Eric Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 This poll is to determine whether we should separate the General Chat forum into two different forums, one for talking about taxes and business, and one for more general discussions (birthdays, political rants, jokes, etc) I created the poll as a result of this thread, so you may want to read it before voting: Also, if you're for having two separate forums, feel free to suggest names for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnH Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I don't really care either way, provided non-tax posts are labeled (Birthday, NT, joke, politial, etc). But I voted in favor of splitting simply for efficiency purposes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gail in Virginia Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I don't care a great deal either way myself, but I find it more efficient to skim through one forum than two. I also know that sometimes a thread that begins as a strictly tax discussion can evolve into a political discussion or wind up with mentions of non-tax items such as a welcome to a member not seen in a while and his/her response. This board is a great information resource for me, as well as sometimes being a stress reliever with the jokes and personal comments (and sometimes a stress builder with the political commentary). As long as there is no discussion of discontinuing the entire forum, I can live with any other changes. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I'm with Gail, especially her last sentence! I post on three or four different tax forums (this one being my favorite - shh! don't tell the others, they'll feel hurt), and have never had any trouble skipping the topics (tax and non-tax) that are not of interest to me. As long as things are labelled reasonably well, it's not a big deal to me. This forum has the wonderful position,-color,-and-icon coding showing one immediately which topics have new postings. Yes, the list gets long in the thick of tax season. But during the thick of things, there are very few non-tax posts - we're all too busy trying to keep from drowning in client paperwork! It's mainly in the off-season that non-tax topics sneak in. The one change I'd recommend is to remove the four-letter limitation on searches (maybe you've already done this, Eric - I haven't been searching in a while). Most of us put in states with the two-letter postal code, and if one needs help on a Pennsylvania form, one can't search on "PA" alone. I'd also like to "own up" here are possibly being the instigator of the birthday wishes. There were a number of birthday wishes that went by a couple years ago -- but no one posted on my birthday. And I pouted online. Shortly thereafter, taxbilly took on the task of greeting everyone on their birthday. But perhaps we can agree that everyone has been publicly wished a happy day at least once, and possibly that further birthday greetings be sent as private messages instead. Catherine I don't care a great deal either way myself, but I find it more efficient to skim through one forum than two. I also know that sometimes a thread that begins as a strictly tax discussion can evolve into a political discussion or wind up with mentions of non-tax items such as a welcome to a member not seen in a while and his/her response. This board is a great information resource for me, as well as sometimes being a stress reliever with the jokes and personal comments (and sometimes a stress builder with the political commentary). As long as there is no discussion of discontinuing the entire forum, I can live with any other changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MargaretMort Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I, too, have no objection to the present form. There are many subjects that don't apply to my particular tax practice, I check to see if there is anything pertinent, don't check on that one again if not. And, I agree that many times a subject comes up and the responses begin to get far away from the subject matter. I look into it if it is of interest, skip if not. Two forums? No, I don't think so. MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacun Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 Based on the votes, I believe we will end up with only one forum. Now we have to be religious on labeling our topics accordingly and when you want to say hi to a "coming back" member, please start a new topic and leave the tax subject to continue. Based on these voting results, I feel like they way it used to be with CDs... you bought a CD for some good songs but then you got some other songs that you didn't like. EXCEPT that this CD is free and I am very thankful to ERC, KC and those who administer it. How about donating our first tax return fee to this forum, after all, most of us (if not all of us) haven't donated lately? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 The one change I'd recommend is to remove the four-letter limitation on searches (maybe you've already done this, Eric - I haven't been searching in a while). Most of us put in states with the two-letter postal code, and if one needs help on a Pennsylvania form, one can't search on "PA" alone. Love the forum, but must admit I have a lot of trouble with searching. Don't think I'd split the forum. As Gail pointed out, it's easier to look at one forum, and tax topics frequently spin off into something else, and I personally enjoy that very much. Makes us seem like real people. Oh, wait, we ARE real people. Plus, I would be the one that got hammered for straying off topic... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I love this forum and will continue to love it no matter which way you decide to go. This is where my friends live and I would really rather not have to go searching for them. I voted NO, but will be happy and adjust to whatever is the outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 Be that way, Marilyn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BulldogTom Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 You may want to leave the poll open for a couple weeks so that all the seasonal members get a chance to see it. I vote no. The group is good about labeling the other stuff NT or Happy B-day. So long as jokes and b-days are not labled "Important IRS Notice", I am happy with the forum the way it is. Tom Lodi, CA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaB Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 So long as jokes and b-days are not labled "Important IRS Notice", I am happy with the forum the way it is. Yeah, cause we already know that "Important IRS Notices" ARE jokes... That would be redundant. Come on, don't waste our time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneInAlabama Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 >>But perhaps we can agree that everyone has been publicly wished a happy day at least once, and possibly that further birthday greetings be sent as private messages instead.