Discussion board FAQ

[Despondence]

The forum on this site needs a FAQ. Who would undertake the task of compiling one? For conformity, it would be ideal if the administrator saw this need and attended to it, but in reality this might not be feasible. Alternatively, it could be hosted by someone else, and a sticky link to it posted on the forum.

Some obvious choices for thrashing out a FAQ bethween them would be Thilo, Stephen Crummy, Matt, Junkets, and of course anybody else who might be interested. What is your opinion of this?

[Saturn]

Whoah, that would be such a time consuming job.

Maybe our absent moderators could be persuaded to do it.
That is if they are still alive - I don't think we've heard from them for six months.

Maybe I should become a mod myself...

[Despondence]

Maybe our absent moderators could be persuaded to do it. That is if they are still alive - I don't think we've heard from them for six months.

I'm sort of beginning to wonder myself (for instance, there's that annoying sticky in the "Help" section which should have been unstuck long ago...). Anyhow, their involvement would be desirable but not required, we could do it ourselves (of course, if the moderators then don't like our initiative, they can pull the plug if and when they so choose, and our work would have been for nothing). But it needn't be so overwhelming a task as you imagine. I think there are two classes of information that is useful to write down in a FAQ: 1) some general guide lines of the forum, where to find information, recommendations before posting etc, and 2) answers to common questions. The first would be straightforward to write down, and not very lengthy. The second could of course be expanded forever, but I think it would be sufficient, and still helpful to the general public, to start out on a small scale, with just a few of the most recurring topics.

Failing any involvement from the moderators, I think you would be the ideal person to lead this work, and if we get started I'm sure some of the others will join in the effort. I'd be happy to pitch in too, but as you know my knowledge is very limited and oddly specialized..
What say you?

[Saturn]

Help, I'm scared.

Despite being a manic depressive and unemployed, I don't have that much time to surf on the 'net anymore - my time is very limited at the moment - too many distractions - i.e. real people for a change and not dusty old tomes.

If you had asked this question six months ago I'd have been really glad of it as I had nothing else to do but I'm treally trying to sort my life out a bit - a kind of "quarter-life" crisis thing going on at the moment.
I have read so very little in the last few months that all the stuff I used to know is slowly but surely slipping away - all the things I thought were important don't seem that important any more. Poetry doesn't hold as much solace for me anymore - maybe it's just because I don't have the time to read as much as before, but I find it difficult to get as excited about poems and literature in general as I used to so at present I'm not really the best person to ask to begin compiling facts and questions about Keats.

I wouldn't have a clue how to go about it either - I'm very far from being a computer wizard - in no way am I one of those computer nerds that spend hours online. I am still relatively inexperienced in the jargon and all the processes needed to carry out such a Herculean labour.

It was kind of you Despondence to suggest it though.

I wish there were some real Keatsian experts out there who could do such a thing.

Anyone got Andrew Motions' e-mail address??

I'm sure he must have been on here at least once, even if out curiosity.

I can't think of anyone better qualified to take on this task.

[Despondence]

Ok, relax, I'll give it a rest
Let me know if you change your mind. Maybe at some point I'll draft something and circulate it here for feedback.

[Saturn]

Sorry about that little self-pitying tirade - I've been through such a lot of shit in the past six months that I'm left really reeling and confudsed about a lot of things, among them the importance of literature in general and in my life in particular.

It will take a while to gain some kind of equilibrium so in the meantime, keep reading everyone - I'll try my best to do the same - poetry may still have something to say to me yet I hope.