Earlier this evening I was reviewing some old tapes of the 92 and 96 presidential debates. Three opposing views, all valid in their ideologies. This immediately brought to mine an idea. I know everybody has ideas, but I was thinking about strengthening the education levels of those who visit this post and keeping the commentary cival during the process. I realize that discussion boards are a great tool for the masses when a higher level of information can be absorbed from them. This brings me to my question for the three of you. "How each of you feel about some questions being posted here from an outside source that is totally non-partisan so to speak?" Let me elaborate here. Lets say we cover the topics one by one on each thread containing questions that pertain stricltly to How to manage, obtain, and keep good credit. These questions would range from your typical," how to remove items from my credit report?" to when should I take legal action and how?" Of course all posting here would be made aware that you are not attorneys and legal advice should be given from an competent attorney. Please understand my objective which is: Take all three opinions of the most active advice givers here on this board and create an even playing field for all to make an educated decision from. Of course we would have to pick a fair "moderator" of these discussions (unlike Dan Rather) and maybe the pbm would be interested in picking him/her. These questions would be displayed for you guys to answer only and not to debate on. Debating would occur on your own time in other threads. Please reply with your ideas, godaddyo ps: if I have left any other of the major contributors out please reply, it was unintentional
Godaddyo: Albeit I appreciate your sentiment and desire to learn, I donâ??t think Iâ??ll be a player for your concept. For one thing this style was tried and failed when I was on the AOL credit staff, and turned out to be very time consuming. Well, time Iâ??ve got while sitting at my PC completing CD patents â?? now that the board email feature is working cool as a jewel. Itâ??s just that I donâ??t wish to get lock into such a commitment as responding regularly, through an assigned (CreditNet) board space. The biggest problem we faced at AOL ("The Whiz" staff hated the one-sidedness) was the feature took up all our time. Folks will tend to post only in those areas and expect corresponding answers, more often than not licitly split. Juxtaposed is this style of board that allows others to respond more timely, if one of the assigned regulars isnâ??t available. Of course if Iâ??m misunderstanding your concept please let me know, Iâ??m always open to help others when I can. And I donâ??t mean to detract or criticize your concept either, not the way I understand it. Thereâ??s only so much a guy can do ya know, given limitations of our mortal lives. [;-)
For what it's worth, we think it's an excellent idea. Would it help to create a separate forum for this purpose? If so, we could limit general access to read-only while the moderators would have write access. This would allow moderators to set their own pace and give them the opportunity to develop their own questions. Perhaps this would address some of the concerns Credit Defense raises, and more specifically help alleviate the degree of commitment moderators may otherwise perceive with respect to having to post regularly. Regardless, we are available to assist you in any way we can. We would like to see Straight Talk grow in relevant and meaningful ways. Rather than have Creditnet define the context for you, we think it makes better sense for us to listen to your suggestions and provide the help needed to make it happen. We believe our visitors are much better qualified to determine what is important to them than we are. Sincerely, pbm
I, for one, get more out of an open board discussion than the type of setup where people can't ask for clarification on a response or perhaps ask a similiar question with a slight variation on the scenerio. CreditDefense has already mentioned how time consuming the proposed idea is. It would be really disappointing to lose his give and take on the boards as they are now. BBauer has a (secret) product he's selling, which is fine, but in case you haven't noticed he doesn't exactly give out "how to" information. LizardKing has no credebility with me after I've seen such rude and threatening posts and can't believe this board's admins would even consider inviting him to participate.
I will go along with whatever, be it moderated where a question is asked and each "expert" gives his opinion on the subject with no "He'll have spotted owls coming out of his ears pretty soon" type of comments allowed or whatever. I would want to reserve the right to refuse to answer(pass_ any given question as I see fit, be my grounds that I am not qualified to give an appropriate answer or whatever. Just tell me what the majority wants to do and I will probably go along with it.
The biggest problem we faced at AOL ("The Whiz" staff hated the one-sidedness) was the feature took up all our time. Folks will tend to post only in those areas and expect corresponding answers, more often than not licitly split. Juxtaposed is this style of board that allows others to respond more timely, if one of the assigned regulars isnâ??t available." Posted by Crdt Dfnse Crdt Dfnse I would definately not want to lock you down or obligate you in any way. If you didt respond. then you just didnt respond. There would be no penatly for not responding. We are all busy people and I realize this. I was thinking that you would only answer a small amount of questions posted by on person (or a few chosen moderators) on a weekly or bi monthly basis. These would be to the point questions and they would also allow you to form templates for any questions that you may want to answer again in the future. I think this might be a time saver for some of you and there would be no questions from the others posting here on these threads. THis would be closed sessions with an educational purpose only. No questions would be so time consuming they would take up all of your time. In fact a smaller amount of time would be spent answering the same questions over and over. People could refer to these threads throught the "Search" feature provided on this board. This would eliminate a lot of time being wasted. I am not trying to take away the valuable one on one time that you spend posting for one person. I am try to spread your advice out to every one who wants it, while allowing you to pass on any question you may have already answered or maybe it is a question you just wouldnt want to answer. You would be a decision maker in the "rules" in order to help yourself and others save time.I understand if this is not an option, but think it over, you have the ability to create the rules. Sincerely Godaddyo
I will always try to answer all posts that I can or feel that I can contribute something worth while to.
