Trees And Things: Where Are We Now? (Trees And Things)

MayorBob: Re: Umm hello?

Sat, 9 Jun 2007 14:44:16 EST

Welcome. Yes, I've been here since the site started up. As you astutely point out we are a bit slow traffic-wise. We probably would have more users/accounts if plastic hadn't come back, but it did so there you go. One thing you won'

huxrules: Umm hello?

Sat, 9 Jun 2007 14:00:46 EST

Ok. First off I am a plastic lurker. Big time- I joined right after it started and I only have 30 karma over there. When plastic went out I tried to follow what was happening on IRC. But I never heard about this place till yesterday

humorlesscretin: Re: Get off your asses, people!

Fri, 8 Jun 2007 09:55:16 EST

Couple of concise paragraphs and a few links shouldn't take more than an hour or so (though, YMMV, obviously).

I'm an academic by training, it takes me longer than a couple paragraphs to order lunch. :P

1fastdog: Re: Get off your asses, people!

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 14:17:01 EST

why should I spend 10-20 hours slaving over a writeup

You shouldn't :-) That's way too much effort for a write-up. Couple of concise paragraphs and a few links shouldn't take more than an hour or so (though, YMMV, obviously). Seriously, we don't

MayorBob: Re: Update on the Plastic Thread Link I Posted

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 09:15:21 EST

And we did it without crapping all over ourselves, unlike some meta discussions occurring elsewhere.

thefadd: Re: Get off your asses, people!

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 03:44:31 EST

damn, you spend an assload more time on your write-ups than I do. but then my last 4 write-ups got 27 comments combined ;)

humorlesscretin: Re: Get off your asses, people!

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 01:57:42 EST

I hate to harsh your mellow, but I have a question: why should I spend 10-20 hours slaving over a writeup so 50 people can read it and maybe 10 can comment? I could get similar results from a blog... and I don't bother to blog.

thefadd: Re: Feaping-Creaturitis

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 01:24:30 EST

I agree 100% with your conclusion but I have to say:

Total, I think we spent an entire meeting or two on the new logo alone. Not that that time didn't need to be spent. But the new logo hasn't really done all that much to snare new users and get

tomc: Re: Update on the Plastic Thread Link I Posted

Thu, 7 Jun 2007 00:59:19 EST
Magic number 50!
My theory at the beginning of this thread was that if we got at least 50 posts on this story, TnT would survive.

joshv: Feaping-Creaturitis

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 23:59:37 EST
At least here we can not just discuss what we think is wrong with TNT, but also implement changes to fix those problems. Often, those changes have to be made by changing code. Joel Spolsky is right that the design decisions in software that

pO157: Re: Update on the Plastic Thread Link I Posted

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 19:47:13 EST
You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means.

thefadd: Re: How about a club?

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 18:30:59 EST
Since there's so much interest, I'm going to start a diary entry where we can discuss the details and organization of the collective submission writing.

Ozyman: Re: How about a club?

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 15:37:29 EST
I love the idea of a community that can help develop submissions together. Often I have some thoughts that I'd write up, but I know that I don't have the time to polish it up, or I have an idea of something I want to talk about, but no intro or concl

tomc: Re: Update on the Plastic Thread Link I Posted

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 15:21:27 EST
Inconceivable!

thefadd: Re: Gotta read slower

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 13:15:24 EST
Those (stories on food and booze) always do well.

slavdude: Update on the Plastic Thread Link I Posted

Wed, 6 Jun 2007 11:52:37 EST
Sadly, it too has degenerated into an AI shitfest. Sigh. Check it out if you can stomach it.

Lou: Re: How about a club?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 22:51:59 EST
I like the idea too...I'm in.

pO157: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:41:56 EST
Welcome!

1fastdog: Re: In hindsight

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:37:08 EST
With the 4th of July less than a month away, maybe it's time for a sub about competive eating?
That's actually a pretty good idea for a sub, steve. Seriously, get crack-a-lackin' on that and we'll get it posted.

Lou: Gotta read slower

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:35:38 EST
As I was reading your comment, I thought "mixed martial arts" was mixed martini arts. That got my attention...maybe we need more stories about booze?

