Al Schoonmaker is being stubborn

[mindflayer]

He should post here like Sklansky posts in SP&R.

Get him to post HIS psychology questions to US. That way at least he would be interested in the topic, and be VERY likely to reply.

Heck, he can even come up with a "question of the day" Would you call your grandma out if you caught her cheating at cards with you.(no money involved) ?!? or would you let is slide.
Next day's question.. would you call her out if you were playing for $20??
Next days q... she is playing with 3 other old ladies.. and you are watching.
Next days q... she is playing with 3 other old ladies (her friends) and one of her friends cheats.

etc...

If he is not going to post at all, ask John Feeney if he would step in. (make sure that he has a minimum amount of posts/feedback in his contract)

[Al Schoonmaker]

Hi everybdoy,

When Matt made this post, I did not expect so many people to reply.

I used to be very active. In fact, without the Psychology Forum I would have run out of ideas for my Card Player column long ago. I do miss the discussions here, and I expect to become more active fairly soon.

I stopped posting for two major reasons.

1. I was buried in other commitments, including a 2+2 book, "World Class High Stakes and Shorthanded Limit Hold'em." Ray Zee and Dave Fromm wrote it, and I just edited it, but it took a lot of time. I also have a radio show that takes an excessive amount of time every week.

2. As a few of you pointed out, the forums have changed.
They have become so large that the sense of community has been reduced. I was much more comfortable in the "good old days."

I particularly dislike the changed tone. I have almost never posted on RGP because people there are really nasty, but I believe that the discussions here were once more helpful and supportive than they are now. I miss that sort of atmosphere and don't want to fight with anyone.

That said, I'm working with David Sklansky on an article that will probably appear in twoplustwo.com's eZine, and we expect it to arouse condiserable interest. Both of us will certainly get involved in the discussion about it.

See ya soon,

Al

[zuluking]

Welcome back Al.

[Praxising]

[ QUOTE ]
....I just read one thread where a poster had nothing better to do than offending someone that he should learn to write, because that someone forgot one "get" in his post. He wasn't even the OP or subject to critique or anything. I'm growing extremely tired of these kinds of post. Seriously.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember that post, as soon as I saw it I used the button that sends a link to it to a moderator. Forums are what we make them. When you see something patently offensive with no purpose, report. It's a button at the bottom left on this forum.

Sometimes mods hesitate to take action unless the community lets them know they WANT some controls in place.

[Praxising]

[ QUOTE ]
I particularly dislike the changed tone. I have almost never posted on RGP because people there are really nasty, but I believe that the discussions here were once more helpful and supportive than they are now. I miss that sort of atmosphere and don't want to fight with anyone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not that good at poker. I can't do math. I'm only a so-so writer - but I know a lot about forums.

This is the last one we have hope for, most of them are just junk heaps for adolescent dick-waving and nastiness. But I promise you, this can change.

Being a moderator is a real skill - the best one I ever knew was in the Controverisal Topics area of an AOL religion forum. He was just excellent at maintaining a hold on the mayhem.

Please, please, before things get out of hand:

1. More mods. A good mod has to read every post in their area every day. So, more than one mod per forum area.

2. Mods should be objective about whatever is being discussed but firm without rancor about courtesy. Ad hom is not an argument, people are not topics.

3. Invite people to complain about the forum in a special area so they can blow off steam.

This is a really great forum, but it will deteriorate. If your older (more time in grade not age) members are still actively posting, they make great mods. Thay can post and set a tone, be leaders (they already are) and haul back on the reins. If you don't want too many people to have access to banning and such, you can have grades of moderators and some not have those abilities.

On my now-defunct forum, the mods had a hidden thread where they could talk to one another - I assume you do, but if not, it really helps to discuss the mod issues.

There is a fine line between the Nazi approach to board control and the benign dictator approach. It takes a while to find balance, but it's worth it. Like I said, this is a great board. Rare to find this level of intelligence, wit, broad variety of backgrounds and all tied together by this common interest.

Also, one of the things that keeps the level of frustration down among the old heads, is to sticky even more informational threads on recurring topics. But also, mods have to remind old heads that it like a rerun you haven't seen: it's new to them.

Someone has done a great job here so far - please put the time (I know, more precious than a tell on an opponent) into planning for the future of your forum.

I apologize profusely if I am just telling you what you already know. Consider it my poor attempt to be as encouraging as possible.

-prax-

[johnnylovescandy]

[ QUOTE ]
He's standing here in my office telling me he lost interest in participating in this forum.

Should I screw with his royalty payments or should we just let him be?

[/ QUOTE ]

i think u should post nude images of him on the web...

[Ray Zee]

make him miserable as he made dave and i with all the work during the editing of the book.however we would like to thank him as he worked so hard on it.
al should post more and take the heat that goes with it as his posts are appreciated by all and we all learn something or get something new to consider which is very important.