Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: The 60's

Good stuff
Robert — (archived)

Categorization does matter, in that peoples' expectations about what's on a given board colors how they interpret it and how they'll interact. Not that Zoners stand on formality, and everybody's adapting just fine to your choice of venues. But people who don't frequent Flame because they're not interested in its normal fare of howler monkeys shrieking and flinging feces, are unlikely to discover your writing. Or they may assume that because you've posted on Flame you intend to shriek and fling feces, and so might not read you.

A similar principle applies to Community. Its nominal purpose is calm discussion of community business, often in a "town hall" format, sometimes involving complaints about members; leavened with a nice dose of personal news such as birth announcements. That's not for everybody, and I can tell that a number of people find our tendency to navel-gaze there a bit nauseating. Again, those who don't frequent Community might overlook your posts.

Another, a bit more minor consideration, is archiving and access to a long-promised search facility. Searches would be more reliable in proportion to relevant categorization.

Basically, ER, my tips are designed to expose you to the widest HabitableZone audience. OffTopic, despite the name, generally hosts the "finer things in life", such as creative writing, book reviews, humor, strange science, stupid people tricks...subjects without CurrentEvent's grim overlay of partisan anger.

The categories are fuzzy and moderators tend to be relaxed about it. If you really feel more comfortable on Flame, keep posting here. I might come along later, after activity's ended on a thread, and move it to OffTopic or CE to keep the archival bookkeeping synced. Or if you want I can move your threads now, as if you've broken camp and moved over to the other oasis, where you can pick up where you left off. Just let me know your wishes.

You're doing great, ER, just trying to support you.

(Almost forgot, there's a code to my apparitions. If I use my full name "Robert Shepherd", I'm in full Authority Figure mode. Sometimes I'll use just "Robert" when discussing site business, if I'm sure that the context tends to make clear which persona has taken over my brain [mea culpa, sometimes I've missed the mark and confused people]. I prefer to reserve my dreaded full name when I need to be stern and formal, and most routine business doesn't need that. When I'm being an opinionated blowhard, that's pure "Robert".)

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