1fastdog: Re: How about a club?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:33:06 EST
It's a good idea, prof. Someone could maybe even make an ongoing diary entry where people throw out a few ideas or even a couple of paragraphs that could be tweaked into a write-up. For example, maybe someone's got a good opening hook and a few nice links,

tomc: Re: Maybe Our User Base Has Grown Up

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 20:21:39 EST
There are no newbies because we've lost touch with newbies. We've lost touch with what they look for, how they act, and what they desire from an online discussion community.
They're a different generation.
They can't believe we watched

MayorBob: Re: How about a club?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 19:12:49 EST
MayorBob isn't even able to keep up at standard MayorBob pace. I'll probably be submitting no more than two or so subs a week for the foreseeable future. And, I'm not sure if it's all that good for the long-term health of the place that I ever

Steve Urkel: Re: In hindsight

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:26:49 EST
Ha ha hee!

dgraham: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:16:07 EST
This place looks awesome! I've gotten sick of Plastic and today saw a link to here! Huzzah! It would be nice, though, if NST (-3:30GMT) were a time zone option!
I look forward to reading more of this site.

thefadd: Re: In hindsight

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 18:05:33 EST
I agree. Our coverage of Wing Bowls I through XV has been abysmal.

Steve Urkel: In hindsight

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 17:53:43 EST
Given the explosion in popularity of mixed martial arts, or MMA, in the past few months, in hindsight I think if my MMA sub had been run TNT would have attracted hundreds, if not thousands of new members based on it alone.
With the 4th of July less than

thefadd: Re: How about a club?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:45:55 EST
Something like this was organized on plastic once but I think we all promptly submitted fewer stories collectively than we had even individually before. Not saying it isn't worth another shot but I think an even better idea -- maybe even a subset of the id

port1080: Re: How about a club?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:30:50 EST
I think that's a great idea...sign me up!

profwhat: How about a club?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 16:28:11 EST
So please, please, please, for the sake of preserving this continuing experiment in transparent discussion, contribute some fucking write-ups, people!
The reason I don't contribute more writeups is because I am alternately busy and lazy. Wh

thefadd: Maybe Our User Base Has Grown Up

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 15:35:20 EST
I have been terribly busy over the past year or so, so I haven't been able to participate here or at Plastic as much as I would have liked.
Probably the most intangible facet to understanding the dynamic that makes up both the TnT community, t

profwhat: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 13:08:38 EST
Thanks for the link to that Plastic meta-thread. Reading it, I get the notion that large numbers of Plastic users are still under the impression that discussing Plastic in a meta-thread can change it. It is particularly weird that so many peopl

slavdude: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 11:29:19 EST
I have been terribly busy over the past year or so, so I haven't been able to participate here or at Plastic as much as I would have liked. I enjoy both sites for the eclectic mix of stories that get posted (would that I had the time to read them all

snwodttam: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Tue, 5 Jun 2007 01:23:54 EST
During the Great Plastic Outage (tm) of 2006 I followed the creation of TnT closely. And when the site came up, I set it as my homepage (as Plastic had been before). And when Plastic came back online, I added it as a bookmark in my "Forums" fol

pO157: Re: Trees And Things

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 21:06:10 EST

Perl remains my least favorite language.
Oh my Gentle Jesus. Perl is all that is soulless and wrong. It is the Bill Lundberg of the computing world. Due to the nature of my employment I had to get trained on that lan

profwhat: Trees And Things

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 19:56:03 EST
My thoughts, in random order:

Holy crap, has my real life been busy the last 3 months.

Separate in your mind four distinct problems: few submissions; few posts; few moderations; few readers. Of thos

tomc: Mea culpa

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 18:11:38 EST
It was my AR to get the plan proposed by the eds to the board. That has yet to happen, let alone find someone to do the work involved in making it happen.

WMK: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:05:31 EST
I like TnT.
I like Plastic.
Neither one is entirely like 'golden age Plastic' was and I supposed that is really gone forever. The user base for each seems greatly diminished from the 'golden age' after several months of 'and now I go UNQU

pO157: Re: What's On My Mind

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 14:13:02 EST

Oh, one small point: where the sub says "post to the section only". I cannot find a way to get to the individual sections. Do they exist? At the moment, as I can see, it's Front Page or nothing. If they are there, please point them out so I fe

PhilWal: Re: What's On My Mind

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 13:27:59 EST
*For instance, I recall seeing several accounts voting for this story, some which I didn't recognize. Care to chime in? If you give feedback on why you're here, and what would make you stay, that would be grist for the mill for the editors.

pO157: Re: I used to lurk on plastic. . .

