How are we doing? Suggestions here!

[stephanelli]

14 hours ago, geoxena said:

Hi Little Fang!  Have you heard from Endy?  First and foremost, I hope she's okay.  Second, what is happening with submissions to the Deck Library?  I submitted several back in the beginning of January and they're still just hanging there.

 

12 hours ago, Anabiyeni said:

I just submitted a few as well. It would be nice to have a way to make sure multiple people aren't submitting the same deck while we wait for approval. Most of my decks are not currently in the library.

 

Deck upload update:

I'm going to be going through the deck photos that are in the uploads area, it'll take me a little while to get through everything but I will get to them over the next week.

 

I haven't looked at all of them, but if you have some waiting there and fancy helping to speed up the process then if you could check that the info is in a similar format to the one shown at the end of this message (which has the example of the Spiritsong Tarot) then that would be super helpful.  You can copy and paste that and just fill in the details.

 

Once it's approved you'll be able to submit a review where you can go into as much or as little detail as you like about the deck.

 

It's okay if you don't know all the details.  In particular it'd be really helpful if you could include a purchase link (or if its out of print then please say so).

 

Template:

The Spiritsong Tarot

SKU - SST78

Weight - 0.63 lb(s)

ISBN - 978-1-57281-823-1

Size - Box Size 3.5" x 5.5"; Card Size 3" x 5"

Language - EN

Author - Paulina Cassidy

Purchase at: US Games |  Amazon

[Anabiyeni]

2 hours ago, stephanelli said:

I'm going to be going through the deck photos that are in the uploads area, it'll take me a little while to get through everything but I will get to them over the next week.

Thanks, stephanelli. When naming, I uploaded the Tarot of 78 Doors, but my naming convention is 78 Doors, Tarot of and it looks like to library places decks that start with Tarot in the Ts, where I would not normally look. Would it be possible to place the following at the top of the deck library page?

 

• Deck naming/listing conventions (for decks that start with numbers or words like Tarot or Oracle)
• A link to where/how to upload new decks, including a blank "info to include" template that we can copy/paste without hunting for it
• A link to what you are looking for in reviews for those of us who would like to write one, but are new to the site/process

I'm a data manager and have worked in data entry and archives, so clear expectations like this are important to me. If you think I could help with any of it, let me know.

 

[stephanelli]

26 minutes ago, Anabiyeni said:

Thanks, stephanelli. When naming, I uploaded the Tarot of 78 Doors, but my naming convention is 78 Doors, Tarot of and it looks like to library places decks that start with Tarot in the Ts, where I would not normally look. Would it be possible to place the following at the top of the deck library page?

 

• Deck naming/listing conventions (for decks that start with numbers or words like Tarot or Oracle)
• A link to where/how to upload new decks, including a blank "info to include" template that we can copy/paste without hunting for it
• A link to what you are looking for in reviews for those of us who would like to write one, but are new to the site/process

I'm a data manager and have worked in data entry and archives, so clear expectations like this are important to me. If you think I could help with any of it, let me know.

 

Hiya!

Thanks for your suggestions, I'm just doing this temporarily but I'll flag this up for discussion with the librarian and other staff members!

When I sort the uploads I'll be following the conventions our current librarian has in place, right now, but the deck library is certainly something we're going to be working on so we'll take your suggestions on board!

Thanks!

[vulprix]

Birthday thoughts:

 

Here’s the thing. Some folks are really active on the forum. Some are not as active.

 

Folks who are active are certain to receive more birthday wishes because

1. They will surely see it due to frequent visitation/posting

2. They have made an impression/had interactions with more readers here.

 

I think folks’ expectations for birthday wishes should be tempered accordingly. But since I am only myself, I have the following suggestion:

 

Maybe pin forum birthdays and the corresponding thread at the top of the home page. Then people are more encouraged to be generous and wish people a happy birthday. 
 

I haven’t had facebook going on a decade, but it certainly worked for them! Random happy birthday messages from little more than acquaintances all the time. Not sure if it’s still like that on that site.

 

Maybe putting a note for folks who may be sensitive that we always wish them a happy birthday is a good thing, too!

Edited March 12, 2021 by vulprix

[katrinka]

I voted to nuke the birthday stuff. 

Birthday threads can sometimes feel manipulative and kind of blackmail-y, almost like those "Copypaste this and DM it to ten of your friends if you love your kids" things that you see on facebook sometimes. I never comply with those things.

People can feel obligated to post in them, and if it's your own birthday, you're kind of obligated to thank everyone personally over a period of several days, no matter what else may be going on in your life (and maybe you didn't even WANT a birthday thread!) And the end result is these threads with no content except "Happy birthday", "Best wishes", "Thank you", etc.

