Why so quiet?

[Caracal]

I'm not coming back because the conditions prompting my leaving have not changed with that person still here as a regular participant while being humored for spewing ignorance.

Pity.

Good lord...

[KiUlv]

Welcome!

I found this group to be very helpful and welcoming. Still, they are very direct. If you come here asking for advice, you will get pretty straight-no-chaser advice, even if it probably wasn't what you wanted to hear. If they disagree with you, they will tell you point-blank.

Personally, I appreciated that directness in learning how to transition from a corporate to academic career.

Jump in, KiUlv, the water's safe! Those fins are dolphins, not sharks.

Thank you! I appreciate that! Although I'm several years in now, sometimes I don't even know what I don't know. The academy is a beast of hidden agendas and moving staircases. At least it feels that way sometimes.

[ciao_yall]

Welcome!

I found this group to be very helpful and welcoming. Still, they are very direct. If you come here asking for advice, you will get pretty straight-no-chaser advice, even if it probably wasn't what you wanted to hear. If they disagree with you, they will tell you point-blank.

Personally, I appreciated that directness in learning how to transition from a corporate to academic career.

Jump in, KiUlv, the water's safe! Those fins are dolphins, not sharks.

Thank you! I appreciate that! Although I'm several years in now, sometimes I don't even know what I don't know. The academy is a beast of hidden agendas and moving staircases. At least it feels that way sometimes.

That's why this group is so helpful. People are very cautious about their real identities, but willing to share stories, ask advice and speak honestly.

[kaysixteen]

Is it just me, or did the fora experience some sort of www revision today?  Does this mean that there will be some new and improved functions here?

[Parasaurolophus]

Is it just me, or did the fora experience some sort of www revision today?  Does this mean that there will be some new and improved functions here?

https://thefora.org/index.php?topic=3473.0

[eigen]

It would be easy to post this address on Reddit if you like.

A bit late to this, but it is. We also have a sub over there (r/thefora).

It gets discussed occasionally in r/professors and r/academia and people end up here. I think we're getting a large number in the last bit with some of the Reddit changes / blackout, based on the number of people who've sent me messages on Reddit to be approved.

Re: Search Engine Optimization.... A lot of it just takes time. But if I search for higher education forum, we're currently the 4th hit in Google, which is pretty good. A lot of the challenge is what terms are here and indexed.

For those who weren't around at the time, one of the reasons we limited viewing of the whole forum is that we kept having the site shut down due to webcrawlers taking all of our bandwidth. That could be solved by moving to more expensive hosting, but it seemed a small benefit at the time, relative to use.

We can absolutely tweak which forums are available to view with/without registration. Another option, especially from an SEO perspective would be able to write up a "What are these fora" post and plop it in the forum available to view without registration.

[hmaria1609]

This new look reminds me of similar message boards I've used. Many thanks to our forum admins for the upgrade!

[Liquidambar]

We can absolutely tweak which forums are available to view with/without registration. Another option, especially from an SEO perspective would be able to write up a "What are these fora" post and plop it in the forum available to view without registration.

I like the idea of a "What are these fora" post.  Also, could we have a couple on-topic forums viewable in place of the off-topic?  "Teaching" and "Job search" would give a nice sampling of what's discussed here, versus "General discussion" and "Suggestions."

ETA:  Glad to hear we're the 4th hit in Google--that's quite good!

[Parasaurolophus]

Re: Search Engine Optimization.... A lot of it just takes time. But if I search for higher education forum, we're currently the 4th hit in Google, which is pretty good. A lot of the challenge is what terms are here and indexed.

Hmm. On my end, we're in the middle of the fifth page of results for the same search. Still, that's better than a few weeks ago. (I added some indexing terms then--it seems like we had none--so I guess that helped?)

[eigen]

What are you searching for, term wise?

[namazu]

What are you searching for, term wise?

Not Parasaurolophus, but if I search for higher education forum it's result 4 in Google for me. 
higher ed forum actually gets the top result!
faculty forum and university teaching forum yield so many other results that The Fora don't show up.

I haven't tried searches without "forum" in them, which is undoubtedly a mistake, as "bulletin board" and "discussion" and "sub[reddit]" might be more common search terms.

Thanks, Eigen, for continuing to do all you do.

[Parasaurolophus]

What are you searching for, term wise?

higher education forum

(higher Ed forum does get to #3, however)


It could just be a regional difference, although I thought that there was no such difference for the US and Canada.

[eigen]

That's really interesting. Regional differences would be one explanation, the other might be google displaying different results depending on history.

If I have time, I'll play around with some different devices and see if I get similar results.

I think if we wrote an explanation post that was crawlable, that would help capture some of the other terms people might use to search (i.e., discussion board, job search, faculty jobs, etc.)

[Juvenal]

My post count is nowhere near anywhere meriting note.  I just managed to make "1000" posts in the CHE forum (so much for vanity) before it closed.  Far behind the stalwarts, but I was there from the "beginning."  Some--long ago--might remember me there as "Ming." Ah, distant days!

Nowadays, the new "Fora" is OK, but not really something to check in on much.  Prytania (and Mamselle) gave a lot of vitamins, much missed.  Thus, nowadays, what tussles there are seem to be in the "cancelling" of Dr. Seuss.  It does get wearisome, the back and forth.  Yes, yes, I know there is no need to look there, but wit vs. dudgeon is hard to find.
New format?  Again, OK, but content does not seem likely to change much.  Not that I have much to contribute.  Age, body collapse--You know, those kinds of things.  Not far from being an octogenarian with other worries.

[marshwiggle]

The various media for discussion like this change as technology changes. It seems like a one-way street.