The Decline of the BT community (Page 8)

Haha, here in the whacko club we have spiffy name stickers and cookies at the end of the meetings, so it ain't all bad!

I agree, Ben.

Something else that I noticed is that Ron hasn't commented on this thread, unless I missed it, but he did PM me to clarify some comments I made about my use of the site with my Android phone, so I know he is reading it.  I suspect that he and the others who help run the site are getting a lot of great information from it, and we will see some of the ideas used to improve BT in future site upgrades.

I guess I'll add my thoughts.

I've been around for a bit over a year.

Before the site overhaul I would use the mobile site on my iPhone. Now I never do.

I never really understood the point of the mentor groups. The idea is to post questions and concerns to a group of people for feedback. Isn't that what TT is for? Many months ago I made an attempt at joining a mentor group. I asked around and only 1 mentor group person responded to my questions. The other mentors never did.   Since many of the mentors didn't answer me I never looked further into it as it seemed like there wasn't any point when the mentor wasn't available to answer questions. In reading this thread and hearing about it from others, it seems like people got into mentor groups early and never left thereby always making that mentor group full. As more people decided to host a mentor group, there were more mentor groups that would fill up. Now it seems like there are micro BT forums within a specific mentor group so whats the point of using the general site when everything is discussed via a mentor group...

Don't get me wrong. It doesn't bother me that there are mentor groups. I'm trying to explain my observations.

With regards to quality of TT - I have noticed a decline of interesting things to read on the forums. I used to be able to read a bunch of threads and learn alot from them. Lately its been very unhelpful and alot of go-between of 2 people. Which, at that point said people really just need to move to a PM and continue their own debate.

Maybe there are some bad apples, maybe people are just having a bad day so they vent a little. Its just the nature of the internet. If you post on a public forum then be prepared for feedback, even if its not feedback you want to hear. It would be nice if everyone could be a little more sensitive, understanding, and not provoke someone in a more confrontational way, but you know... if this was possible then we would have world peace. Seriously!

I agree with those that also think there are too many forum options. For example, I am currently interested in participating in a snowshoe race and I have some questions. There is a forum for ultra runners and cyclist, but nothing else - not even a swimming section. (I dont understand the logic of seperating out SBR forums into specific sections when they are relivent to Tri) I'm sure our BT member do a lot of other activities and it would be nice to have one forum  to address questions related to races not Tri specific.

I agree...I used to have so much more interaction with people, since the update, inspires are just too time consuming to do. :_(

I hope this is true. I look forward to the day when we say, "Oh, remember Facebook?" And everyone groans like when someone asks, "Remember disco?" What were we thinking???

As some others have said, I am involved in a mentor group, and I turn there for all of my questions. From time to time, I still peruse the titles in TT and in COJ. Sometimes I participate in a challenge.

Especially if your log is private....

I've been trying to get my thoughts together on how to answer this question, because I think BT still has a LOT of good things, but there has definitely been a decline that I've noticed over the past year or two.  

I have no comments about the mobile site as I don't use it - but it sounds like some improvements would do wonders to help the community.

Previously there have been mentions of too many forums - and this is something I would also agree with.  The site feels quite disjointed when trying to navigate from one place to another.  

For ME, I don't post in TT very much, mainly because I don't feel like I've got any business answering the questions as I'm by no means an expert on anything other than getting myself slowly to the finish line.  I also tend not to start new threads (especially lately) as I feel like I'm just going to get shot down or completely ignored.  I'm one of the people who will post in TAN and I belong to a mentor group which is where 90% of my posts will be.  The mentor group is invaluable as a place for ME to feel "safe" in asking a triathlon related question and not made to feel like an idiot, or wait to see just how far off on a random, sometimes nasty tangent my original post will go.  

I like BT and will stick around for the foreseeable future - I've been fortunate enough to meet some really great people (including my husband) through this website, and I will continue to support it.    

It's a sad commentary that much of the running theme of posts is feeling "safe" about posting.  Inherently a problem with the internet and the safety of anonymity provides people to say anything they want.  People will say things and act in ways they would NEVER do in a face to face environment.

I would have hoped that a slightly more mature/sophisticated group such as triathletes could overcome that, but apparently not the case as many of the posters are observing/mentioning.

I don't know about that.  I'd say just as many people get their feelings hurt waaaay too easily. 

This is painful.

Just more decay and decline.

Fred,

I want to make sure you're feeling the love after the decline thread.  It was a great thread that promoted a lot of interesting discussion, and I think a lot of  people are thinking about their behavior and how they can more positively contribute to the site.  I know I am.

There was no part of what you did in this thread that could be construed as "whining".  It does not surprise me to learn that you have read Carnegie or that you work in quality improvement at your hospital.  It takes good people to make change, and change requires more than just critique; it requires creative solutions and implementation.  Too often people can come up with the critique, but have trouble thinking of ways to solve problems and then implementing them.

I see you very much as a man who does all three.  It is probably one of the main reasons you are also such a good triathlete.

Thanks for what you did here.

teacher issue--gotta maintain some anonymity!