Birthdays should be fun, but those threads can be drudgery. I know, it's easy to pop into a thread and post a gif or something and say "happy birthday", but we have a lot of members here and it's ALWAYS somebody's birthday. And if you're away for a day or two, or you get caught up in something else here, you might miss someone, and then they feel slighted. 

It's just not a good thing.

Edited March 12, 2021 by katrinka

[Raggydoll]

I also voted to remove it. I feel like we can congratulate our friends through PMs or text messages etc. I know that there have been several occasions when members have felt awkward or disappointed due to the birthday threads (or lack there of). I just don't think its worth it. 

[AlbaTross]

I guess I normally don't scroll that far down in the forum, as I didn't even know there was a birthday section.  So, I chose other.  

[Grandma]

I'd like to keep the calendar listings, but how can we do that without allowing threads, and I don't think threads are working.  But how else will we know our friends are having birthdays without the calendar?  Hmmm, a quandary.

 

Personally I LOVE my birthday and I want everyone to know it's my birthday and I don't mind if no one responds.  But there are times in my life when I would have been devastated to be ignored.  I don't want anyone else to have to experience that.  

 

My solution - I will just let it be known in the subscriber giveaway thread or another chat type thread that it is my birthday and that no one needs to feel obligated to respond!  I forgot to do that yesterday in the excitement.  I am glad to blow my own horn!  

 

So long story short - too late, Grandma, you already went long - I would like to see the Birthday Section eliminated, but with the calendar listings available there may still be an occasional thread started in a general chat section I guess.

 

And for the record - thank you @Rupicapra for starting mine this year!  Looks like I got in just under the wire!

Edited March 12, 2021 by Grandma

[Raggydoll]

9 minutes ago, Grandma said:

I'd like to keep the calendar listings, but how can we do that without allowing threads, and I don't think threads are working.  But how else will we know our friends are having birthdays without the calendar?  Hmmm, a quandary.

 

Personally I LOVE my birthday and I want everyone to know it's my birthday and I don't mind if no one responds.  But there are times in my life when I would have been devastated to be ignored.  I don't want anyone else to have to experience that.  

 

My solution - I will just let it be known in the subscriber giveaway thread or another chat type thread that it is my birthday and that no one needs to feel obligated to respond!  I forgot to do that yesterday in the excitement.  I am glad to blow my own horn!  

 

So long story short - too late, Grandma, you already went long - I would like to see the Birthday Section eliminated, but with the calendar listings available there may still be an occasional thread started in a general chat section I guess.

 

And for the record - thank you @Rupicapra for starting mine this year!  Looks like I got in just under the wire!

I do appreciate it when friends talk about their upcoming birthday because I am absolutely useless at remembering dates (I’m just as useless with remembering phone numbers, addresses etc). My mom often reminds me when a relatives birthday is coming up because she knows I get so bummed if I forget. 

[gregory]

1 hour ago, katrinka said:

I voted to nuke the birthday stuff. 

Birthday threads can sometimes feel manipulative and kind of blackmail-y, almost like those "Copypaste this and DM it to ten of your friends if you love your kids" things that you see on facebook sometimes. I never comply with those things.

People can feel obligated to post in them, and if it's your own birthday, you're kind of obligated to thank everyone personally over a period of several days, no matter what else may be going on in your life (and maybe you didn't even WANT a birthday thread!) And the end result is these threads with no content except "Happy birthday", "Best wishes", "Thank you", etc.

Birthdays should be fun, but those threads can be drudgery. I know, it's easy to pop into a thread and post a gif or something and say "happy birthday", but we have a lot of members here and it's ALWAYS somebody's birthday. And if you're away for a day or two, or you get caught up in something else here, you might miss someone, and then they feel slighted. 

It's just not a good thing.

 

I'm 100% with this. I don't know why we have birthdays in our profiles - I won't list mine.

 

1 hour ago, Grandma said:

I'd like to keep the calendar listings, but how can we do that without allowing threads, and I don't think threads are working.  But how else will we know our friends are having birthdays without the calendar?  Hmmm, a quandary.

Why do we need to know ? Seriously. We have IRL people to celebrate with, and if we WANT people here to know, we can use PMs.

 

1 hour ago, Grandma said:

Personally I LOVE my birthday and I want everyone to know it's my birthday and I don't mind if no one responds.  But there are times in my life when I would have been devastated to be ignored.  I don't want anyone else to have to experience that.  

That's how some people feel, with the threads existing. (And I have to say there was a post of yours here today, my love, that suggested you DID mind that more people hadn't responded.)

