[BaguaKicksAss]

I think this is an awesome solution for many things people are talking about here; checkout the wonderful sub forums section of my PPF http://thetaobums.com/forum/246-baguakicksass/

 

I recommend some for articles, teaching, and etc.

 

If anyone would like some of their very own sub fora just PM me .

[Trunk]

why would it be a problem if an article led to a long discussion?

That's not so much of a problem, you're right.

 

 

why limit the amount of articles a person could contribute, as long as they met the article criteria?

Here's the rub: What "article criteria"?

 

That it be quality? ... Then who would decide whether it's quality? Staff? Nope, staff doesn't decide what is quality "true", what is worthy of being called "article". Length? Nope. Some of the best writings are very short.

 

*If* a person had just 1 or 2 articles to write, then:

1. They'd have incentive to make them *really* good. So, that would be a member-driven way to filter for quality.

2. There wouldn't be gillions of articles, that scroll off into never-land like in the general discussion section. You'd go in the articles section and there'd be just a few, really high quality, writings.

[zerostao]

i thought the article criteria was stated as it having to be an original work.

is the article section over loaded with articles now? there is a space limit in that section?

and if you are saying that staff isnt qualified to determine what 'quality' is,

then how could you say that what ended up in there was 'quality'?

 

i think ttb does not need to be in the quality assurance bizness concerning;

systems, teachers, or articles,

let the members use their own subjectivity.

who cares if there are a gazillion articles?

i dont get it? it is ludicris to think that someone could come up with one or two 'quality' articles but no more than that.

if it aint broke , dont fix it. is your goal to damn up the flow of conversation?

free flowing water is better than stagnant water is how i look at it.

 

here is the criteria but we have mal editing sean??

http://thetaobums.com/topic/406-articles-section/

 

but how did you even arrive here about tinkering with the article section. this thread is discussing if we want to try and attract teachers, i thought. i am not sure we do need to myself, but why the heck jump over to messing with the article section?

 

trunk, last year , when i had my contributed articles idea/thread,

you convinced me that we needed to just leave it as it was,

ok, we did that, so lets just leave it as it is, ok?

 

has there been a sudden rash of complaints about the articles section?

Edited April 11, 2014 by zerostao

[Trunk]

i thought the article criteria was stated as it having to be an original work.

Yup, that's the current criteria.

And, on that basis, it's basically functional as-is.

 

is the article section over loaded with articles now? there is a space limit in that section?

There is no space limit on that section (nor any section of TTBs).

 

I was just thinking of how I respond to it personally (as a member). When I think, "articles", I just tend to think of a few high quality things... my response (as a member) when I go there now (there's now 343 threads)... it's just so many, so over-whelming, that I end up not reading any of them and just go back to a more-active discussion area. If there were far fewer, (and additionally if there was some sort of member-driven filter to drive quality up, not necesarily saying that the ones that are in there now are low quality) I might be more inclined to read them. Personally I just don't, that's all. I kind of assumed that other people reacted similarly, I could be wrong. Certainly an arguement could be made that it's perfectly functional now, that simply the name of it "articles section" is incentive enough for members to write substantial first posts.

 

 

and if you are saying that staff isnt qualified to determine what 'quality' is,

then how could you say that what ended up in there was 'quality'?

I'm saying that it's not the role of staff to determine what is high quality, high level of truth, good writing style, etc in order to take staff actions on a post. As staff, only "is it relatively civil?" (not absolutely civil, just not a gruesome attack).

 

As a member, for my reading pleasure, of course I like to read high quality stuff (deep mature level of truths, good style) ... and that's based on my own personal preference. (Like with all members, I assume. We all choose for ourselves.)

 

i think ttb does not need to be in the quality assurance bizness concerning;

systems, teachers, or articles,

let the members use their own subjectivity.

I'm 100% with you on that part.

 

 

who cares if there are a gazillion articles?

i dont get it? it is ludicris to think that someone could come up with one or two 'quality' articles but no more than that.

if it aint broke , dont fix it. is your goal to damn up the flow of conversation?

 

The idea to limit the number of articles/member (not necesarily to 1 or 2, but say 6 maybe) was to:

1. drive up the level of quality, but not by staff evaluation, only by a technical constraint that would have the author choose "which are my best? I want to only post my best".

2. have fewer articles so that they are more likely to be read

3. incidentally, that would make it so that 1 or 2 or 3 members don't dominate the articles section, that everyone would get their chance to put in a few of their best, it'd spread it around.

