Forums

I've been a lurker on this forum for quite some time and have recently made an effort to attempt to contribute to the forum. However, with the wealth of knowledge and experience here, I find myself often wanting to post and read non-MT related topics on this forum.

Out of curiosity, does anyone else feel the same way and wish there was a General - "General" forum where we could post thoughts and questions regarding topics unrelated to management and our careers? Or is it believed that this type of forum would add clutter and bring down the overall quality of the other forums?

jhack's picture

There are so many other places on the internet where that can happen. Unfortunately, most of them are populated by trolls, flamers, et al, and are not particularly pleasant.

MT stands out for the professionalism and sincerity of its members and their postings. I would vote against non-management forum topics, as it would inevitably degrade the focus and quality of what we have here.

Life on the net...sigh.

John

US41's picture

We're all here to talk about management - not to destroy our relationships with each other by posting political rants or silly jokes. This forum exists, it seems, to build up a database of questions and answers on how to handle management situations. I think it is one of the best forums I which I have ever visited. I'd hate to see it turn into another internet trailer park.

cwatine's picture
Training Badge

Lefonquey-

Sorry if I don't really understand your point.

Why would we talk about someting that is not related to management on a forum called "Manager Tools Forums" ?

In my opinion it would ruin the purpose of it.

Ced.

TomW's picture
Training Badge

I think it depends on what you had in mind. If you wanted to talk about some other aspect of management and business that might relate to MT in some way but is not directly related, I could see it.

If you just wanted to talk about cats, raising kids, or political issues, then no, this is not the place for it.

tlhausmann's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

[quote="lefonquey1"]
Or is it believed that this type of forum would add clutter [...]?[/quote]

Irrelevant discussion adds clutter. This forum is all about "tools for managers and leaders."

US41's picture

An observation:

In one podcast our hosts tell us that high morale and team morale forms out of thin air when people perform.

This topic is evidence of that.

Here you have a group of people who do not know each other personally, have not fallen into one another's arms , and have not been whitewater rafting together, enjoyed dress-down days, nor have they received gift certificates or special trophies.

And yet, just as Lencioni writes effective teams do, we engaged in healthy conflict, we committed to a direction as a team, and in this topic you even see us holding one another accountable to maintain what we believe to be a high-performance status quo.

The Manager Tools Forums environment is a perfect example of the MT view on team building. Our morale is high because we have performed.

WillDuke's picture
Training Badge

I never missed non-management topics. But we do occasionally see sales questions. I agree that I don't want to see such an open forum that cat breeding becomes a topic. But I'm not sure that I'd mind general business-related chat.

On the other hand, I don't know that content would be of as high a quality as management specific content is.

Hmm. In th end, I think I'd vote for just management related topics.

Knowing how thorough M&M are, I wonder how long ago they had this discussion. :)

jael's picture

Well, the forum discussed it within the last year:

http://www.manager-tools.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1440

I still vote "no" unless it's kept out of the RSS feed.

jhack's picture

I would be against it regardless of RSS. If non-management topics were discussed, the composition of the membership would change, and there would be folks not committed to management chiming in on the management topics (this happens on forums. It just does).

John

rthibode's picture

lefonquey1,

I appreciate where you're coming from. The community here is great and on occasion I've thought of posting a link to something interesting, or asking if others have read/seen/done a particular thing not related to management.
However, I agree with the other replies. I believe that there is too much of a risk that the overall quality of the discussion boards would decline.

lefonquey1's picture

I don't know that I agree that it would diminish the quality of the management discussions and I highly doubt that the people here would tolerate an influx of trolls.

At the same time, i don't feel strongly about it and was just curious about what others would ask.

It would be cool if Mark and Mike would start a job board where we could post and search for jobs. However, I'm sure the same argument could be made for this too.

kklogic's picture

I have been a part of a few different online communities over the past decade plus. In my experience, they are most valuable when relationships form as a result of discussion outside of the subject matter that brought them there.

Just because the channel is different than an in-person relationship, the dynamics are no different. We encourage our employees to socialize outside of work and spend a few minutes during the day to catch up with each other on a personal level. It enables a better working relationship and deeper bond both to the company and each other.

I moderate a similarly-sized community and with proper user and moderator intervention, trolls are easily kept at bay. The boards then become a first line resource and are more highly trafficked by the registered users. Because you have a group of like-minded individuals, you're more likely to value the advice you receive here.

This is just my humble opinion based upon my past experiences.

TomW's picture
Training Badge

[quote="kklogic"]Just because the channel is different than an in-person relationship, the dynamics are no different. We encourage our employees to socialize outside of work and spend a few minutes during the day to catch up with each other on a personal level. It enables a better working relationship and deeper bond both to the company and each other. [/quote]

The key phrase there is "...to socialize outside of work". You are encouraging social behavior between people who work together, but not in the work place.

If you think of this forum as work, then you would be encouraging your friends here to join you at other forums, not socialize within the Manager Tools context.

The Private Message system here would allow people to briefly catch up personally, now within the work context, without bringing the entire public forum into it.

mauzenne's picture
Admin Role Badge

[quote="WillDuke"]Knowing how thorough M&M are, I wonder how long ago they had this discussion.[/quote]

You think? ;-)

We'd absolutely love to see folks develop a relationship outside work topics [hmmm, think I've heard that before ... 03s] and we'll continue to keep the forums here focused on management. Thrilled to hear that many of you agree!

Thank you all for making this such a great place to be and continuing to think about how we can make it better .. love it!

regards,
Mike

sklosky's picture

lefonquey1,

I simply don't want to invest my time reading non MT content.

One big piece of advice that I see repeatedly is that time is valueable.

I believe that off topic discussions would dilute the value that I receive for each unit of time I put into these forums.

Cheers,
Steve

Mark's picture
Admin Role Badge

Management. Period.

If someone were to post something that we didn't think fit our mission, we'd take it down. We're not saying you can't...but we reserve the right to quash topics that don't fit our vision.

All communities that thrive have parameters that actually catalyze growth.

Mark

Sorry for the delay in responding. I regret my absence.

juliahhavener's picture
Licensee Badge

[quote]The Private Message system here would allow people to briefly catch up personally, now within the work context, without bringing the entire public forum into it.[/quote]

This was what I was going to mention. Don't think that personal conversations don't happen here - they just happen "behind the scenes". On several occassions I have sent PMs to folks to discuss purely personal stuffs - I've also received them. I love this! I've got enough high I that it's important to me to have that personal connection. This forum is also important enough to me to want to maintain it as a professional environment.