Why Can't This Board Attract New Members....

[Xavier]

Please be patient with me as I try to catch back up on this and respond. There are some great suggestions here and I will be making some changes. I don't want to lose to momentum of this discussion as I know it is very easy to do that.

[accompong]

Please be patient with me as I try to catch back up on this and respond. There are some great suggestions here and I will be making some changes. I don't want to lose to momentum of this discussion as I know it is very easy to do that.

Xman,

Just a comment about the "NEW POSTS" display. Even if you displayed more of the other threads with comments (i.e. Trip Reports, etc.) all the "white racism? black racism ", "man wake upp dag snackinn pon imm testicle", etc. will still relegate them into obscurity. I am guessing you can't have a "NEW POSTS" that just displayed the "dog snacking" posts and anothers that wouldn't scare new members or posters away, right?

Sometimes more is not better if the content is not better.

Just my opinion.

Peace and Guidance

[Tropicana]

Okay since Xavier is looking for more feedback, I have some more feedback.

Seems like the "tourist crowd" is objecting to the discussion of racial issues. It is as if they want to treat Jamaica and this board as their personal playground to laugh and have fun without having to concern themselves with the very real issues that Jamaicans at home and abroad face.

Jamaica is more than a beach it's a country. Jamaicans aren't just there and here to be your personal playmates. We have real lives and face real struggles so it is really quite ... man don't even know the word.... appalling.... that some seem to want to enjoy the country without giving a jot about its residents at home or citizens abroad and the very real challenges we face.

Also, some of the nasty content and photos the tourist crowd used to post about who they picked up on the beach and who they rooksed was just plain disgusting. If they want to treat Jamaica as their sex tourism paradise, I know I don't want to read about who they rooksed and I will lick out whenevah I see that kind of filth. (There are others who will too.) If that makes me judgemental and narrow minded.....so be it.

I suspect you are back to having 2 boards Xavier.

[goldilocks]

What tourist crowd? tourist crowd mostly long gone from here.

Back in the day, 'madness' was celebrated. The threat of jumping of a sidewalk was always met with the threat of belview...

One thing that Ja.com had over many was the jokes. Our humour defined us and made this place unique. It was a magnet for like minded individuals and those who hadn't the stomach or the skin for it, left in a hurry. Those who 'got' it and could give as good, stayed around and the place was better for it.

HELLO, we have a winner! Mi wan know who a lock dung Belleview and cut the curb height? Who tax Bim & Jahlive handcyart right off the streets? Miss Jazz cookshop close up and dem tek 'way wi missile launchers! and mi still deh a look fi mi one gold spike heel boot dat mi suspect Miss Wendilina a trow ova de fence one night.

I am white (yt, Y8, oyinbo? not really) american. I have studied and walked in Jamaican culture since 1978ish, focus on Rastafari. I love Jamaica, laugh for Jamaica, cry for Jamaica and pray for Jamaica. This site has such good info and interaction, and has improved my patois so I can chat wid de mad people dem. Some folks take things way too personal. Fyah 'pon de ones who *alert* folks to posts and dig for peeps' info so they can interfere with their personal lives. I mean really, who does that?

[Tropicana]

As always....gotta love Goldilocks. Personally I think she should be an admin or a moderator. She is always a breath of fresh air and brightens one's day whenever she turns up...I only wish it was more often. I miss Ochigal and MissMention too.

Golide, I was referring to the old tourist crowd...

Fyah 'pon de ones who *alert* folks to posts and dig for peeps' info so they can interfere with their personal lives. I mean really, who does that?

[goldilocks]

Aaahmm, *I* am part of the "old tourist crowd" (although brave/mad enuff to venture into GD and even join in the lyrical battles down in Music & Poetry, where I roundly trounced Kingman my first time out - he even admitted it in a post) I do not agree with some of the posters antics at all, at all, but I rarely took it upon myself to chastise anyone. I just shake my head and kept it moving. People are going to do what they're going to do. Who am I to judge? I just type what I feel to type and whosoever disagrees can do the same.

[JamBrit]

Wha gwaan Ensome? Yuh still deh bout and mad as eva I see! DWL Good to si yuh girl..

I miss the old times too...pure fun and joke for real. Some great connections made on here too. Ah bwaay, those were the days. *Sigh*

The board has changed so much. Too many forums. The light-hearted banter has gone. Can't deal with the judgemental, holier-than-thou, know-it-all attitudes. People taking things too seriously...not welcoming at all.

Anyhoo, good to see some of the veterans still deh bout...hail up to hall di hol' timers.

