[Bob Kuczewski]

Hello US Hawks Board,

Our Blog has turned out to be a great source of activity and a wealth of information. I'd like to propose an extension to the current Blog forum where we create special subforums that are moderated by the blogger. This would allow them to edit and arrange their information beyond the current 4 hour posting limit.

Here's the background:

We currently have a 4 hour limit on editing posts. This makes sense in a forum with back and forth discussions because we don't want people to go back and change things which would make the responses of others appear out of context or just plain wrong.

However, there may be cases where people want to continually update and revise information indefinitely. For example, if someone were to keep a log of accidents, they might want to continually update the introductory page with a summary. Also, someone who was organizing a collection of information over several topics/posts might want to re-arrange things from time to time. So there are lots of cases where the 4 hour limit doesn't fit the need.

The forum software allows me to give moderator privileges to people on a forum-by-forum basis (but not on a topic-by-topic basis). Moderator privileges allow people to edit any post - not just their own - within the forum where they have that privilege. But if someone has moderator privileges in a forum where they're the only poster, then that's not a problem.

So my suggestion is that we come up with a policy to set up subforums within the Blog forum that are dedicated to one person. That person would be given moderator privileges so they could change things whenever they wanted. I would also suggest that any such forum carry a notice that it is being moderated by the person with that privilege so it's known to everyone that that person has the right to change whatever they wanted in that forum.

Now this does require work for me because I would have to set up each such sub-forum myself (regular users can start new topics, but not new subforums). So we don't want lots and lots of requests for this. So I'm thinking we could come up with some kind of criteria (maybe number of posts or number of years on the forum) to reward those who have been consistent long time contributors.

I also suggest that we discuss this here in the public section of the Board forum so everyone can join in. If any Board members would like a private discussion, please post that request here and we can move it into the private section for further discussion.

Thanks, and input from everyone (Board member or not) is welcomed.

[Rick Masters]

Good idea. Gossip works fine on the forum.
But for serious subjects, the forum has always been crippled by out-of-date information except for the most recent post.
A running, updated numbered list of anything has never been possible.
So has been any kind of daily work on any subject like a manual or other work-in-progress.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Good idea.

How would you like to be our first test of the new idea? If you'd like to help, please post a name for your blog, and I can set up a trial version. That might help the Board to see how it works in practice. If the idea isn't approved, I can move all of the topics you create back into the general Blog forum, so you wouldn't lose anything either way. I could also move some of your current Blog topics in there if you'd like. That would allow you to go back and modify them to perfection.

Here are some candidate names:

   - Rick's Corner
   - Comet Clones
   - Superiority of Hang Gliding

It will effectively be your area to edit, arrange, re-arrange, and organize any way you like. You'll be responsible for the content, and you can delete (or even edit) anyone's posts that you don't like. It will be pretty much like the Chapter forums (which follow similar guidelines) except that you can do it yourself.

Would you like to help by being the first to launch a Personal Blog Forum on the US Hawks?    ( "Yes" would be a good answer )

[Bob Kuczewski]

I couldn't wait for Rick's reply, so I gave him a phone call and Rick agreed to be the "test pilot" for the new Blog Subforum idea.



So with Rick's permission, I've created a subforum in the Blog section named "Rick Masters". I like the idea of having these subforums named after the person with moderator control of that forum, and I would suggest that we require these Blog Subforums to include the moderator's name in some form so everyone knows who's in charge there.

I also think they should be reserved for people who've made an extraordinary contribution to the US Hawks or to hang gliding in general. Rick certainly fits that criteria with over 2,500 US Hawks posts and a long history in the sport.

For the record, I set up his Blog Subforum tonight and titled it simply "Rick Masters". I put up a few posts to test it out (topics like "Test" and "Test2"), and then I turned it over to Rick.

Some of you will be happy to know that Rick's first action as a moderator was to . . . . . delete all of my posts!!