Contributing to the Site

[Phantome]

Well, I just typed out a wonderfully well-thought-out post, and I pushed the wrong button and deleted it all. Let's see if I can reconstruct it...

I agree that it seems like people put too much emphasis on post count, which should be taken with a grain of salt. I do feel there is a place for both F&G and BDSM-related threads here. The F&G section is very low-pressure, and is a great way for people to get to know members of the forum, plus it's nice to have a place with familiar faces where I can unwind if I choose, and not have to think too hard.

That said, I rarely visit the F&G section, but some of the times that I did, I have raised my eyebrows at the number of unfamiliar faces in the F&G section who have thousands of posts, because they rarely post in the rest of the forum. I have definitely wondered about how the other folks around here view the value of post counts. I have been here for years, but only have a few hundred posts. Does that make me less valuable as a friend or contributor? On the flip side, if someone has a very low thread count because they're new or just don't post in F&G, does that make their thoughts less worthy of consideration? Even though it's obvious (to me, at least) that some high thread counts are almost nothing but F&G, it seems as though that's a quickly forgotton fact.

I guess I'm just saying that I don't really pay much attention to post counts as a measure of someone's value to the forum. I pay more attention to the content which they post, and I occasionally take note of how long they've been a member. I think that if someone stumbles across this forum and finds a welcoming sense of community, then I'd say we have a pretty successful forum, and whether that happens in F&G, chat, or the rest of the forum, I don't think it matters.

There have been a lot of really excellent contributors who have gone away over the years... not with big dramatic "I'm leaving!" exits, but just fading away. I would be very interested in finding out why they left.

There was a time that I went away for many months. Whether I was missed or not (or even considered an "excellent contributor"), I don't know, but I'm back now. If you are interested in finding out why, PM me.

-Phan