Where to ask for conductive tips?

 "A welcome three-inches-long visitor to the group last week" 

by Susie Mallett, August 2011

How does one prevent sites from being taken over by uninvited guests?

Or are such forums a thing of the past?

Yesterday I got an alert for a refrigeration company in New York that was advertising here:

http://www.conductive-community.com/

This site was not used very much but it was used - I found it quite difficult to navigate but I tried my best to keep an eye on what was being asked and offer a few answers and to post  a question now and again myself. Several other people did the same. There was for a short time a regular readership.

Such a shame

When junk comments started to appear I informed the site manager and they were then removed, but gradually the junk mail has swamped the site until it is now virtually impossible to see the wood from the trees or to distinguish the conductive input through a forest of advertising. Not only is the junk appearing as comments it is appearing also as postings. 

It is a while back since I notified Conduction of the increasing junk content on the forum and the team decided to remove the link to the Conductive Community Forum from its website. It is sad to see that this discussion forum has gone the way of others in the conductive world. 

I stopped using the site when the junk mail started to appear, as did most other people which I can understand. I did not like being bombarded by unwanted advertising in this way while I was reading threads, and for me there was always the fear of accidently clicking on something that would bring a virus into the computer.

I expect this problem is not only one experienced in the conductive world and with the use of Facebook as a communicating board it is really no wonder that such forums go out of use. 

A nice way to do it

I have often received messages through Facebook have sent to a group of “friends” who could possibly come up with an answer or information to help solve a current problem that someone has. These are problems that usually come from practice, use of aids, finding the right shoes or bikes, etc., Similar to those that were posted earlier on the Conductive Community Forum.

Quite long exchanges of information have developed in this way. Sometimes it is a shame that such exchanges remain private, seen only by the small group involved in them, but sometimes I think it is better this way and it is also nice to have been asked personally for advice. At least using Facebook the questions get answered quickly because they are directed more specifically to people who could have answers.  

An additional plus to the Facebook “friends” messaging idea is that these threads do not get invaded by those annoying, unwanted visitors advertising their wares.

If there is anything that comes up in the discussion that the questioner feels should be shared more widely, then it can be published on a Facebook page later. 

How do other people prefer to search for knowledge? 

I am thinking here specifically of fellow conductors who know that there must be hundreds of conductors out there with an answer to a current problem. If we all worked in a big team like at the Petö Institute there would probably be someone just at our elbow as we worked to offer advice, but there are more and more of us who work alone or in very small groups, how do we get those tips? Several people write to me for snippets of information, ideas, or more expansive advice on practice. I imagine that there are other people doing the same all over the world and that there is probably quite an intricate spider’s web connecting people needing conductive tips. It is nice to imagine that this is how it is and that it probably works better  on Facebook than on the forums that get invaded so quickly by unwanted advertising and then not visited by the people with the answers anymore.