Creating A Reference Board PBM: Foremost I donâ??t wish to come off telling you good folks how to run your board nor like a programming maven, but I do have a degree of experience with such matters (please consider that). Just because something didnâ??t work for AOL (pre-Time/Warner days) doesnâ??t equate to failure here, considering AOLâ??s traffic volume. Nonetheless, having a better grasp on the subject matter (thanks to Daddy-O)â?¦ A separate forum segment would be the ticket, one that could be segregated by categories (much like our posts now): collections, settlements, deficiencies, recovery suits, etc. The benefit of having these would eliminate the need to address repetitive questions, acting as a reference point to which members could be referred. For example, if one posed a question regarding some aspect of FIELD CHASES (on the regular board) the member could be referred (perhaps through hyperlink within a regular board post) to the â??Reference Boardâ? (for lack of a better term) where more info on the subject can be found. Topics within the special forum segment should be prearranged, and set alphabetically for coherence. Using this method, eventually what would develop is a comprehensive library of subject matter. One benefit for CreditNet is that material within could be posted to the web (SE submissions), thereby creating doorway pages to the site; hence increasing traffic through utilizing relative content. Please understand Iâ??m not afraid of commitment (believe me, Iâ??m committed to allot these days), only that such can be fulfilled. So if the plan can be arranged as youâ??ve indicated, then Iâ??m a player!
Re: Creating A Reference Board Anthony has the right idea there.. I completely agree with that. You should definitely split up the forums in a way where the topics will be different so that people interested in a certain topic will tend to post more there. For example, have a Bankruptcy, Building Credit, Fighting CRA's, Fighting Creditors/CA's, etc. even having an Off Topic forum would allow people a break as well.. I frequent Anandtech quite often.. their forums are very successful. www.anandtech.com. Anyhow, just my suggestion..
Re: Creating A Reference Board [other posts deleted to stay on topic] There's certainly no harm in trying. Setting up the forum is no problem. The single biggest challenge from our point of view is determining who these moderators would be. Ideally, the group would be approved through general concensus by a member majority. However, given the "differences" between some of the members we fear this may prove an effort in vain. Perhaps we should begin with settling on a name for the forum and hash out a list of categories to create under that forum. As suggested by Credit Defense here is a preliminary category list: - collections - settlements - deficiencies - recovery suits If you have any suggestions for expanding on that list, please post your suggestions here. Also, a short time ago we entertained the notion of creating a separate forum dedicated to sample letters. Because letters are regularly contributed to the board, but are difficult to find subsequently, we thought a dedicated forum would help. Would sample letters fit into your concept for the forum you propose? Thanks. pbm
Re: Creating A Reference Board Its seems to cover every aspect of the majority of questions. Including the sample letters would save time also. Anyone else have ideas?
Re: Creating A Reference Board No. I would vote against that because of the simple fact that this single issue has probably generated more "hate and discontent" than just about any other issue on this forum. Leave sample letters for the open forum where it is now.
Categories All: To elaborate on the above, as suggestions only, I agree that a category for letters should be seriously considered. But one that addresses more than just letters, per se, but all written correspondence. Something on the lines of a â??DOCUMENTATIONâ? (or â??CORRESPONDENCEâ?) subsection where validation, C&D, violation (notices), and formal demands could be placed. Additional sections could be; negotiating, delinquency, payment methods, original creditors and improving credit just to name a few more. I would further recommend, that the number of overall categories be limited to no more than 15, for easier navigation and less potential user confusion.
Re: Categories When one attempts to cover too many topics, the results usually ends in total chaos and little actual results of any value. While computers might easily handle volumous amounts of information, we poor humans reach information overload much sooner. Let's keep it as simple as possible and not try to be all things to all people.
Re: Categories All: Yes I partially agree with the above-statement, in that keeping the categories limited to no more than 15 should alleviate similar concerns. Nonetheless I doubt this undertaking is aimed to, â?be all things to all people.â?
Re: Categories It is all about simplifying the process and making it easier for everyone. Of course, this would eliminate the need for repeat posts if one could refer someone to an area that best meets their special needs. In the end, this would result in a quicker response time for the persons seeking advice and those giving it. To make the information accessable, yet easy for the end user and the moderators alike. No need to reinvent the wheel here, there are plenty of other sites that have this format.
Re: Categories Godaddyo: Granted, yet do we limit the categories and if so to what number: ten (10), fifteen (15) or something in between? Also, what criteria will be used to select moderators (if any)? Frankly I believe once a number for the categories is agreed upon, we may want to start considering moderator selection criteria. Perhaps even that related to specific sub-boards, or allow each to contribute freely (the latter is my personal preference).
Re: Categories Anthony, Contributing freely seems to be the best answer. As long as people stick to topics. I think you may have the right idea.
Re: Categories One thing true about Bills' statement is their is no way that a board can be all things to all people. This sites "straight talk' section seems to focus on all of the subjects mentioned in this thread. I believe that straight talk is a good place for the posters to get familiar with what this sites objectives are. This could lead into the sub-categories that Crdt Dfnse has brought up. Perhaps the PBMs will ask for more input in the future.