 

If no one cares that there's a gazillion articles then it's a non-issue. Certainly a few very talented people can write many, many excellent articles. Maybe for the rest of us if we had to choose, "which are my best ... 3, 4, 6, 8?" then we'd have to really put forward some choice stuff. Some people with less talent write endlessly and it's all gibberish. Having a tech limit would be an incentive for each to choose their best. It's an interesting idea. Never implemented. I don't even know if we have the technical capability to make that happen. In any case, it was never implemented (and I don't even know if *possible* to implement), but those are just some of the ideas that were batted around. Once it was discussed and problems encountered, it wasn't high enough priority to continue on with.

 

As you've said, it could be considered fine as-is.

 

Do *you* go and read through all the past articles in the article section?

Does anyone? I don't know.

 

 

free flowing water is better than stagnant water is how i look at it.

Different 'shapes' allow different kinds of flow. Even calling it the "articles section" gives it some loose shape. In any case, the above was my thinking process on it.

[zerostao]

i had thought that after my school finishes up , and all the writing i am required to do here with that,

but when i finsih with this i have a few ideas for articles to post. i cant say whether they would be quality or not.

but i didnt want that to deter me from posting and see how it goes.

i do go there sometimes and find articles by harmonious emptiness, thelerner, deci belle, easterninternalarts, friend, 林愛偉,

grandmasterP, skydog, shenlung, apech, desert eagle, 宁, marblehead, that have been posted since my arrival here and thats almost going on 5 years, so considering that, i dont think its overloaded by a long shot.

i would actually like to see more articles by more members.

Edited April 11, 2014 by zerostao

[Trunk]

i would actually like to see more articles by more members.

Ditto that.

[RiverSnake]

To be honest. I think less is more. The main thing that I think was holding the forum back was the useless flame wars and passive aggresive attitudes that trolls would use to insult and bypass rules. Given there's a bit more "bite" behind the mod squad and admins.....I think things can only get better.....as long as it doesn't get too strict....like people getting suspended for having respectful but intense conversations and disagreeing with each other.

 

I think this ongoing year should be a time for evaluating these new methods and there effectiveness at maintaining respectful conversation while not stifling the friendly and creative atmosphere here at TTB.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited April 11, 2014 by OldChi

[Ya Mu]

I thought this was a good idea when it was contemplated to create "an optional "inner" forum where, in order to gain access, members have to use and validate their real full name by sending a pic of a valid photo id along with a self pic while holding up a sign saying "the tao bums".

 

Then people could actually be on a level playing field and get to know one another. Just like meeting in person.

[MooNiNite]

I thought this was a good idea when it was contemplated to create "an optional "inner" forum where, in order to gain access, members have to use and validate their real full name by sending a pic of a valid photo id along with a self pic while holding up a sign saying "the tao bums".

 

Then people could actually be on a level playing field and get to know one another. Just like meeting in person.

 

A lot of people would probably refrain from photos because of possible psychic implications.

Edited April 11, 2014 by MooNiNite

[Apech]

First of all, we seem to have some mis-understanding, mis-communication, different memories:

I've never objected to interviews. I think they are a good idea.

The structure of TTBs supports them with no changes.

Well, first of all, as you say if you support them ...well, support them then. When we have a thread asking 'what do you think the forum can do to attract some quality teachers?' ...I don't recall you responding with ...we will do some more interviews. You spent your time worrying about mandalas. However as usual you haven't really grasped the idea.

 

Have at it. No one is stopping you, nor anyone else, from doing interview projects. No one has *ever* been stopping anyone from doing interview projects. It's totally available and totally under utilized. The natural filter (of choosing who is the worthy teacher) is the process of "gathering questions" and that is totally determined by membership (not mods). If some member has the energy to gather questions from the community and pose the questions to whomever they choose and posts the questions & answers ... that opportunity has *always* been there, totally under utilized. Go for it. Anyone can do it. Any time. No one is stopping you.

 

.......................... ... having become by whatever process it was the 'Admin' of the board ... the sole person with complete oversight, power to make changes, power to ban on sight, power to lay down ground rules ... with that power comes responsibility. Responsibility for development for instance. You can't just passively say - well, if you want to do interviews go ahead ... if you think they are valuable and interesting and meet the need in some way of the board to engage in better conversation then you need to do something about it.

 

No one ever suggested it.

 

Not strictly true but anyway ... I have now ... so get on and do it. And while you're at it you will have to decide where to pin them ... so lets see maybe some kind of resource sub forum of Q and As.

 

As I've listed previously, I'm not opposed to everything with teachers. As I've stated ad nauseum, I'm only opposed to teachers (or *any* member) totally controlling on-going conversations (in google searchable areas). The interview nicely circumvents that, without incurring the risks. The interviewee can be a member, or not, read the resulting thread, or not - no limitations there.