<< I think Catherine has an EXCELLENT idea. The only thing I have a SLIGHT problem with is having a bunch of "Happy Birthdays" pop up every time I enter the forum, especially since we have quite a few members now. If each one could be wished a happy birthday once so everyone else would know it is their birthday and anyone that wanted to wish them a happy birthday could do it by private message, it would reduce a lot of the duplication. Thanks Catherine for an excellent idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILLMAS Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I have another idea for dealing with birthday, how about we send a PRIVATE MESSAGE to the person, therefore we won't clutter the forum, I've an been an active member for a while and most of the bday people are not active or haven't post in years. I always enjoy reading NT Jokes, Rants, client experience good or bad Marco Edit: Someone already posted the idea, how about we remove our DOB from our profile better, I don't need anyone knowing I am getting older every year, sad but true LOL. Also another good idea to remove inactive members and have them re-register. I love this forum, I started at the Tax Almanac forum and I have to admit it is the most unfriendly tax forum I have participated in, there is always an A-hole waiting to let you know to use the SEARCH function or that you have some misspellings. Here in the ATX forum people are friendly and always here to help. Thanks everyone and have a Happy New Years. Marco Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxxcpa Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 The only thing that needs to be separated is the numerous "Happy Birthday" messages. Other off-topic messages are often interesting and would be buried with the Birthday messages if only on-topic messages are allowed in one forum and all else goes into another forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bstaxes Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I like the one forum as long as everybody labels "birthdays" and "nt". It is easier to look in one place and skip what you don't want. If the majority wants 2 forums then that's what it will be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted December 31, 2010 Report Share Posted December 31, 2010 I'll take one forum. And, good labels for NT, Birthdays, etc. In fact, we could wish everyone celebrating on one day a Happy Birthday in ONE group post; that way there'd never be more than one Birthday post per day. I don't mind sharing my birthday with fellow tax preparers, but do enjoy receiving the greetings. Very easy to skip for those so inclined; wouldn't push other posts down the page. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted January 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 The one change I'd recommend is to remove the four-letter limitation on searches (maybe you've already done this, Eric - I haven't been searching in a while). Most of us put in states with the two-letter postal code, and if one needs help on a Pennsylvania form, one can't search on "PA" alone. Catherine Due to a technical limitation of the database used to store all threads/posts/information for the community, I can't modify the forum search to work on short strings like that. Technically, it is possible to change the mySQL database setting to allow it, but it would really hurt search performance, and tax the server. I have added a Google Search option at the top of the screen, which uses Google to search the site, instead of the internal forum search. No character limit is in place for the Google Search option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAXBILLY Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Thanx, eric, for the google search option. I tried it for several searches and it worked fine. taxbilly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eli Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 This poll is to determine whether we should separate the General Chat forum into two different forums, one for talking about taxes and business, and one for more general discussions (birthdays, political rants, jokes, etc) I created the poll as a result of this thread, so you may want to read it before voting: 46 votes out of 1000+ members is not a really good indicator of what the majority of the members want. Eli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pacun Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 46 votes out of 1000+ members is not a really good indicator of what the majority of the members want. Eli According to the statistics rules you only need 32 random votes to have a pretty good representation of what the whole population wants. It sounds funny but it is scientifically proven. Do you think when they predicted that Barrack Hussein Obama was going to win they polled everybody? I voted for splitting the forums but I think we are going to stick to one but we will use it more efficiently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxxcpa Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 According to the statistics rules you only need 32 random votes to have a pretty good representation of what the whole population wants. It sounds funny but it is scientifically proven. Do you think when they predicted that Barrack Hussein Obama was going to win they polled everybody? I voted for splitting the forums but I think we are going to stick to one but we will use it more efficiently. I think you are mixing apples and oranges. A poll in which people are selected at random will generally be predictive, but in this poll, many people do not vote at all which is not a random sample. Nevertheless, the results of this poll, although not random, is probably a reasonably close substitute. Only 32 random votes would not be adequate for a large group. The Literary Digest took a poll back before the 1932 election which showed Herbert Hoover would defeat Roosevelt by a large majority. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 Due to a technical limitation of the database used to store all threads/posts/information for the community, I can't modify the forum search to work on short strings like that. Technically, it is possible to change the mySQL database setting to allow it, but it would really hurt search performance, and tax the server. I have added a Google Search option at the top of the screen, which uses Google to search the site, instead of the internal forum search. No character limit is in place for the Google Search option. Thank you for the Google search option! It should help when we're looking specifically for state info or stuff like "AMT". Catherine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gail in Virginia Posted January 2, 2011 Report Share Posted January 2, 2011 I like the suggestion that someone made to do one Happy Birthday for all the birthdays that day. Some days it won't make much difference but there are some days that have three or four birthdays at a time, and doing one "Happy Birthday Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" would be more efficient without losing the personal feeling of this forum. If we worked in the same office, we would probably only have one birthday cake per day maximum even if someone had to share birthdays. :lol: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 I like the suggestion that someone made to do one Happy Birthday for all the birthdays that day. Some days it won't make much difference but there are some days that have three or four birthdays at a time, and doing one "Happy Birthday Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice" would be more efficient without losing the personal feeling of this forum. If we worked in the same office, we would probably only have one birthday cake per day maximum even if someone had to share birthdays. I, also, thought that was a great suggestion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bart Posted January 3, 2011 Report Share Posted January 3, 2011 I, also, thought that was a great suggestion! Why not do one happy birthday for all the birthdays that month? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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