How can we improve RAT in 2012

[Robert Vermaat]

Hi Jurjen,

Thanx for the feedback. I'll comment from a moderator's view, because I feel that every idea about how to keep/stop/improve things have of course a practical side to them.

-We should keep integrating all ways of studying ancient life and military, with professionals and amateurs together on a good and friendly board.

. It’s sometimes hard to find a good balance. RAT has always been an educating board, with both room for those with a lot of knowledge as well as the total newbies. The forum was always meant to support that exchange in knowledge and experience. Of course, that balance is not always easy to find. Recently it has been suggested that we have driven professionals away by stifling discussion. However, while that has certainly been the case, the reason, when vented, was a different one, namely either a result of bickering, or an endless attack by members who neglected the methodology and insisted upon non-scientific means of gathering historical information. How do you suggest we ‘protect’ the professionals from the amateurs, with over-moderating the board or stifling discussion?

-We should stop attacking others view in an non-scientific way. Give a good feedback on the subject, where you feel encouraged to underline your view with (scientific) reasoning.

Actually, I think that’s already taken care of, by underlining that every answer should be referenced. Now I know that I do not always do that. I only can when at home of course. Also, how do we keep amateurs on board while trying to ‘upgrade’ the scientific level of the discussion? Should we add yet another rule or tell amateurs to read up before they can add to the discussion?

-We should stop personal attacks. Always remember it's a public and internet forum, so people can't see your expressions and can ready negative comments badly (and I'm not innocent of this either!)

While we have always tried to support open discussion, that discussion can and sometimes will become heated. But this, also, is already covered by the rules. Moderators, if and when they come across such attacks, should be able to deal with this. Of course, it’s difficult to find a balance between open discussing and ‘over-moderating’ the board, as some members accept moderating while others have problems with that.

-We should begin making more use of scientific definitions and work like that. Terminology is made for purpose and therefore has to be used that way. Maybe a 'dictionairy/wiki' would be helpful in this regard (and yes, I know this kind of wiki has been discussed before).

See above: how do we ask this from the amateurs. Also, as noted in this forum before, there are a lot of differences between schools of thought, and terminology varies between different countries. I know the language of this forum is English, but terminology?