 

1 hour ago, Grandma said:

So long story short - too late, Grandma, you already went long - I would like to see the Birthday Section eliminated, but with the calendar listings available there may still be an occasional thread started in a general chat section I guess.

CALENDAR listings ? Eek, I had no idea.... Ugh.

 

For the record - there are over 3,700 members here. Imagine if we all have a thread. That in itself is reason enough for me to say - please no.

 

But - I remember a thread here where a member was terribly upset that no-one had started them a thread, and asked why they hadn't. Most of what it does is hurt people.

 

My reaction probably started all this. When I first joined here and our suggestions for the forum  were invited, I said can they PLEASE not be allowed. I hadn't changed  my view. They do more harm than good, in my view.

[katrinka]

4 hours ago, gregory said:

 

I'm 100% with this. I don't know why we have birthdays in our profiles - I won't list mine.

 

Why do we need to know ? Seriously. We have IRL people to celebrate with, and if we WANT people here to know, we can use PMs.

 

THIS. 
We don't even use our real names here. It makes no sense to list birthdays. 
Yes, you can make real friends at a place like this, but as already mentioned, there's PMs for this stuff.

I don't like putting personal information online for the world to see. Of course, it's not mandatory here, but it could potentially be asking for trouble. 
Suppose a member got sucked into emailing the wrong person? Their real name would probably be on the email. And their birthday could be listed here. 
From there, it's possible to get more information. There's websites that show peoples' addresses, for instance. It could get messy.

https://defendingdigital.com/dont-share-your-birth-date-online/

 

Quote

CALENDAR listings ? Eek, I had no idea.... Ugh.

 

It has no way of knowing your birthday if it's not listed on your profile, of course. But we don't need a calendar for anything but forum activities, and those are being kept track of in the threads. IMHO, the calendar ought to go, too. It's just taking up space.
 

Quote

For the record - there are over 3,700 members here. Imagine if we all have a thread. That in itself is reason enough for me to say - please no.

 

That's a full time job. I'd expect to be paid! 
 

Even with just the active members, it's a lot of threads. Too many.
Happy birthday to all past, present, and future members forever, in perpetuity. 
There, I'm done. 😁
 

Quote

My reaction probably started all this. When I first joined here and our suggestions for the forum  were invited, I said can they PLEASE not be allowed. I hadn't changed  my view. They do more harm than good, in my view.

 

They really do. 

Edited March 13, 2021 by katrinka

[fire cat pickles]

I agree with the birthday thing.  It could just as easily be celebrated as a generic  "Happy Birthday (fill in the blank zodiac sign thread)" each month if we wanted to go there.

 

And there are those who may feel left out if their birthdays aren't acknowledged.  The last thing we want is a cliquish atmosphere... forum killer.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

I have a personal grief driven reason for never ever celebrating my birthday again. I don't list it anywhere and if required I give a false one. 

As noted above, if you aren't willing to use your real name here, don't expect to get real feelings. My name is Sharyn and I don't care who knows it. I use my true full name all over the web. But not my birthday. 

 

as for stickys at the top of the forum, how many regulars come here via the forum home page? My entry point is posts since my last visit. 

[HOLMES]

Regarding birthdays

On atf, a friend or 2 might celebrate my birthday

If not i will make my own birthday thread and share how the day went.. 

A birthday section is good place to encourage others to make their own birthday post.

A person who likes to welcome others may post responses there easier if that is there thing.

I look as it as personal thing as not everyone likes their birthday celebrated.

Remember when atf used to send out birthday cards

One forum i belong to still sends out birthday auto email though havent been there in ages. 

 

[LogicalHue]

I'm not into birthdays even in real life. I didn't post my birthday on my profile for this reason. I know this isn't exactly the topic but I would personally prefer a section for age rather than birthday on profiles. Its frustrating to me that the way of sharing age is sharing your birthday.

[Page of Ghosts]

I voted for keeping the birthday section, but after reading the posts here about it and doing some thinking I am instead fine with getting rid of it. it has been a fun section in the past, particularly during the first 2 years of this forum when I was more active as one of the first few hundred members, but the forum has grown so much (3700+ people is a lot!) and it's probably for the better to leave it in the past for all the reasons people have listed so far. 

[Rupicapra]

I understand why people have different feelings about this.

especially in these times, where there is not a lot to celebrate, I find it is a nice little thing to send a bday message to show people are not forgotten, I think a wee bday message makes people feel happy and appreciated, On a big forum such as here as well as in real life.

 

however: as mentioned in previous threads, there are just so many people here. Some of them don’t share their date, which is fine. There are still plenty who do. Of those, some are not active. The problem is that It is too difficult to include everyone. It is not the mods job to do this. And if nobody takes it on to include everybody, people will feel excluded.

