Private message board blues

RUNNINGMANIA.COM







One of my homes for running and brand new too!  The forum there is made
up mostly from members who got ticked off at the Running Room forum's
heavy hand.  Someone mentioned a shoe in a review type post and RR
didn't carry that shoe so they deleted the post.







I helped administer the private board for ADDForums.com and I campaigned
strongly to involve ideas like the Creative Commons Licence to help
retain the best of the transient membership, but the owner didn't see
fit to let me do what I'd been given the position to do and now,
predictably the membership continues to cycle with a base of activity
from the odd brilliant volunteer, but mostly it's a lowest common
denominator situation.  I hate feeling like a fruit fly!







It's a common thing on private boards to flex muscle in order to keep
control of your client base, but I think they miss the point all
together.  The ground rules have changed.  The consumer is no longer at
the mercy of the corporate interest.  We have a voice again like we did
when the bazaar was a public forum for all to speak and be heard.  Live
journals or blogs are some of that but in the corporate world they are
slow to move.  Eric Raymond's "Cathedral and the Bazaar" is another good bit of insight into this type of thing.







Although the cluetrain manifesto isn't new, it's still able to make
some good points about some of the shifts that have taken place once
the Internet became common place to consumers.  Granted there will
always be people that need to colour between the lines, but there has
been a back log of energy stifled for about 200 years, some say, while
business controlled very tightly what we saw, when and where. 







The story of how the Internet got away on business and remains "wild"
is an interesting one.  It was a conscious choice of a couple of bright
lights.  Glyn Moody's "Rebel Code" catches the history that big
business won't be interested in being widely known.  The story is about
things like Linux, Richard Stallman and a host of characters that will go down in history as movers and shakers of our time. 







The social implications of empowering third world countries (and nobodies like me) like India
and China with GNU and Free Software is going to rock the current
positions of power in fascinating ways.  The American Government
continues to play hard ball to protect itself, but what it's not doing
is competing. 







Like the Running Room, they just don't get it.  People can talk to each
other again as if we were in the markets of old.  Want to buy a
camera?  Found one you like?  If you are like me, you'll likely check
out what other owners have to say about the product now and not be held
to sponsored magazine reviews or other even less obvious company hype. 
These are interesting times.





My good wife is home from a binge to Minneapolis with our eldest.  Apparently my gift is a little number from Victoria's Secret.  Gotta go.   >8o!...