Mar 6, 2009, 1:53 PM
Post #3 of 7
Re: [Khalilah] Forum Questions and other business
[In reply to]
do you know why you can't start a new post in the MFA area?
There is a hierarchy of terms here at the Speakeasy and in an effort to be clear in answering your question, let me explain what those terms mean in this context and what the reasons are for setting limits.
The Speakeasy is divided into numerous Forums such as Poetry, Fiction, Sending Out Your Work and, of course, MFA Programs. Inside the forums, the MFA forum for example, there are Topics--MFAs in Oregon, Statement of Purpose, Waitlisted, etc. In each topic there are Threads (conversations) that pertain to that general topic and individual Posts that comprise the conversational thread. So for instance, in the topic Waitlisted you have various threads about being waitlisted in one school or another. In the topic, Statement of Purpose there are different conversation threads about various aspects of the Statement of Purpose. These threads are held together by using the same subject line in each post. By doing this, a patron can then change their viewing parameters to list/read each thread individually if they so choose.
One of the primary purposes of The Speakeasy is to disseminate information in the best and most useful way. Our MFA Forum is extremely busy during the application and acceptance process and it is not atypical to have hundreds and sometimes thousands of posts made in a single week.
It has been my experience that the best way to make the information at the Speakeasy useful is for it to be readily available and intuitively accessible so patrons will be encouraged to contribute to and draw from the discussions. A thousand topics makes it way more unmanageable to find helpful information than it does searching through one topic. By limiting the creation of new topics in the MFA Forum, information becomes easier to find and more on topic and therefore more useful to current and future MFA candidates.
There are many, many topics and threads here (Directory of MFA Topics) and really more than enough to find some place to post a question. When a new topic is created it is rarely to address one single subject question but more to cover a broad base of possibilities, as in the new "Q & As for Research and otherwise" that is being discussed in The Suggestion Box.
I know limiting topics isn't the ideal solution but it's worked quite well over the past half dozen years. And as always, given the technical platform and parameters we have, it's a balance as well because this particular software has flexibility in other areas that makes it quite exceptional.
If you have any further questions, I'd be happy to answer.
(This post was edited by motet on Mar 21, 2014, 5:15 PM)