Ian
Administrator
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2011
- Messages
- 1,040
- Reaction score
- 1,168
- Hardiness Zone
- 9a
- Country
I am so close to disabling the ability to add animated gifs to the forum, as it seems to be the main topic of conversation on here, rather than ponds. I don't have a problem with a single, small animated gif in a signature - but some of the sigs on here are really distracting when reading threads. Likewise, the occasional gif in a thread can be funny, but it's just getting out of hand now. I don't want this forum to steer away from being a place people can come for pond advice, otherwise it will end up dying a slow death as new members won't want to post, as they won't get the in-jokes.
I've had two messages from new members in 2022, as they've left because their thread got derailed. I posted an announcement about this a couple of months ago, but things are still going way off topic in threads, meaning we have to skim over posts to find on-topic discussion.
Something that should have been the occasional bit of fun, has now become something divisive on here. I don't think I'm alone in being frustrated by it, but it's something that has been tolerated.
I am hoping this post will be taken as a friendly reminder that we need to tone it down significantly, otherwise the forum will just end up becoming a general chat/banter site that discourages new members.
I've had two messages from new members in 2022, as they've left because their thread got derailed. I posted an announcement about this a couple of months ago, but things are still going way off topic in threads, meaning we have to skim over posts to find on-topic discussion.
Something that should have been the occasional bit of fun, has now become something divisive on here. I don't think I'm alone in being frustrated by it, but it's something that has been tolerated.
I am hoping this post will be taken as a friendly reminder that we need to tone it down significantly, otherwise the forum will just end up becoming a general chat/banter site that discourages new members.