Is this the SEMPO Forum?

[pageoneresults]

Wow, I was surfing around this morning and decided to check in at the Search Engine Watch Forums. Click on the main forum link and am presented with 10 SEMPO topics, now 11 with this one. Is this the SEMPO Forum?

Danny, I have to ask, have you been nominated to speak on behalf of SEMPO at these forums? It does appear that way and I'm wondering why there have been few if any responses from other SEMPO Board Members to all of the public issues that have arised.

Hmmm, maybe I missed them. Let me go back and dig through those 10 current topics to double check. ;)

[dannysullivan]

The original thread started off Mike Grehan's orginal article was one of the most popular and most read we've had. There's obvious interest.

The criticism and comments have been great, but it's also hard to follow all the different fires people seem to want put out when a thread goes into 7 different pages (and that's when you're reading the max of 40 posts per page).

I've started the new threads to try and make things more constructive. Some people seem to want SEMPO to reform. Hopefully, this will help them focus comments around particular topics. Some people don't care for SEMPO at all. They can still comment, of course.

SEMPO itself is planning its own forums for members. I can't wait. To some degree, I feel like we're suffering the burden of discussion that some members may want to have. They don't have another easily outlet.

Danny, I have to ask, have you been nominated to speak on behalf of SEMPO at these forums? It does appear that way and I'm wondering why there have been few if any responses from other SEMPO Board Members to all of the public issues that have arised.
Nope, I haven't. The reason I'm commenting so much is primarily that I'm trying to ensure we have some balance. It's really easy to get into bashing. I share many of the same concerns others have. I just mainly want to see all this energy, and many of the great suggests, go into a way that can be used productively. Setting up the various topics was a way I hoped to help this.

[ihelpyou]

A private forum for it's members is fine, but how will that help the industry? The SES conference meeting of sempo produced almost nothing as current sempo members seem to be afraid to speak out, OR they simply agree with the direction the current org is going. How would having it's own private forums help those sem firms out there that are not members?

A big problem is that sempo is claiming to represent ALL of us. Not just the current members.

Also; The new threads will not get much good feedback as we all have posted Many good suggestions in that one single thread. We don't wish to rehash the same post all over again.

orion said he was not going to post his findings again. Others will not make their same posts again either. I fail to understand what's so hard about reading one thread that is full of very good constructive criticism.

[dannysullivan]

A private forum for it's members is fine, but how will that help the industry?
Oh, I'd well expect that even if there were member forums, there would still be discussions of SEMPO outside of those. The problem is, people who are members of SEMPO definitely need a place where they specifically can discuss things among themselves. After all, they are members of the group. That just makes sense. They may also want to talk externally; and those not in SEMPO may want to talk about this, as well. But member forums would help.

The SES conference meeting of sempo produced almost nothing as current sempo members seem to be afraid to speak out, OR they simply agree with the direction the current org is going. How would having it's own private forums help those sem firms out there that are not members?
I don't think people were afraid to speak but rather the Q&A/discussion time was extremely small. In addition, what, you only get to discuss SEMPO as a member in a physical meeting? Member forums are a great solution to improving communication that so many say they want to see happen.

The forums will do nothing to help those who aren't members. But again, I'm not suggesting that discussions of SEMPO (or other groups, associations, movements, etc) wouldn't happen outside SEMPO forums. But how quickly should an executive director be appointed? Should the entire board step down? Some of this stuff is primarily up to the members themselves.

Also; The new threads will not get much good feedback as we all have posted Many good suggestions in that one single thread. We don't wish to rehash the same post all over again.
Then don't. It's not like all the previous comments you've made have disappeared. They still remain. Maybe someone will dig it all out on your behalf and add it to a new thread. Quite possibly, the suggestions will have been read and noted. But yes, I think one giant thread makes it hard -- especially if you want to branch a particular point off into its own thread, as is often helpful.

[Marcia]

I saw what was happening, and understood right away why the topics were broken up. The simple fact is that when a forum - or threads - get REALLY, REALLY busy it gets rougher and rougher - it isn't like "normal" moderating at all - it's a whole different scene to deal with. And sometimes crowd control measures have to be taken, though there are different styles to how it's done.

To be perfectly honest, there was a bit of topic "hijacking" going on - it's not at all an uncommon thing and it was getting more and more irritating by the hour. I thought it was all handled very, very tactfully - and gently, too. I personally wouldn't have been that nice for that long.

Apologies - it just takes a while to "untrain the eye." ;)

[pageoneresults]

I'm very familiar with the splitting of topics. I'm just wondering if it might be better to actually start a SEMPO forum here as it seems to be appropriate given that it is the main topic of discussion these days, at least here at Search Engine Watch. This way all those other great topics not about SEMPO won't get lost in the mix.

[dannysullivan]

I did indeed debate having a separate area for SEMPO or even better, SEM Industry Groups area. Wanted to try this first as a mid-step. It's also less dramatic having all these threads than it might seem. If you go right into the Search Industry Growth & Trends area, you see lots of threads. But they don't dominate things like Featured at the top of the page, plus discussions in all the other areas still should be easily be coming out when you skim the home page or use the New Posts link.

[steve sardell]

I did indeed debate having a separate area for SEMPO or even better, SEM Industry Groups area. This is an idea that IMHO, you seriously may want to reconsider. I think it would make it less confusing for a new member, and give a venue for other orgs.