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Is asking about dance classes really outside the scope


dbrok

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Respectfully, I'm not sure I agree Metro. The coffee house is very wide open for multiple topics and if there can be a thread about Pacman up here, why not dance classes?

I suspect Metro meant that no one on here would know.

Now, microbrews, or best bars, or lovely photos of DT, that we know.

[i don't know either; I instruct traditional dancing at public events and it's "drop in," but it's not a class]

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It's not a question of subject matter but rather a question of becoming the equivalent to the yellow pages. We don't want the site to become a place for business referrals. There is a line between discussing the state of a project including businesses and asking "where is a good place to purchase whatever". And even if someone wants to dress up in a pacman suit and run around downtown then its ok to discuss it on this site unless the purpose of the post is to support some commercial gain. It's the call of the staff of this site to decide when the line is crossed and I have called it this particular case. It's not open to debate as far as I am concerned.

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It's not a question of subject matter but rather a question of becoming the equivalent to the yellow pages. We don't want the site to become a place for business referrals. There is a line between discussing the state of a project including businesses and asking "where is a good place to purchase whatever". And even if someone wants to dress up in a pacman suit and run around downtown then its ok to discuss it on this site unless the purpose of the post is to support some commercial gain. It's the call of the staff of this site to decide when the line is crossed and I have called it this particular case. It's not open to debate as far as I am concerned.

Honestly, I still disagree. What's the difference between recommending dance studios and restaurants? They're still both places of business. I don't think it's going to turn UP into a yellow pages having threads like that. Take a look for instance the thread about jewelry stores or the one devoted to closed fast food restaurants. Personal recommendations for restaurants, jewelers, etc. are very powerful and often there is no good resource for them. A message board like this fills that void, though. I believe that having people simply post a business name, address, phone, etc. over and over for different businesses would a problem, but not when it's just personal recommendations. At the very least, why not move the thread into the watering hole instead of completely shutting it down? My thoughts, anyway.

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Your thoughts are appreciated. Of the other threads you mentioned, I have not seen them as I don't look at every thread in the GR section. However if I do run across one that I feel crosses the line I mentioned, I will close it too.

As soon as we start allowing threads where people give business referrals and recommendations, then we will start getting abuse from people looking to take advantage of the situation and we on the staff are left with cleaning up the mess. We do a lot of work behind the scenes to keep spammers and others who post here solely for personal gain, off of the site so others may use UrbanPlanet for bettering the community. As soon as I allow someone to recommend a business, then someone else will come and push the envelope further and then it gets out of control. It's unfortunate but we have to have rules like this to keep UrbanPlanet a viable urban discussion forum.

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Honestly, I still disagree. What's the difference between recommending dance studios and restaurants? They're still both places of business. I don't think it's going to turn UP into a yellow pages having threads like that. Take a look for instance the thread about jewelry stores or the one devoted to closed fast food restaurants. Personal recommendations for restaurants, jewelers, etc. are very powerful and often there is no good resource for them. A message board like this fills that void, though. I believe that having people simply post a business name, address, phone, etc. over and over for different businesses would a problem, but not when it's just personal recommendations. At the very least, why not move the thread into the watering hole instead of completely shutting it down? My thoughts, anyway.

What Dbrok said.

Someone asked was there a place to get ice cream DT; I provided a list. Does that constitute a referral? Or advertising? We've also discussed hot dog joints, coffee bars, bars, micro breweries, special events. One of the regulars is a DJ and he's mentioned forthcoming gigs. Several of us belong to the downtown Y (I know that their spinning classes are drop-in). Folks asked about bicycles, and I gave some advice, and in a follow-up I mentioned the name of a local bike shop!

Several of the posters on here are actively involved in construction, design, planning consultants, and so forth. Many's the time a reader knows exactly who the poster is and for which company s/he works. A lot of photos include shots of XYZ Builders logo out front of the silt fencing. In several threads, folks planning to relocate have asked for advice. We've offered info on everything from the best walking tour of Heritage Hill to "don't eat at that (ethnic) place near your new condo."

This seems like a double standard to me. I thought one of the purposes of this board was to help each other and help make [your city's name here] a nicer place.

I moderate several newsgroups, and as long as the kiddies play nice and don't call each other names, I let them go. Spammers get zapped immediately, and I sometimes drag things back on-topic. But I would never shut someone down who's requesting local information.

YMMV.

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Whilst I do understand where monsoon is coming from, having been admin on several large discussion boards in the past (which is actually a pretty demanding job, and I do thank monsoon for his efforts in doing his job), I also agree with dbrok and Veloise.

I think that rather than take out anything promotional, the core motivation should be looked at first. I understand that for an admin with all these forums it can be quite time-consuming, but that's what the local forum mods are here for. I don't think there's a single topic here GRDadOf3 hasn't seen (or posted in, for that matter =p)

If the motivation is to contribute to the culture or better of the city, especially in regards to the arts, I don't see why it shouldn't be allowed. If somebody's just trying to make a buck, then by all means go ahead and lock the thread.

I understand your deciscion is the ultimate say, I'm just sharing my 20% of a dime.

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...... Stop micromanaging.

It is responses such as this that we have to be rather careful with what we will allow on the forum.

While the vast majority of our forumers are respectful of others and are capiable of having a discussion as a group of adults, as we are on this subject, we also have a few forumers that get quite indignant and don't hesitate to accuse the staff here of various nasty things including micro-managing. The implication of that is I am playing god or something similar even after I took the time to explain in this thread several times why we have the position that we have on this forum.

As administrator of this site I am responsible for how all sections of UrbanPlanet operate and one of my roles is to insure that all of the sections of the site are operated in close to the same manner. Part of that is being involved in all of the sections as much as time allows.

Frankly we all get tired of being called by names by some people who come here and take advantage of the fact that we provide this forum free of charge to anyone who wants to particpate for the good of their community. It's the small minority that force us to create the various rules that we have in place that governs UrbanPlanet. If we were to allow business referrals then I can almost guarantee you that someone will show up, who doesn't like it and start accusing us of something else because we did so.

For those of you who actually did provide constructive advice on this matter I thank you for your time as we do take the time to consider feedback such as this. I can't promise that we will change our position on how we handle business referrals, it has made us more sensitive to this in the future.

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So, are the restaurant review thread, small restaurant thread, jewlrey store thread, outdoor seating restaurant review thread, good hot dog places thread, etc. etc. etc. being removed? Bummer if that is the case.

No. Thank you everyone for your input. Moving on.

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