Well Mary,

I think John has inadvertantly given a extremely good explanation for the success of this forum which seems to have been active since the minute you started it. 

It is not full of advertising, it is not trying to sell anything.  If you combine that with the fact that it is interactive - you are genuine in asking for opinions - respectful to other posters and no one is making innuendos or personal remarks, or campaigning for anything.  Maybe that is what is what we used to have here in the Community, is missed by many  and  we need to go back to.

Marilyn has also commented on this, and has made some very valid points.  Some of us love this community and want it to continue and go back to being the best and healthiest Community on the Internet.  There are plenty of other forums for scammers, spammers and people with personal axes to grind.

One other thing that might help is if the people who are able to, start planning some interesting interactive forums for the coming year.  And also that the forum owners remember their responsibility to "moderate" them.

Look forward to reading more
Love
Jenny

G'day Mary, Firstly let me say I can't see anything "so" wrong with adland that we need to come up with solutions to fix. Call me compacent....or a laid-back Aussie...this is a community and not everyone shares the same ideas....or have come here for the same reasons....therefore we are going to have conflict...so be it! We are not forced to join in or respond to everyone's posts. We do not need to have a friend list of 1000s...it is a choice we make....and have a choice to interact or not. If you get too many direct emails...do what I did...I contacted the people who kept sending me all the "cut & paste" adverts to please stop as I was not interested...they all did. As you will notice from my profile I have not had to ban anyone. While I realise your intentions are good... forcusing on the small amount of negetive here at Adland only brings it to the forefront. Have a great New Year. Have fun Bryan

 Hi Mary,

  Perhaps I'm the least important of anyone to enter this topic.  I don't respond to many forums simply because I seem to say the wrong things at the wrong times.  I believe that we do have the best Community as far as the several free options that we do have.  We can advertise for free.  Do special requests for free.  We have the most comprehenisive and easy to use forum format to use.  However, the mis-leading ways that people use to get you into their forums causes me to skip over many of them.  Five forums in a row with the same format but different wording seems to be intraoment to me.  Plus, we always seem to forget that we are an international community.  What may seem important to those living in the U.S. may not be of any concern to those living in other parts of the world.  My forums are basically about UFO's or Shirley.  I don't try to sell anything.  I do try to make them informative but I also realize that not everyone is interested in what I have to say.  Since I joined, I signed up for at least five different programs that I was told were completely free to join and receive revenue from.  Once I got into the programs, began advertising the programs to others and felt that I was on my way to making some money, I received my statement saying that unless I uploaded to pay member I would not receive any revenue.  Shirley provides stories on various subjects that helps people understand the world around us.  We both love AdlandPro very much, however I am sometimes reluctant to believe what others have to tell me.  There have also been issues within our community where people have created programs supposedly to help other members, and somewhere down the road we have had allegations of mis-use of funds, people not getting paid, or other issues that have just about caused our community to begin to crumble.

  Perhaps what discourages me the most is when I receive an invitation to be friends.  I receive a long list of opportunities and programs that I Have to join because they are in Pre-Launch and if I don't join now I will be sorry later.  Somewherehidden in these sales pitches I might find a short sentence asking if I would like to be your friend.  I'm not sure.  If I don't sign up for your ten programs are you going to Delete me?  At the bottom of this I will put my two web sites.  If you are interested, you go to them.  If you are not interested no harm, no foul. 

 I enjoy joking.  As an example, the little trash can.  However, the mood of our community has changed.  I don't know if I'm allowed to be myself or if I should just shut up and butt out.  I know that the community is for Networking, but does it have to be shoved down our throats?  Can't we also exchange pleasantries now and again?  This is supposed to be the most joyous time of the year.  Why are so many people so tense?  We can be the most loving people on Earth, as can be seen by the messages that Shirley has received on being the 7th Most Courageous Woman, but we can also be very vicious.  People have joined this community to share thoughts, ideas, and experiences.  As someone said, when you get three or more people sending you personnal (is that spelled right?) messages start out asking how you're doing, (That's fine) and than going into their own personnal reason for wanting you to try this new product, and you can close your eyes and recite it from memory because you already received this one of a kind message from ten other people, it does get a little bit old.  

 I would love to sign up for everyones special offers because I love you all, but I just can't do it.  Finally, when we in the Unites States celebrate a Holiday, why can't we learn a little bit more about other peoples holiday's as well.  When we celebrate Thanksgiving, Canada Has already celebrated theirs a week before.  Australia has a Special Holiday coming up on January 26th, and I'm sure that our friends down under would appreciate it if we recognized their special day as well.  Mexico celebrates Cinco deMayo in celebration of their defeat over France.  Our friends around the world are just as proud of their special Holidays as we are and I believe that we as a Community of Friends should take a little bit of time out to learn a little bit more of their special days and help them celebrate as well.  They never fail to recognize our celebrations, and it is usually someone from Canada, Australia, or England that puts up the first forum to honor our Holidays.  I believe it is high time we return the Favor.  Peace to the Whole World!!

God Bless You

Mike

http;//michaeljcaron.tripod.com

http://lordofthebellyrings.tripod.com

P.S.  I have some left-over Venison if anybody's interested  

 

Jill, Here is the link you speak of buried in the forum "Shared ideas equals shared....." http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/368002.aspx