6 replies to this topic

[Alexandra]

A few months ago we closed the company forums to new posts as part of a board reorganization. We did this for several reasons, chief among them wanting to encourage people to take part in general board discussions generally, but also because there had been a few problems in the larger company forums and we wanted to take a break, at least for awhile, and hope that these problems (primarily gossip, posting of backstage info, and food fights, not to put too fine a point on it ☺ ) would stop. We said we’d revisit the policy after a few months.

And we have. We’re very happy with the way the board has been going the past few months. But we know that several posters, at least, have been unhappy that the company forums were closed. We also think there’s an organizational reason to have forums for each company: it’s easier to find things if news, press releases, and chat about performances and dancers is in the same place.

We're currently in the process of re-activating the company forums and moving posts from other forums into these. We'd ask you not to start using them again until Thursday morning, because it will take that long to move recent posts, at least, into those forums. We had to change access permissions for each user group on each forum, and it is very possible that something wasn't done properly   So if you can't post, please let us know ASAP and I'll check the permissions for that forum.  (You can post a note on this thread. We'll keep checking.)

A few notes on company forums that I'd ask you to read. There have been very very VERY few problems in the smaller company forums (except that there aren’t very many posts in some of them!!!). The few problems we have had in the past in the high traffic forums have been partly because there’s just more traffic and partly because passions seem to run higher there    We’ve developed a few guidelines for the high traffic forums that we hope will help alleviate some of the problems we’ve had in the past and they will be posted in those forums.

We don’t mean to emphasize the problems. Most of Ballet Alert! posters are absolutely wonderful, rule-abiding citizens who love ballet and are only interested in sharing opinions about performances, learning about companies they don’t usually get to see, or history or the many other topics that are covered on this board. The few problems we do have are nearly all caused by someone who hasn’t read the rules, or who has forgotten them, or because of a misunderstanding.

So welcome back. One of the reasons we’d started the company forums in the first place was in the hopes that someone from Seattle or San Francisco or Kansas City – or London or Paris – would see that there was a special forum for his/her company and want to read and post about it. For those who do post in the lower traffic forums, PLEASE keep doing it – and encourage friends or subscriber-mates to join you.

And for everybody, please remember that the reason we put up this board nearly TEN YEARS AGO!!! was to have a place to discuss classical and neoclassical ballet. Please click the View New Posts link every day and read, and respond, to topics from all areas of the board – please don’t stay in your company forum, but get out there and mingle!!!

We hope this change will be completed by Thursday morning. We may not have all of the posts moved in by then, but we expect to have the forums open to new posts.

There will be a special post, made as a sticky, in the NYCB, ABT and Kirov Forums. We’d ask you to read that post before posting.

We are sure that everything will go well, but reserve the right to re-evaluate this decision.

Alexandra

[Alexandra]

The company forums should be back and operational.  Please post here if you have a problem.

I've moved all the posts out of Recent Performances into the appropriate company forum, leaving arrows on recent posts.  We're still going to keep that forum open. It was one of the first forums we had, and is the place to put things that don't fit anywhere else -- companies that don't have their own forum, occasional performances (like Vishneva's in New York this spring), multi-company shows (like NY's Fall for Dance) or anything you just can't find a good place for.

I also wanted to say that, as I was moving these posts, how impressed I was by the variety of posts and the quality of the comments. One of the reasons we'd wanted to go back to using Recent Performances as the primary place to put reviews is that we wanted to show the diversity of ballet in this world, and hope that people would venture out of the company forums to catch up on what was going on elsewhere. If you haven't done this, you're missing something.  I know, day by day, how much good stuff there is on this board, but seeing it all in one gulp was very impressive.  I look forward to much more!

Thanks to all of you for your patience.  I will be moving posts out of Dancers and News and any place else that's appropriate, but not tonight

[zerbinetta]

Thank you for this. I'm know many of us are delighted to welcome it back. I'm sure it's been a lot of work, arrowing & linking. It is appreciated.

Now I hate to mention this, but the Forum Rules link doesn't seem to be working, no matter where I try it.

It could just be me?

[Alexandra]

Thanks, Zerbinetta!  

And thank you for mentioning that the Rules link doesn't work.  It did for several of us yesterday when we were testing it.  As I write this, it isn't at the top of the forums, so someone is probably backstage fixing it.

[Helene]

My fault.  The links to the forum rules should be fixed now.

[sandik]

I'm glad to see this feature return -- I know that there were very legitimate reasons to switch, but this just seems like a much more intuitive structure for the board.

[Alexandra]

Thank you, Sandi.  I agree