Suggestions

[John H White]

Hello Mark,
How about allowing us to add a photo of ourselves to our profile and maybe a summary of our particular musical interests.

[JimL]

I wouldn't mind that.  I have a nice photo a friend of mine took with her cell-phone and emailed it to me sitting on my desktop.

BTW, I'll be posting less frequently.  The new website is now covered by the internet restriction at my full-time job, so I can't access it from there.

[Mark Thomas]

Why not?

When we set up the Raff Forums there was a general feeling against Avatars, the little pictures displayed next to each poster's name in each post. They were felt to be distracting and juvenile. Personally, I'm still of that view as far as Avatars themselves are concerned, but I appreciate that's not what's being suggested by John & Jim. I'll have a delve into the software and see if a photo can be added to our profile.

[John H White]

It might interest you to know, Mark, that members of the Noteworthy Newsgroup for Noteworthy software users have a separate "Rogues' Gallery" of members' photos. Would it be possible to set up something like that for this forum, when time permits?
     

[Kevin Pearson]

Why not?

When we set up the Raff Forums there was a general feeling against Avatars, the little pictures displayed next to each poster's name in each post. They were felt to be distracting and juvenile.

Forgive me because I am new here but this seems a little condescending. I have been an adminstrator on message boards for a number of years. Avatars give visual interest to a board and also allow another member to quickly identify a poster without having to read their name every time. Most people are visual and I do find it much more efficient. Plus a selected avatar gives clues as to personality. Anyway, it upsets me when I see attitudes like this.

Kevin

[JimL]

I have no problem with photos of the members accompanying posts.  But little cartoon avatars, while providing some degree of clues into a personality, I believe actually promote distance rather than closeness among members.  I'm for a photo or nothing at all.

[Kevin Pearson]

I have no problem with photos of the members accompanying posts.  But little cartoon avatars, while providing some degree of clues into a personality, I believe actually promote distance rather than closeness among members.  I'm for a photo or nothing at all.

Well, what was in my mind, since this IS a classical music forum, would be to allow pics of yourself or your favorite composers. I would use one of Nielsen personally, and yes that does reflect my personality! It may not be as personal as a pic of myself but it would be preferred. I honestly cannot think how anyone can think having a pic that identifies you is juvenile. It's just beyond my comprehension. I guess I need more education or something!

Kevin

[Alan Howe]

I'm against anything which trivialises the forum, including Avatars - for me they are a complete waste of time. I'd prefer photos, but actually anything which makes a lot of extra work for Mark for very little extra gain seems to me far from worthwhile.

[Mark Thomas]

On the whole I'm agnostic (or perhaps indifferent would be a better word) on the issue. I have no great yen to display an avatar myself. I do think that they tend to "dumb down" at least the look if not the tone of a Forum. On the other hand I had never considered Kevin's point about visual identification and I can see that and also his point that my attitude might be construed as being patronising. Which it wasn't meant to be.

I guess it comes down to what they look like and we'd just have to wait and see - I certainly wouldn't want to get into laying down rules for the look of avatars! There aren't many of us, when all's said and done.

There's no work for me, by the way, Alan. Just a couple of clicks would enable avatars. And John, I'd much prefer to have avatars than set up a separate portraits page.

OK, let's have a  poll and I'll abide by the result after, say, a week. I'll post the poll in a moment...

[Paul Barasi]

I'm reluctant to suggest anything as this site is so wonderful. I have one idea - which might be difficult to do technically. Wouldn't it be great if there were a composers A-Z where we could look up any composer and access all the postings where they are mentioned (which would then of course track their new releases) as well as any including there any website link that is dedicated to or has very good stuff on that composer.  Of course, we can use the search but this - when we already know about a composer rather than when we want to find ones we don't know. Just a thought, possibly not one others would want anyway (could be a poll question!?) and probably a lot of bother to get done. 

[Mark Thomas]

Let me have a look at it Paul. I haven't had much time to develop the site since it was separated from the Raff site earlier this year but I do intend to add features to the bare discussion forum. Give me a couple of weeks, if you'd be so good.

[Paul Barasi]

Hi Mark, You are doing a superb job with this site and I'm really enjoying every visit.

[Kevin Pearson]

Hi Mark, You are doing a superb job with this site and I'm really enjoying every visit.

Me too! One of my favorite online experiences every day! I'm glad I found you guys! I have acquired some lovely pieces since joining that I never would have heard otherwise!

Kevin

[Paul Barasi]

I can't count the number of sites that should be much less known - Unsung deserves to be much better well known. Problem? Well maybe, especially for those who would wish they were here, if only they knew.  I wonder: what can we members can do about this?