Plans for the ATX Community

[easytax]

Really like the forum generally. Agree the political side could be saddening. I believe ALL sides have a right to an opinion without someone getting nasty --- although in todays society - it appears sometimes nasty takes over.

 

Your idea of having a truly "general" people section would be nice as it would make it easier to go through the "tax section" items easier if it were just tax things.

 

I haven't been on for a while but maybe also have a "joke" section too. I pirate some of the cartoons that have been posted to brighten days for others. Additionally found things such as the "carrot flute" intriguing.

 

You have done an EXCELLANT job, so I personally bow to your expertise and decisions here.

[SCL]

I've been away on vacation for a while, in a place with no cell phone service or internet connection.  Just a lake, kayaks, hammocks, and books. It's been a nice break.

KC and Judy and I had discussed closing down the politics forum some time ago.  Now it's gone (I'll delete the forum itself soon) but I'd like to replace it with something else eventually.

I thought it'd be more beneficial for this community to have a place to discuss more no-tax topics.  Right now, I think General Chat has a comfortable balance of Tax and Non-Tax related posts... but that balance is what keeps me from posting much, since I don't have anything tax related to contribute.  My feeling is that I would share more NT stuff if there were a dedicated forum for it and I think other people might too.

I'd like to shoot for an Off Topic forum that focuses on more personal/friendly threads.  Talk about your kids/grandkids.  Post photos.  Post articles / videos about subjects that you find interesting.  A recent example I really enjoyed was Catherine's post about Fibonacci numbers / the golden ratio. 

There are plenty of places to argue about politics.  We have a good community here and I would personally prefer to grow this community in a more positive way.  I'm really hoping that our members have more varied interests than just politics, and I'm hoping that people will share those interests here so that everyone can get to know each other beyond their political views.

I don't have a timeline for these changes.  There is a very big forum upgrade on the way--I've been doing beta testing on and off for the past few months, reporting bugs, and testing fixes.  The changes will be significant, and so I'd like to lump that upgrade with the forum changes and do it all at once.  There is no timeline for the release of the new version, but it's looking pretty polished at this point and I can't imagine that it'd be more than a few months away.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?

i am late to post on this thread...but up to date on current threads/posts.

general chat needs to be ONLY PROGRAM AND TAX QUESTIONS...no politics, NT, jokes, laugh of the day, or any other bs.

 

off topic could be any or all of the NON general chat topics.

 

i don't mind political discussion as long as the rules of engagement are understood...basically an open and two way street fight of argument (with gloves off).

 

otherwise, i have no problem if political posts are eliminated altogether.

[kcjenkins]

No "gloves off" here, on ANY forum, professional courtesy is expected here.   

 

And general consensus has been that  jokes, laugh of the day, etc, are welcome.  Easy for any 'grumpy cats' to simply skip.