We All "Need" Each Other

[Riverkilt]

Or, as the Lakota say, "We are all related."

There's a synergy here.

The owners need posters to attract advertisers and they use our posts to get hits on search engines to attract even more posters which helps attract more advertisers and justify advertising rates which finance the site.

The advertisers need us to buy their products to offset their advertising expense and to promote word-of-mouth advertising of their products. And, of course, the advertisers need the owner to provide this venue to reach a niche' market.

Posters need the owner to maintain the site and the advertisers to finance the site so we have a place to share information and ideas and fellowship. We need the advertisers to gain resources for the goods we want/need/crave.

Pull out any one and the whole deal collapses. We are all related.

Chicken or egg?

[MacLowlife]

Well said, though you might have said that we all drive each other. The postings drive the traffic which drives ad sales, which drives site maintenance, which drives site quality, which drives postings...I reckon some people's history with this site makes them feel proprietary about it, with good reason, I suppose. The actual owner really is our host and we may have been conditioned by the web to discount his largesse, but I expect it is considerable.

My only suggestion other than Consider the Lilies of the Field is that we all offer our own best, so that we can expect the best from our fellow members of the biosphere.

Oh, and KILTS, TARTANS, SPORRANS, DOUBLETS, HOSE and HIGHLAND TRADITIONS. There, that ought to satisfy the search engines...

[ForresterModern]

Or, as the Lakota say, "We are all related."

There's a synergy here.

The owners need posters to attract advertisers and they use our posts to get hits on search engines to attract even more posters which helps attract more advertisers and justify advertising rates which finance the site.

The advertisers need us to buy their products to offset their advertising expense and to promote word-of-mouth advertising of their products. And, of course, the advertisers need the owner to provide this venue to reach a niche' market.

Posters need the owner to maintain the site and the advertisers to finance the site so we have a place to share information and ideas and fellowship. We need the advertisers to gain resources for the goods we want/need/crave.

Pull out any one and the whole deal collapses. We are all related.

Chicken or egg?

Well said Ron, all things are inter-related and like Newton's first Law for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Like all things in nature there are dynamic equilibriums, that have finite levels of acceptable perturbation that still allow them to return to normal after a few cycles, but when perturbed hard enough or far enough, then the equilibrium changes drastically and a new equilibrium reached at a different level. This forum is no different---there has been a perturbation with the change of owners and his change in some rules and format of the forum, but in my opinion that is one that is within the overall acceptable range and one which, given time, will return to equilibrium again, possibly slightly changed, but very nearly what it was before.

One thing I disagree with is the Chiken or Egg question. Any biologist knows that dinosaurs were laying hard shelled eggs thousands of years before chickens even evolved, well, from dinosaurs.

Jeff

[xman]

One thing I disagree with is the Chiken or Egg question. Any biologist knows that dinosaurs were laying hard shelled eggs thousands of years before chickens even evolved, well, from dinosaurs.

Millions really. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29537188/

[Bugbear]

I agree with FM, especially about the egg part.

There is a side of this being left out, though, if you leave, as in no longer logging in, someone will, by the laws of nature, fill your spot unless the forum is dying.