...and there we have it. The 73 odd posts mostly made by 5 individuals decided the course and structure of todays forum?

Perhaps, but not in the way you are implying.

I responded in that thread on just this subject. The architect of the "blueprint" I talked about was you and that "sense of ownership or community" would not be gained if we did not let the forums grow (or change) organically.

Your reply to me on 03-12-2009 I took as defensive and missing the point.

My point wasn't that changes needed to be made rather, before making changes, know where the hell you're going and steer organic movement in that direction.

However for me and perhaps others, our fate appeared sealed and that thread died (organically BTW ) less than a week later with Reggie's post...






Seemed like a done deal to me.

Now I know you are just another forum member and you wish to promote increased participation. I also know that a lot of us do as well. That's what any good forum is all about. However, it seems to me that if you want that participation to be productive and for the common good, at the very least members need to know which direction the barge they are toting is going.

Now that this forum is a component of maemo.org we all must look forward to a time when maemo.org as a whole is more useful to ALL its members.

As it was this forum could have been used to promote these changes in the other components, invite participation, and communicate the org's direction simply by adding to the existing sub-forums. Then perhaps once more members were aware and on-board, reducing and merging sub-forums and other forum changes would not be met with as much resistance.

I'm sorry for the off-topic post... but feel free to start a new thread.