Instead of the few standardized discussion forums, the management should allow users to suggest topics for new forums.
Do you like the idea??
What do you have in mind? Maybe a good idea …
If I understand the position of the ORIENTED administrators correctly, ideally speaking a “New Discussion Forum” would develop directly out of content in existing Forums.
As an example, when the “Human Rights Forum” began over a year ago, we moved a number of threads out of other Forums to the “Human Rights Forum” as seeds, in order to get the discussions rolling. Those threads were felt to be directly related to human rights concerns here in Taiwan.
“Restaurants, Bars, and Clubs” is another example. This Forum started because there was a consensus among the administrators and moderators on ORIENTED that there were scattered threads in other Forums that all dealt with this topic, and it would make sense to get all this information together in one place. They felt that the internet community would be responsive and supportive to such a thread, which is to say that it represented a topic of wide interest to most people.
Another example of an ORIENTED Forum start-up of recent memory is “Learning Chinese”.
For a new Forum, the selection of a qualified and responsible moderator is also an important consideration. As a general rule, a person who wants to serve as a moderator must have a record of continuously high-quality postings in the field in question. The appointment of a new moderator is not taken lightly, and is subject to the review and discussion of the administrators and existing moderators via their own private internal administrative postings and private messaging.