 

Interviews are quite different than having a teacher's section identical to a PPD but google searchable.

 

Ok. Perhaps if you give this a little thought. What is the process by which we get to a Q and A? First an approach to a 'teacher' - or even possibly a person with expert knowledge of some kind who may or may not teach. Then ask the general members to generate questions. Then take those questions and edit them for repetition, relevance and remove the stupid questions. Put them in some kind of logical order and then send them to the teacher who fills out his/her reply. Post result. Then wouldn't it be nice if that teacher said they were quite happy to do a 'live' online session on the same basis? or perhaps appear in chat with a few members who are genuinely interested. And if that happened wouldn't we want to do exactly the same process ... out of courtesy to the 'teacher' if nothing else ... make sure it wasn't a flame war disaster ... wouldn't we wish to provide some strict modding for a set period and then lock the thread for posterity to sit alongside the Q and A's.

 

And don't you think having done this the quality of debate at TBs might lift up a little? And so ... maybe the teachers think well that was good ...I've got some new students, everyone's discussing my system and TheTaoBums is not such a bad place after all ... maybe even the place on the net for my kind of stuff and not the crazy free for all I used to think it was.

 

And all the while quite happily in General Discussion everyone is chuntering away with irreverency, freedom and non-alliance and yet no one gets hurt .... because what I have described above is happening in a separate sub forum called whatever you want to call it ... but probably not Teacher's Sub Forum cos that would be too scary.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Apech

[zerostao]

Thank you Trunk your doing a great job of modding

he may be doing that. i think he has handled the questions on this thread well. one thing thos, trunk is admin and not a mod.

trunk, you have a great mod team here, trust them! let em mod

i tried to present him with a couple of tough questions, and i am satisfied with his responses to me and maybe him and apech are getting closer to being on the same page? idk but i do share some of the concerns that apech has expressed here

especially the quick decisions to ban certain members without allowing the mods to do so , or choose not to do so.

because i feel that the mods , there are 3 or 4 of them, and it is telling that we are not even sure who they are exactly, becoz it is trunk front and center acting singly. here is what i am getting at. lets say we have 3 or 4 mods and a tech,and the stewards,, but that is 3-5 sets of eyes and ears that are actively following the threads here and have a great sense of the energy and the vibe going on. the stewards add to that. so i trust the decisions of the mod team and stewards, as i feel that there should be active conversation and cooperation between mods and stewards. but i trust several sets of eyes, ears,insights, and judgements over a single person's , no matter who that single person happens to be. i hope that makes sense? one person just cannot adequately keep up with all that is going on here and for one person to choose to ban a member without debate or cousel from the mods who are placed in this postion to do that very thing?? cmon man !?!

but i have gone off topic here, and i dont want to distract from the op

yamu probably missed my question as several posts followed and it got lost in the shuffle so again i would like to hear from yamu,

why he doesnt choose to take advantage of the ppf here, it did seem that brian attempted to answer on his behalf, maybe?

but all i got from thjat is becoz it isnt google searchable?

and that doesnt make sense to me, becoz why would someone post on this forum only if its in a google searchable area ?

if it is , like grandmasterP is suggesting , and most of the online teachers already have their own website locations that provide more frequent and direct communications between teacher and student,,then why are we even expending our time and energy here to discuss the op?

so, i would like to hear from a teacher that participates here on ttb why not use the ppf?

[Apech]

he may be doing that. i think he has handled the questions on this thread well. one thing thos, trunk is admin and not a mod.

trunk, you have a great mod team here, trust them! let em mod

i tried to present him with a couple of tough questions, and i am satisfied with his responses to me and maybe him and apech are getting closer to being on the same page? idk but i do share some of the concerns that apech has expressed here

especially the quick decisions to ban certain members without allowing the mods to do so , or choose not to do so.

because i feel that the mods , there are 3 or 4 of them, and it is telling that we are not even sure who they are exactly, becoz it is trunk front and center acting singly. here is what i am getting at. lets say we have 3 or 4 mods and a tech,and the stewards,, but that is 3-5 sets of eyes and ears that are actively following the threads here and have a great sense of the energy and the vibe going on. the stewards add to that. so i trust the decisions of the mod team and stewards, as i feel that there should be active conversation and cooperation between mods and stewards. but i trust several sets of eyes, ears,insights, and judgements over a single person's , no matter who that single person happens to be. i hope that makes sense? one person just cannot adequately keep up with all that is going on here and for one person to choose to ban a member without debate or cousel from the mods who are placed in this postion to do that very thing?? cmon man !?!

