Bruce,
First, I agree with you that there is no point in starting this program of
sellers sending out flyers with their shipments until the current situation
with the MOPO server is resolved and people can start getting and sending
messages on a regular basis as they have been for the past 11 years. This
current problem is recent to the last few weeks -- let's not act like it's
something that's been plaguing MOPO all along.
As to your other points:
> 1) The ratio of For Sale e-mails to "informative" e-mails has been
> steadily growing. It seems that several days sometime go by without
> an e-mail that contains substantive information about MOVIE POSTERS,
> and those new members you all seem to want so badly likely value
> those e-mails above all others (and also likely hate For Sale e-mails
> that are deceptive as to what is being offered).
All too true. This is the one flaw with a format I otherwise love... the
direct-to-your-mailbox format of MOPO. It means members get the ads along with
the other messages. The ads are not relegated to a ghetto which hardly anyone
reads, like they are on the bulletin boards. This does mean there is a lot of
traffic on MOPO that some people might not want to read, but that's why ads are
always supposed to be tagged FA or FS, so they can be easily identified and
passed over if one is not interested. As a seller who regulary sends FA
messages to this list, I don't understand your point here... are you saying
sellers shouldn't send through ads? Or that they shouldn't abuse the privilege?
I'm not sure what the solution is to what you're talking about -- except to
point out when a seller is abusing their posting priviliges. But when I've done
that I've caught quite a bit of flak from people.
> There are of course the regular blow-ups between (and among) the
> usual suspects, and many genteel people may not find these exchanges
> something they want to look at (even if only to delete them) and that
> too might be causing people to un-subscribe.
There is less of this sort of unpleasantness on MOPO than there is on the other
forums. Could we do better? I suppose... but human nature being what it is...
Still, MOPO has always been and remains far more "genteel" and civil overall
than those other forums as far as I've seen..
> 4) There are lots of "off-topic" discussions that might also turn off
> some people. It is one thing to mention famous actors who died
> recently, but going on and on about politics is unlikely (in my
> opinion) to win MoPo many new members.
Again, there is *far less* off-topic and political ranting on MOPO than there
are in the other movie poster forums. But on MOPO -- since you get ALL of the
messges sent to your inbox -- you see it all. On the bulletin boards you get to
pick and choose what you look at. If it doesn't look like a topic interests
you, you just don't click on it. One can do the same with the subject threads
of MOPO if they want, but people tend to read or at least glance at what comes
into their mailbox when on a bullet board they would never even bother to took
at some topics. it's just the functional difference between the two formats...
but I definitley do NOT want to see MOPO turned into a bulletin board.
> 5) There are lots and lots of "old-timers" who used to post a lot,
> but who now rarely post at all. Some who come to mind are Kirby,
> Freeman, Claude, etc. Maybe they feel that just about everything
> worth discussing has been hashed over before (and they may be right),
> but I for one greatly miss these former frequent posters, and I feel
> MoPo would be greatly improved by their return. Some people like Sean
> and David K used to post a lot with VERY informative long e-mails,
> and now they mostly just pop up to make a correction to what has been
> posted. I am glad for these posts, but miss their older, longer ones!
Ah yes, we all miss the good old days... of course, they could be the same
today if those people posted like the used to, or others started doing so in
their place. Nothing is stopping you or anyone else from posting long,
interesting discourses on movie poster. But as you say, it seems like a lot of
people have said all they have to say several times over the years. That's
inevitable, given how long MOPO has been around. A bunch of new members could
help liven things up.
It's true that the additon to several new forums has had a dilutive effect, but
that's life. I personally have no interest in the bulletin board format myself
-- I don't have time to go searching around among the various topics for
something I might want to read or respond to -- I much prefer having a forum's
messages come directly to my mailbox rather than me having to go look for them
and needing check back with the board every time someone posts a new response.
Too time-consuming for me... obviously some people like it, though.
> I would guarantee that if you all pitch in and work to make MoPo a
> more interesting place to be a member of, and if you all work to
> refrain from angry exchanges that accomplish nothing, you will soon
> have LOTS more members.
Naturally... who wouldn't want to see that happen? But, as you said, many of
the members seem talked out -- at least for now. So, again, I think that
bringing in some new people can only be a good thing.
> Finally, does anyone have a clue as to how many remaining MoPo
> members are NOT dealers? One easy way to find out would be for those
> who AREN'T to post one time stating that they aren't dealers (and
> perhaps suggest what would make them enjoy MoPo more). I have a
> feeling the number of non-dealer MoPo members is under 100, but that
> is a sheer guess.
It would be an interesting poll to take... but we'll have to wait until the
mechanical aspects of the list are working properly again. I doubt that the
percentage of non-sellers to sellers is as low a 1 out of 4, though...
-- JR
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