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:31:50 EST
Very Interesting. You know, I can completely understand just wanting to read and not comment or anything. I do that with a couple of forums myself. But the good thing about TnT is that even a lurker with an account can vote on the submissions and review co

shane: Re: stats page updated

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:22:04 EST
I just updated the stats page. This site gets a reasonable amount of traffic - 25,000 visits per month or so... the graphs seem to indicate a slight decline.. could be due to summer though.
I haven't had much online time for a while - but wh

housewife2000: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 11:18:23 EST
I was here at TnT's inception, then due to a crap-ton of family stuff had to disappear and be a mom for a while. I am back in a possition to spend a little more time here, to comment on stories, and, hopefully, to make some submissions.
I will be perfe

adept: I used to lurk on plastic. . .

Mon, 4 Jun 2007 10:00:40 EST
and now I lurk here. As an aside, I use stumbleupon and (finally) gave TnT the thumbs up. Only one other person had done so.

pO157: Re: What's On My Mind

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 22:54:55 EST

One advantage to this would be that it opens up a whole slew of older topics, not just the news du jour. Not that "headline" stories would have to stop- never, never, never- but it would give everyone a chance to mine something they've learned

pO157: Re: Maybe not a Plan B, but a Plan Z

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 22:48:01 EST
I'd buy that for a dollar!

MayorBob: Re: What's On My Mind

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 22:32:20 EST
The SNZ story is a TnT classic. From my standpoint, it was a well written, excellently researched, and copiously linked informative piece about something I knew nothing about. Really, I had never heard of the SNZs prior to your piece. Not

uncarved block: What's On My Mind

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 21:44:09 EST
While I've been a constant presence here, I've never felt that I've had a lot to do with the way the site developed over time. If any of the following comments strike anyone the wrong way, well, I'm not trying to step on any toes.
&

MayorBob: Re: Maybe not a Plan B, but a Plan Z

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 21:36:12 EST
If it's an Orgasmatron, that would be cool too.

pO157: Re: Maybe not a Plan B, but a Plan Z

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 20:42:40 EST
Is it a flying car?
If it is, just nod slowly.

3fingerspointback: Maybe not a Plan B, but a Plan Z

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 20:12:46 EST
After stepping away from the keyboard, I remembered that I actually do have an intriguing way that I can drive more traffic to this site. It's kind of a longshot doomsday device, but depending on what happens in the next couple of months, the stars m

tomc: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 20:01:42 EST
Well, we have a cool logo!
I've seen essentially all the sites I hang out at go through a drop in participation and an examination of what people can do to make things better, and hence attract more people.
Is a drop in participation endemic to the e

pO157: Re: TnT's Bond Rating: Hold

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 19:49:52 EST
Actually, knowing fark that is probably the perfect headline.
Great idea!

3fingerspointback: Re: TnT's Bond Rating: Hold

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 19:37:36 EST
Thank you for the suggestions, and I'm sorry we haven't taken any action yet on your Fark suggestion. I wanted to wait until the next Board Meeting to vote on it, but I didn't want to have that until I'd gotten something going on incorporation

3fingerspointback: I'm still a believer.

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 19:31:50 EST
I'm sorry I haven't been more forthcoming about our status lately. I didn't want to call a new Board Meeting until I had something to bring to the table in terms of incorporation. I was going to rouse myself to post a simple status update in th

1fastdog: Get off your asses, people!

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 19:07:54 EST
This is a great site that, aside from a few users, almost no one takes full advantage of.
Consider this my member-directed rant:
We've got a terrific forum here - it's transparent and mostly user-friendly. There's no anonymous idiots to snipe at u

MayorBob: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 18:35:44 EST
I've got to keep this short and sweet because I'm still not 100 percent. TnT is still here and producing quality discussion fodder. I appreciate the efforts of my fellow writers and, of course, port and fastdog who make sure the stories get run

keta: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 17:34:32 EST
Well, at treesandthings.com, of course.
Seriously, I'm a big fan of this site, and I'd love to see it grow. Solid writing and myriad perspectives are what keep me around, and I feel this site has that in spades. I also think there are lots a

skeptic: Re: Trees And Things: Where Are We Now?

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 14:17:43 EST
Even aside from plastic.com's lengthy period of unavailability, I had to abandon plastic because of the level of animosity I encountered. Treesandthings seems to be better designed, although I am well aware that if I am not careful I can still offend

pO157: TnT's Bond Rating: Hold

Sun, 3 Jun 2007 13:11:56 EST
I remain hopeful, yet skeptical -- the reasons for which I will enumerate below in as specific a manner as possible.
1) As Port1080 mentioned above, this is a quality discussion site. It really ties the whole internet together. The name even has panache