but i have gone off topic here, and i dont want to distract from the op

yamu probably missed my question as several posts followed and it got lost in the shuffle so again i would like to hear from yamu,

why he doesnt choose to take advantage of the ppf here, it did seem that brian attempted to answer on his behalf, maybe?

but all i got from thjat is becoz it isnt google searchable?

and that doesnt make sense to me, becoz why would someone post on this forum only if its in a google searchable area ?

if it is , like grandmasterP is suggesting , and most of the online teachers already have their own website locations that provide more frequent and direct communications between teacher and student,,then why are we even expending our time and energy here to discuss the op?

so, i would like to hear from a teacher that participates here on ttb why not use the ppf?

 

 

I don't know or care if I am on the same page as Trunk as we are only discussing one issue. The reality is exactly as you have stated ... and much better than me. There are mods who can and should mod, stewards who can and should steward, techies who tech ... there's the general membership who I guess would like to feel they are part of something too ... if this is a community then even if we have leaders they lead by consent ... TBs is moderated by the consent of the general membership ... so I would like to feel that care and consideration goes into the drastic act of banning someone and it is being done by those to whom we entrust this role. And they should follow an agreed procedure of discussing and coming to a consensus ... then even if we might not agree we will live with it because we kind of signed up t whole deal by joining.

 

As regards Admin. Well if the board needs oversight and some levels of technical permissions for certain things fine. But I mean ... imagine sitting in a cafeteria enjoying a skinny latté when the manager bursts in with a big stick and throws a few people out. Hardly conducive to free and frank debate is it?

[Brian]

if i had a teacher that posted in ppf, it would seem a huge benefit to me. the thread could stay right on topic without the detractors. lets say there are 50 members here that have bought either books, dvds, or attended seminars, but dont live close enuff to be able to see this teacher on a weekly or even monthly basis. having an active ppf, where the 50 could share their experiences of doing the practices and having the teacher providing relevant feedback, imo would be highly beneficial.

and it directly benefits the tao bum members, i dont really care so much about the occasional casual onlookers that are not members here, my loyalty and service has been to tao bums, that is why i didnt mind at all to donate my time and energy to mod here. i like that i gave back to a site that has benefitted me so much.

but if i was a casual non member perusing this site looking for a teacher. and i saw one that had an active ppf for the students he/she already had. that would probably look favorable to me.

does that sense?

edit> and zen bear does it on the open forum even, he has had his moments dealing with detractors now and then, but that bunch does keep on keepin on from what i've seen.

In a later post, you ask whether I am answering for Ya Mu as to why he doesn't use a PPF for his posts here. No -- I am DEFINTELY not answering for Ya Mu. It is possible there is some overlap in our thought processes here but that would be a matter of logic rather than coordination.

 

I see your point, zerostao. Yes, there is value in a teacher using a PPF to communicate with students and potential students but I suspect most teachers who would do so already have their own blog/website/private-forum/something. As a result, the impact this would have on retention would not be huge. On the other hand, people wondering "what's the 'qigong/neigong stuff' I've been hearing about?" and doing a Google search would not stumble across ANY of the content in PPFs. Period. They would have to find something outside the PPFs (and outside The Pit) which intrigued them, read enough on TTB to discover that "the good stuff" is behind lock-and-key, and decide to register before they could know what "the good stuff" might be.

 

I don't know about you but when I am doing web research on a topic and I find a potential source of content which requires registration, I almost invariably look elsewhere. If TTB were the only spot on the Internet with content vaguely similar, my opinion might be different but we don't have a monopoly...

 

As to the part about loyalty and service to TTB but not caring so much about "the occasional casual onlookers" -- I can only assume you haven't really given thought to how many people we are talking about here. The readership here is at least an order of magnitude greater than the active membership, and probably closer to two orders of magnitude. While moving "the good stuff" behind closed doors would encourage some of those non-members to register, this would only apply to non-members who know what "the good stuff" tastes like -- the persistent lurkers (of whom, in support of your position, there are MANY) who are here before such a transition occurs.

 

Then there are the passers-by... Two things to consider here -- entrance hurtle and revenue stream. Did you sign up as a member for TTB out of the blue before you read anything of value here or did you stumble across the forum and join later after reading for a while and deciding you liked the environment AND found value in the content? Personally, I lurked for a while and read prodigiously before deciding I wanted to post & subsequently registering as a member. If "the good stuff" was behind closed doors, I wouldn't have read it and probably wouldn't have joined. After I joined, I discovered the content I didn't have access to before -- the stuff individual members have in their own PPFs -- but that was not a factor in my decision to join.