[Tropicana]

Aaahmm, *I* am part of the "old tourist crowd"

There is nothing "tourist" about you goldilocks. You have been fun and right at home ever since mi did buck up pon you way back.

(although brave/mad enuff to venture into GD and even join in the lyrical battles down in Music & Poetry, where I roundly trounced Kingman my first time out - he even admitted it in a post) I do not agree with some of the posters antics at all, at all, but I rarely took it upon myself to chastise anyone. I just shake my head and kept it moving. People are going to do what they're going to do. Who am I to judge? I just type what I feel to type and whosoever disagrees can do the same.

Keep the fun coming. I am definitely a fan. I miss SistahD too.

[goldilocks]

Thanks for the kind words. Mi will choreograph a belly dance in your honor sans cutlass!

[lonewolf]

Fyah 'pon de ones who *alert* folks to posts and dig for peeps' info so they can interfere with their personal lives. I mean really, who does that

Yes, please tell me who interferes with peoples personal lives. I'd like to know who has done that on this web site. Now, are we talking about those that have gone out of their way to sabotage someones personal life such as contacting their work to inform their employer of what they do or are involved in on their personal time?

Or, are we talking about those that would involve people that are subjects of news stories and request same to join in on a discussion on Jamaicans.com?

Please, tell me which one is it? Or are you lumping the two together?

How about Fyah'pon those "Chicken Littles" that contact administrators etc. to scream the "sky is falling" and make false accusations about peeps? Do you know the ones I speak of? The ones that play the whole drama queen bit to the hilt, "I'm a Victim, please save me" That rediculous act of screaming foul because they crave attention.

Maybe the site needs a place where folks can enter at their own risk and discuss news stories and the problems of the world knowing very well that they might get bruised in the process.

And let the thin skinned and the children play nice under adult supervision in their own little sand box without the threat of injury... whether real or MOSTLY IMAGINED.

[Tropicana]

Thanks for the kind words. Mi will choreograph a belly dance in your honor sans cutlass!

Thank you mi love.

[goldilocks]

Yes, please tell me who interferes with peoples personal lives. (I don't know, mi know there have been cases of contacting their jobs and such)

I'd like to know who has done this on this web site. Now, are we talking about those that have gone out of their way to sabotage someones personal life such as contacting their work to inform their employer of what they do or are involved in on their personal time? (Yes)

Or, are we talking about those that would involve people that are subjects of news stories and request same to join in on a discussion on Jamaicans.com? (No)

How about Fyah'pon those "Chicken Littles" that contact administrators etc. to scream the "sky is falling" and make false accusations about peeps? (Yes, fyah 'pon dem too)

Do you know the ones I speak of? The ones that play the whole drama queen bit to the hilt, "I'm a Victim, please save me" That rediculous act of screaming foul because they crave attention. (Yes, mi know dem)

Maybe the site needs a place where folks can enter at their own risk and discuss news stories and the problems of the world knowing very well that they might get bruised in the process. (I thought that's how any forum would work)

And let the thin skinned and the children play nice under adult supervision in their own little sand box without the threat of injury... whether real or MOSTLY IMAGINED.

A Sandbox Forum

[My Looh]

I agree, the tourist run gawn, I don't see a time when visitors to Jamaica will ever come back to this site to get info. It is not the place to answer tourist related questions. They will just continue to join up and lurk.

Honestly, what kind of response would we give to a first time tourist who post a naive question like... where is the best nude beaches in Jamaica? (just one example).

Besides there are sites where tourist questions are better answered than they ever could be here. (just being honest)

X-man needs to start a whole new site, maybe something like jamaicaholics.com where topics like race and homosexuality, if started there would be re-directed to this site for discussion.

All I know is that without new blood this site's forums will wither and die. Face it, if you were removed from this site for five years and logged back on after such time only to find the same old members (minus about half who got fed up and stopped visiting) discussing the same old issues , would it hold your interest enough to stick around. The topics would still be interesting,mind you, but they would draw the same predictable responses by the same predictable boardites.

[My Looh]

I would love to know who the last three boardites to join and post regular are and how long ago dem join? That would tell us a lot!

[twiney]

The whole heap of trust and dont pay by wonga gut ppl is why the food shop under lock and key . Further more Peasie owe whole heap of bar rent so no money no deh fi buy non-gmo food fi feed the ppl is strickly organic we deals with now ... Jazz gone Bombay gone buy cow fi we start back up business cause Sue exotic tastes not fitting the locals ... almost 2 year now and Jazzy dearest cyaan come back wid even a mad cow