Muhler
Imperial Majesty
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2010
- Messages
- 17,808
- City
- Eastern Jutland
- Country
- Denmark
This is going to be a long post, so please bear with me.
And I can only speak for myself, but perhaps I speak for others as well.
Right now the TRF is the best and most comprehensive royal forum on the Net. It's the most comprehensive covering of all aspects of royalty and all royals.
The troublemakers, nutcases and negative people are weeded out, making it a friendly and polite place, despite the occasional row.
However, we are losing posters.
I will divide the members of the TRF into these groups:
The news-hunters - Who provide almost instant coverage of the royals in the form of pictures, clips and articles.
The specialists - who keep track on fashion, jewellery, clothes, designers and so on.
The historians - nerds actually,
who have an encyclopedic knowledge of genealogy, politics during the Hundred Year War and who no doubt know the names of Richard III's dogs!
The writers (which I believe I belong to) - who provide general background info on all sorts of subjects like politics, traditions, ceremonial as well as translations of interviews.
The moderators - who try and keep this zoo running as smoothly as possible.
And finally the most important members of the TRF: The readers.
That includes those who otherwise never post a link or write an article, because without the readers there is no TRF. The forum will die.
So your interaction and your feedback is vital.
I fully realize that by far the most come here to look at pictures and clips. And enjoy cute pictures and loving couples and the whole royal roadshow in all it's splendor. Not to mention fashion! - Without being particularly interested in what the royals actually do.
And that's great. That part of the TRF is alive and very well, despite competition from other sites. So no need to say more about that. Keep up the good work. And I'm not going to point my finger at why people come her. No reason is better than others.
However, some of us, myself included, would just as much like to know about the background and the history. Why are the royals dressed like that? What's the historical background for a tradition? Why is something considered controversial? Why are the royals attending an event? And so on and so on.
And this is where the historians and writers come in. We are the ones who provide background info, ceremonial details, history and answers to all the myriads of questions the readers may have.
And we (well I, can only speak for myself) thrive on feedback from the readers!
It's wonderful when someone share our interest and ask why there are three buttons instead of four on a uniform or what the political reasons for sending royal X to Timbuktu may be. Or when a particular dress was worn the last time. Or who is related to royal X's second cousin.
That's what keeps me/us going. It's encouraging.
It's really very simple: If I have spend two hours writing something and the only feedback I get is the sound of crickets... my conclusion is naturally: Oh, that wasn't interesting.
If it happens several times, the conclusion is: No one are interested. Probably because it's boring or I'm boring.
And that leads to the inevitable: Why bother? Why waste a lot of time writing something that no one are interested in?
Result: You stop writing. You stop writing translations and you start looking for a new place where people may be more interested.
(And that is where I am now. I still intend to be around and comment on posts, but my translations and summaries may be posted somewhere else).
This is a problem. We have lost several historians and writers over the years on that account. I can mention Chiara on the Japanese forum. She had a fantastic knowledge about the inner workings of the Japanese court and current Japanese politics. But now she's gone and so is her knowledge.
I know of another member who was asked very recently whether she would write an article about an otherwise interesting subject. She declined, she believed there was too little interest. - Can't blame her. I know the feeling.
That's where the readers come in.
I/we can't read your minds. So any kind of feedback matters. Also from those of you who otherwise never post anything.
Do something. Ask questions. We are happy to write about our favorite topics. - If for no other reason than to show off.
Hit the thank you button. Post a comment. Tell us if it's boring or incomprehensible - we/I may be annoyed at first but we learn from it. Contradict us if you know better, we might learn something.
All of us, readers, posters and moderators depend on each other. If we loose too many of one group the TRF will fade away.
I hope this made sense. - And perhaps others have something to add?
And I can only speak for myself, but perhaps I speak for others as well.
Right now the TRF is the best and most comprehensive royal forum on the Net. It's the most comprehensive covering of all aspects of royalty and all royals.
The troublemakers, nutcases and negative people are weeded out, making it a friendly and polite place, despite the occasional row.
However, we are losing posters.
I will divide the members of the TRF into these groups:
The news-hunters - Who provide almost instant coverage of the royals in the form of pictures, clips and articles.
The specialists - who keep track on fashion, jewellery, clothes, designers and so on.
The historians - nerds actually,
The writers (which I believe I belong to) - who provide general background info on all sorts of subjects like politics, traditions, ceremonial as well as translations of interviews.
The moderators - who try and keep this zoo running as smoothly as possible.
And finally the most important members of the TRF: The readers.
That includes those who otherwise never post a link or write an article, because without the readers there is no TRF. The forum will die.
So your interaction and your feedback is vital.
I fully realize that by far the most come here to look at pictures and clips. And enjoy cute pictures and loving couples and the whole royal roadshow in all it's splendor. Not to mention fashion! - Without being particularly interested in what the royals actually do.
And that's great. That part of the TRF is alive and very well, despite competition from other sites. So no need to say more about that. Keep up the good work. And I'm not going to point my finger at why people come her. No reason is better than others.
However, some of us, myself included, would just as much like to know about the background and the history. Why are the royals dressed like that? What's the historical background for a tradition? Why is something considered controversial? Why are the royals attending an event? And so on and so on.
And this is where the historians and writers come in. We are the ones who provide background info, ceremonial details, history and answers to all the myriads of questions the readers may have.
And we (well I, can only speak for myself) thrive on feedback from the readers!
It's wonderful when someone share our interest and ask why there are three buttons instead of four on a uniform or what the political reasons for sending royal X to Timbuktu may be. Or when a particular dress was worn the last time. Or who is related to royal X's second cousin.
That's what keeps me/us going. It's encouraging.
It's really very simple: If I have spend two hours writing something and the only feedback I get is the sound of crickets... my conclusion is naturally: Oh, that wasn't interesting.
If it happens several times, the conclusion is: No one are interested. Probably because it's boring or I'm boring.
And that leads to the inevitable: Why bother? Why waste a lot of time writing something that no one are interested in?
Result: You stop writing. You stop writing translations and you start looking for a new place where people may be more interested.
(And that is where I am now. I still intend to be around and comment on posts, but my translations and summaries may be posted somewhere else).
This is a problem. We have lost several historians and writers over the years on that account. I can mention Chiara on the Japanese forum. She had a fantastic knowledge about the inner workings of the Japanese court and current Japanese politics. But now she's gone and so is her knowledge.
I know of another member who was asked very recently whether she would write an article about an otherwise interesting subject. She declined, she believed there was too little interest. - Can't blame her. I know the feeling.
That's where the readers come in.
I/we can't read your minds. So any kind of feedback matters. Also from those of you who otherwise never post anything.
Do something. Ask questions. We are happy to write about our favorite topics. - If for no other reason than to show off.
All of us, readers, posters and moderators depend on each other. If we loose too many of one group the TRF will fade away.
I hope this made sense. - And perhaps others have something to add?