Indifferent

posted 2 months ago, updated 4 minutes later

Indifferent: Adj.:not showing or feeling interest. The 'smiley" face to the left represents being indifferent.

Imagine this: You belong to a club of let say about 85 members.You get up in front of your club at a meeting to present something of interest to you, maybe a joke, a picture or perhaps even a heartfelt story. When you look up at the end you see 84 faces looking just like the 'indifferent" smiley face. How would you feel? Would you want to continue to belong to this club? To make this a bit more real, when you look up you see about 80 indifferent faces and four or five smiley faces. How would you feel?

This is what occurs everyday in nearly all of the groups in EONS.

We have at most 10% of the members who care enough or who are considerate enough to respond to the posts presented by their fellow members. We have another 20% of the group who visit and apparently are indifferent because they never respond and then we have the remaining 70% that are so indifferent that never visit at all.

I know that most of the 20% of the indifferent visitors must really be interested because they keep coming back. It would be nice if they would remove that indifferent mask, show some teeth, show a frown or show some consideration for their fellow members. An occasional "LOL" or "Very interesting" or "Thanks for sharing this" would be nice. Even a courteous reply opposing the content of the post would at least showed that they were interested. In my family we can tell a love one that the purple vest-cowboy hat combination is in poor taste and still love them and it does not result in a fight. This world would be boring if everyone agrees with each one of us!

So here I am, standing in front of the club and presenting my case. What kind of smiley faces am I seeing?

Comments

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1. 2 months ago Makkadawn wrote:

I agree with you Gary, it is frustrating. You can't make them participate though????

2. 2 months ago arkansasrita wrote:

Thus...some of us closed our groups. What can you do?

3. 2 months ago Lollykoko wrote:

I'll admit to being a lurker most of the time. I do post the occasional comment, but rarely of the "Great!" and nothing more stripe. But I also have the problem about not knowing how to remove myself from a group that isn't meeting my wants? Is there a tab for that? Do I write to the moderator?

4. 2 months ago exedir wrote:

Well, Gary, its the way of the Web in most instances.

Enthusiasm, contribution and interest and then, well, then nothing much. And then there are the lurkers, what about them?, readers but not contributors, that is. Are they cyberleeches or serious readers and admirers of those that contribute and what they contribute? And then fthere the joiners that haven't looked or noticed the groups in months? Members who have left the party, taken the linens and are gone for good, what about them?, artifacts or just good headcount for advertisers.

And then what about pictures of cats and dogs, glitters and ecards as ongoing contributions or place keepers or takers, how 'bout that for contribution?, well, in my opinion, not much really.

So, are we right to complain, curse the fates, whistle in the wind or do something about it? And what do you do in cyberspace to keep in front of people and cause them to interact with you? Ultimately its content and interactivity that maintains the health of a SNS and maybe we are running dry or maybe just running a cycle or maybe there is something else unique to EONs as a site and as to the members involved, and as you point out, not involved.

When I joined EONS, eons ago, I was wondering what the site would do in both the short and long run that would be different than most other sites. Would near-boomers, boomers and post-boomers be like others on other SNS's?, or would there be something different here, and here I mean the members, and so far, nope.

Yup, there are the food fights, flamimg, dustups and bustups same as everywhere. But as to the outstanding content and interaction, yup something is missing, but maybe it has been missing all along; compelling content, compelling personalities, compelling promotion and compelling features by EONS Tower of the site and the contributing members. And oh, spaghetti diners with Jeff.

And Lollykoko, yes, you can opt out of a group, just look at your preferences when logged on to the group and there is a drop out option you can click on and leave quietly as if you've never been there.

5. 2 months ago EsmeraldaR wrote:

An internet social networking group isn't all that different than a real life group like the Elks or the VFW. A small percentage of the membership is active and tries to make the organization better. Another percentage just goes to the hall and hangs around the bar. The rest of them pay their dues and you never see them. A lot of people like to watch the show but there's no way you're going to get them on the stage. That's just human nature.

6. 2 months ago EsmeraldaR wrote:

An internet social networking group isn't all that different than a real life group like the Elks or the VFW. A small percentage of the membership is active and tries to make the organization better. Another percentage just goes to the hall and hangs around the bar. The rest of them pay their dues and you never see them. A lot of people like to watch the show but there's no way you're going to get them on the stage. That's just human nature.

7. 2 months ago tulipsNchimneys wrote:

It would be nice if they would remove that indifferent mask, show some teeth, show a frown or show some consideration for their fellow members. An occasional "LOL" or "Very interesting" or "Thanks for sharing this" would be nice. Even a courteous reply opposing the content of the post would at least showed that they were interested. In my family we can tell a love one that the purple vest-cowboy hat combination is in poor taste and still love them and it does not result in a fight. This world would be boring if everyone agrees with each one of us!

so, what, you surveil people's visit times to your groups? that's UNcool.

as far as compulsory replying goes, no way. people should only reply if they want to, not just to be nice. I mean, I certainly wouldn't want someone replying to my posts or blogs just to be nice, and not because they really felt it. I'd rather have "0 comments"!

8. 2 months ago GaryJames wrote:

How does the koolaid taste tulipsnChimneys?