 

So, finally, the TTB revenue stream. There are two I am aware of -- the contributions some members have chosen to make to the financial well-being of the institution (I am one of them) and the advertising revenue. Not sure about Sean's marketing approach but typically the price one is able to ask for a banner ad is driven primarily by unique visits to the site (not "hits" because marketers would rather their ads be seen by a million eyes once than by two eyes half a million times) and the advertisers decide whether to renew an ad based on click rates (if no one is clicking through to visit their site, it really doesn't matter how many visitors TTB gets). Advertising revenue, therefore, is driven almost entirely by the huge number of casual readers and passers-by rather than the relatively small number of loyal members. Cutting into this audience necessitates a substantially greater reliance on contributions from members. What percentage of our members do you think have contributed money? Do you think members would really rise to the occasion and put their money where their mouth is? The best predictor of the immediate future is the immediate past and that doesn't bode well for the financial status of the forum if it has to depend on member contributions rather than advertising.

 

Just my two cents.

 

[Ya Mu]

he may be doing that. i think he has handled the questions on this thread well. one thing thos, trunk is admin and not a mod.

trunk, you have a great mod team here, trust them! let em mod

i tried to present him with a couple of tough questions, and i am satisfied with his responses to me and maybe him and apech are getting closer to being on the same page? idk but i do share some of the concerns that apech has expressed here

especially the quick decisions to ban certain members without allowing the mods to do so , or choose not to do so.

because i feel that the mods , there are 3 or 4 of them, and it is telling that we are not even sure who they are exactly, becoz it is trunk front and center acting singly. here is what i am getting at. lets say we have 3 or 4 mods and a tech,and the stewards,, but that is 3-5 sets of eyes and ears that are actively following the threads here and have a great sense of the energy and the vibe going on. the stewards add to that. so i trust the decisions of the mod team and stewards, as i feel that there should be active conversation and cooperation between mods and stewards. but i trust several sets of eyes, ears,insights, and judgements over a single person's , no matter who that single person happens to be. i hope that makes sense? one person just cannot adequately keep up with all that is going on here and for one person to choose to ban a member without debate or cousel from the mods who are placed in this postion to do that very thing?? cmon man !?!

but i have gone off topic here, and i dont want to distract from the op

yamu probably missed my question as several posts followed and it got lost in the shuffle so again i would like to hear from yamu,

why he doesnt choose to take advantage of the ppf here, it did seem that brian attempted to answer on his behalf, maybe?

but all i got from thjat is becoz it isnt google searchable?

and that doesnt make sense to me, becoz why would someone post on this forum only if its in a google searchable area ?

if it is , like grandmasterP is suggesting , and most of the online teachers already have their own website locations that provide more frequent and direct communications between teacher and student,,then why are we even expending our time and energy here to discuss the op?

so, i would like to hear from a teacher that participates here on ttb why not use the ppf?

Hi ZT,

 

Good points in your post.

 

I do have a blog. You do have my permission, if you wish, to put the articles on my blog in a PPF.

I don't come here to do a PPF but to answer questions or address comments that come up on the general board and participate however I can to help with information based on experience. I doubt if the larger percentage of members read the PPF - I haven't but a very few times and I have been on this board for quite a while.

 

And occasionally - not often - I post a topic that I think will be interesting to the whole of the board.

 

In other words, my posting habits are just like hundreds of other members.

[zanshin]

An idea....

 

What about a pinned thread of "teachers statements." Any teacher who cared to could make just one posting with whatever they wanted to tell people about their classes or programs. This thread would not be open to discussion about the system from anybody else, nor could a teacher make more than one posting in the pinned thread. It would simply inform bums about the teaching. A teacher would be defined as anyone who charges money for classes, workshops, or materials such as books.

 

Other than this one "teacher statement" thread, the teachers would have the same status as everyone else and anyone who wanted to comment on the teaching could in the regular forums where everyone has equal say, as always.

 

Might be an additional way of getting information out there in a way while preserving, to my mind, the generally egalitarian flavor of the board.

 

Liminal

I tried pinning and asking for something similar for healers in Healing Circle and so far only Clarity posted.

Edited April 11, 2014 by zanshin

[Trunk]

... taking a while off for other things (work, life, exercise) ... I'll be back to catch up later

best to everyone, thank you for the airing of ideas and feelings

 

 

p.s. had to add this one

Even a cafeteria has rules... There's managerial intent at TTBs to leave room for what I've euphemistically called "lively" debate, kind of like we allow food fights but not fist fights. ... and, yes, it's a matter of opinion on which is which, case by case.