And why does he...she...seem to be monopolizing the Progressives Only Forum by starting numerous threads that have only articles and/or links to articles but little discussion for the most part. Just curious because if I wanted only to read articles here, I could search them out for myself on news websites.

Thanks for posting this. I'd been wondering myself. If you start a dozen threads in one day and no one replies, you wouldn't just post another dozen the next day, would you? It has gotten to the point that I don't bother reading a thread started by the poster, just skip them all.

.......and posting articles that really should be posted in the general, Iraq, or other forums so that all can respond to them.

Yes, I rarely open one of these threads because there's hardly ever an explanation or discussion. Perhaps ugarit could elucidate his/her purpose or, if not, maybe he/she needs to consider starting his/her own news website rather than take up space on a message board.

Me too, Stinky. I shy away from posts that only have links and no commentary. But the topics have been pretty repetitive, and I just kind of think "oh--that again."

Maybe he/she thinks there's a contest for "who can post the most on a blog thread" or something?

Technically, Ugarit did not violate any rules of the forum. But I just went through the PO forum and that was ridiculous. I honestly had no idea how bad this had become.

I generally don't like doing this, but there was very little, if any, discussion going on within most of his threads. Also, most did not need to be in the PO forum. So, I just spent the last half hour doing some house-cleaning in th PO forum. I hope it makes for a better experience to those who post here.

Cheers,

-P

All I was hoping for was for increased discussions. It's not my fault that people don't want to discuss my postings, which I've always hoped would happen. My apologies for offending some of you.

So what offence has been committed? I don't get it. Is it that they should not be in the PO forum?

I think that it's just too overwhelming to see a lot of articles posted with no indication from you as to your reason for posting a particular piece, your own ideas or points of view, etc. I've seen very little discussion of these pieces, not even from you. Maybe if you gave us an idea of why you choose to post a particular article and lead off the discussion yourself?

I only post articles which I feel are insightful and are not going to be in the mainstream press. That's really one of my major motivations. I can't control the fact that people are not always discussing my pieces. I agree that I can start a discussion but thought that the postings would start one and then I can join in.

That being said I agree that it could be overwhelming to see many news postings.

I really appreciate and understand your desire to share information that might not be mainstream. All of us probably have sources of information we'd like to share with others, but with the plethora of articles available to all of us, it's really important to discriminate amongst them and not duplicate if we can help it. Quality, not quantity might be the ticket.

Ugarit, I have never once been offended by any of your posts. On the other hand, not many of your posts have drawn me it and made me want to answer.

It's great that you are finding subjects to discuss, but give us a clue what you want to talk about. For instance, cut and paste an essential paragraph and quote it in your post. Then tell us what your take is on it--even just a sentence or two.

Thank you for the suggestion. I'll try that.

Perhaps LindyLou is saying it much better than I can.

I agree with you, Ugarit. I see nothing wrong with posting an article to start discussions. And I noticed that whenever someone WOULD respond to the information there, you would jump right into the discussion with good debate. I'm not sure why the ESS message board should be micromanaged this way, however, it seems it was the quantity of these types of threads that made it an issue...? Though, I can't understand why it would be offensive to anyone...

Ugarit,

As I said in my initial post, you hadn't committed any explicit offense. In fact, you've been pretty good at limiting the quoted text to four paragraphs (the board rule).

I only removed the posts that I did because there wasn't any recent activity on them and they were cluttering the PO forum.

I'm glad you're taking the suggestions in this thread to heart. I have seen some of your responses, and I do think you have a lot to bring to the table. I think the threads you start would be better recieved if you did thusly in your initial post.

This is more of a stylistic suggestion, not a mandate, but I think Stinky nailed it when she said, "Quality over Quantity."

BTW, if there is anything in particular that I removed that you strongly want back, or want to re-attempt discussion on, let me know. I can resurrect these topics.

Thanks for understanding.

-P

It isn't micromanaging. There were over forty threads in the PO forum started by Ugarit (most on the first couple of pages) with less than one or two replies (most had none). If I hadn't known better, I would believe there was a spam problem.

I simply cleaned up the forum to give other people's topics, that garnered more interest anyways, a better chance at being viewed.

Regards,

-P

I totally agree with this. I bear no animosity to Ugarit, but the sheer volume of posts rebuffed me. I am more than willing to read future posts, assuming I have time. The time I have available for this message board is, alas, far too short.

No, I could only say it that way because you brought up the subject in the first place, Stinky, and made all the major points.

Ugarit, I look forward to hearing more from the real you.