 

I support as mentioned before a monthly or zodiacal if you want, generic happy bday thread. If people wish, they can add themselves and celebrate together. That way we can get rid of the calendar. And keep the number of threads down. And include everybody.
I’d even volunteer to setup the monthly/zodiacal whatever if we decide to go ahead and give this a shot.

 

 

[DownUnderNZer]

 

Maybe once we have

selected an option on any Poll - that poll disappears afterwards.

 

 

[fire cat pickles]

15 minutes ago, DownUnderNZer said:

 

Maybe once we have

selected an option on any Poll - that poll disappears afterwards.

 

 

You can click on Home and see the results.

[gregory]

You know what ? AT used to send an autogenerated birthday card if your birthday was in your details. No work for mods, I assume - it just happened (like the AWFUL ones I get from websites that HAVE to have your birthday like - for god's sake one of my BANKS does it - UGH.)

 

Would that make people happier ? (I was horrified, mind, and took my birthday straight out again !)

[gregory]

1 hour ago, DownUnderNZer said:

Maybe once we have selected an option on any Poll - that poll disappears afterwards.

Why ? I'm not sure why you'd need this... Wouldn't you want to know how it's going ?

[Little Fang]

Please save discussion towards coming up with ideas that aren't getting rid of or keeping the section in the form it is now so it's easier for me to see them. 🙂

Only post if you selected OTHER 

[Saturn Celeste]

I suggest having a “celebration” page in our profile where people can write their congratulations to profiles, bypassing the forum altogether.  Make sure this page is implemented when someone joins because many people are not sure how to set up their profiles.  It would be nice if we can reply also so they receive the notice of our thank yous.

 

I do want to say 3700+ is not that large of a forum to be so overwhelmed.  A birthday greeting allows members to show their appreciation of someone else.  Their is warmth in a special greeting that allows others to take note of each other.  Since the threads are so problematic, make congratulations a permanent part of profiles.  Every good forum needs the ability for member recognition.  It would be a shame to see this totally removed from the forum.  
 

Heck, you could even make a birthday “rank” that gives birthday members a little crown icon for the day (or some other cute icon).    I know we get a cake in our profile but why not take an extra step.  This can all be set to automatic so mods are not involved.

 

 

Edited March 13, 2021 by Saturn Celeste

[Saturn Celeste]

7 hours ago, gregory said:

You know what ? AT used to send an autogenerated birthday card if your birthday was in your details. No work for mods, I assume 

 

An auto generated birthday email is a great thing to get people back to a forum if they have disappeared.  This forum does not send out monthly emails (which is a shame) because they can actually keep members informed and curious and stimulate them to return.  This forum does have an interest in obtaining funds but there is not really anything to keep people here after a few months.  I was gone a year and was surprised to see only 3700+ members.  So, I ask, what is the goal of TT&M, stay in a rut or expand your subscriptions?  It’s the homey, thoughtful things a forum can do to keep their members and possible subscribers.

Edited March 13, 2021 by Saturn Celeste

[Raggydoll]

7 minutes ago, Saturn Celeste said:

An auto generated birthday email is a great thing to get people back to a forum if they have disappeared.  This forum does not send out monthly emails (which is a shame) because they can actually keep members informed and curious and stimulate them to return.  This forum does have an interest in obtaining funds but there is not really anything to keep people here after a few months.  I was gone a year and was surprised to see only 3700+ members.  So, I ask, what is the goal of TT&M, stay in a rut or expand your subscriptions?  It’s the homey, thoughtful things a forum can do to keep their members and possible subscribers.

The goal is to cover our expenses, not to make a profit or to break records and compare ourselves to other forums. But the most important thing is (still) to provide a tarot home for everyone who wants to be part of the family. 2020 has been a year where most of us focused on trying to stay afloat. I am incredibly proud of my staff team for their work and I’m so grateful for all our forum friends. 
 

33 minutes ago, Saturn Celeste said:

I suggest having a “celebration” page in our profile where people can write their congratulations to profiles, bypassing the forum altogether.  Make sure this page is implemented when someone joins because many people are not sure how to set up their profiles.  It would be nice if we can reply also so they receive the notice of our thank yous.

You mean, a bit like Facebook and their member walls? 

33 minutes ago, Saturn Celeste said:

Every good forum needs the ability for member recognition.  

 

I agree. I think that’s sort of what we do just by communicating in threads; encouraging others, thanking them for their contributions, providing feedback etc. People often say that this is what makes forums different and more nourishing than commercial social media. I agree with that. But obviously not everyone will feel the same way.