The other day, our friend Zero Ponsdorf asked me, once again, if I’d consider adding a discussion forum to This Ain’t Hell in which you guys could start topics and flame fests about things that interest you. <\/p>\n
In the past, I’ve always shied away from the idea – mainly because I remember what an asshole I was when I did the forum thing. My last banning from a forum was the impetus for starting this blog (I think I still hold the record for more than 50 suspensions at The History Channel forums). My membership at Democratic Underground lasted about 30 seconds after my first comment back in 1999.<\/p>\n
To convince me to change my mind, Ponsdorf offered to handle the moderating duties at the new forum. Now I know that forums added to blogs have varying degrees of success. Powerline seems to have done a good job at it while Little Green Footballs recently closed their Lizard Lounge.<\/p>\n
I also remember we had a great time when we live-blogged the presidential debates last year, so I’ll admit that the idea has some merit, at least initially. <\/p>\n
Well, I’ve done some shopping for software and figured the cost out and the technical aspects of it, and all that’s left to do is ask y’all if you think it’d be worth my time and expense. Judging by the number of tips we get, you guys have great ideas for discussion – unfortunately, I can’t use them all so this would give you an outlet.<\/p>\n
However, I don’t want to spend money and time on a project that ends up having me, COB6 and TSO the only ones writing on it. We average about 2600 readers every day – as you can tell from our comments, most of them are silent. A discussion forum that has silent readers is pretty useless.<\/p>\n
Initially, I plan to have participation to be absolutely free just like the blog, but I’m not promising what the future will look like – I don’t think my wife would understand my English if I tried to explain to her why we can’t eat this month so you guys can discuss the merits of flame-broiled burgers vs. grilled cheese sandwiches.<\/p>\n
So leave me some relatively constructive comments on how much, or little, you’re excited by this suggestion from Ponsdorf. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"