[Forum ranks must go]

Hmm, I've always seen these "rank" things as little more that either (a) "not dead yet" or (b) "Hi, my name's Sigmund and I'm a serial poster." A good post is a good post, a bad one is a bad one, and I can't think there's anyone who seriously measures their self-worth based on their ranking on a bulletin board!

Mind you, in word, I am "Sir Sigmund of Leominster," an honor bestowed upon me by the Noble House of Leominster, an exclusive order that is only open to... well... anyone called Leominster. I don't expect folks to bow - but a quick tug of a forelock and a nod along with "God bless ye, sir" wouldn't go amiss.

[Off Topic Forum]

This is cool! The GD has become the OT, which is just one letter short of OTT - precisely the sort of manic posting that will go on here. Yay!!!

[Do you tweet?]

I tweet occasionally - so that's more a "chirp" or a "cheep."

@siggs

[Starting a thread that says hello might be a way to make some friends]

"Make friends?" Dear Lord, if I wanted to "make friends" I'd be somewhere other than the Forums :smileyvery-happy:

On the other hand, feel free to send me an in-world Friendship request because as far as I can recall, NO-ONE on these Forums has EVER done that - hence my skepticism about "making friends!":smileytongue:

[I Missed You All So Much!]

It hardly seems that much time has gone by - and in the grand scheme of things the absence of the Forums took place in a heartbeat. Still, I had time to finish a book, write a couple of articles, attend an SL fashion show, and get in a couple of extra trips to the comfy chair in my local Starbucks. Now the Forums are back up, I may find myself wasting a few hours on them!

[Second Life Forums Feedback]

The esthetics of the new forums doesn't worry me too much. Like most new things, it's just a case of getting used to them.

The two suggestions I have boil down to a strategic and a technical one.

(a) There's a need for some kind of "General Discussion" forum that allows for people to interact concerning things that don't fit into the pre-assigned categories. Chopping the world up into the 5 categories of Second Life, Content Creation, Technology, Commerce, and International is rather artificial and somewhat naive. Life, First or Second, is not compartmentalised and many topics of conversation just don't fit! So, I'm with the folks promoting the need for the "General Discussion" - which, frankly, is where interesting interactions can go on.

(b) Some sort of threading structure would make reading and following posts easier. I've changed to the "view latest post" option but am still having a hard time knowing who has said what in reply to whom! A conversation without the turn-taking marked by threading becomes a sequence of random comments, which might work for poetry but not for prose.

Otherwise it's nice to see the Forums back. I'll be commenting on next week's "MBC News." Why, I may even do another piece for the "Alphaville Herald"