i borrowed this heading from another board: sorry all - it's completely irrelevant here, except to get your attention . now that i've accomplished THAT, please read on...<P>the winds of change may be about to blow...from what i hear: rustling in the trees, etc. so i thought it would be good to put it right up front for everyone...hope that's OK, stuart? (if not, please delete!)<P>i got tired of waiting for hanna's thread to load (thanks for kicking it off, hanna...where are you now?), so i'm starting this new one.<P>if you want the FULL story, please read 'nice site' thread. to summarise, some suggestions have been put forward by various people (but i'm to blame for more than a few of them). <P>they include:-<P>1) a new name for criticaldance (see 'nice site' for suggested options)...<P>2) action to get higher priority on the search engines,<P>3) change of title for the ballet and the modern dance 'performances' topics, to be more inclusive, rather than just reviews,<P>4) possibly splitting 'Behind the Scenes' into at least 2 topics - one practical, as in for the dancer/teacher etc., the other technical/production stuff, which is an area that seems to be unique to this board,<P>5) new appropriately qualified moderators for the abovementioned two areas,<P>6) trina suggests a younger dancers forum, (but i personally would like to see that stay within the 'older' dancers topic area, at THIS point in time...maybe later if the need becomes evident?)<P>7) pages to be split, with the moderator adding a 'turn the page' reminder/instruction to readers whenever they split a page,<P>8)trina suggests "Dance Education' as a topic area heading, but i would like to let you know that that specific phrase has a connotation in australia (and i think maybe in england, too) of general education in the schools ABOUT dance, rather than actually dancing. there is a slight negative perception about it, because it isn't thought of as actual DANCE, but as theorising and playing at it, rather than serious application.<P>if i've missed anything, please feel free to add. <P>my reason for doing this thread is in the hope of eliciting feedback from some of the people out there who are reading and may be appreciating and enjoying the board, but have so far been reluctant to voice opinions...it IS your board...please say what YOU want. from my experience here, i feel confident that you WILL be heard!<P>thanks in advance for any participation! <P><p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited 03-30-2000).]

Great suggestions Grace, you should be living in the US with all that media savvy! The heading really is an attention getter. <P>I agree on most issues, but I don't think the site's name needs to be changed - just my personal opinion. I'll have to think some more before I add any constructive thoughts though. Brainstorming can be soooo constructive!<BR>

grace, wow, great job on summarizing the suggestions. Stuart? Others? What do you think?

I agree entirely, Azlan. Grace has done the site a great service in so adeptly summarising a range of discussions that took place over a period. <P>I'm off to look at a new (to me) car and will respond in detail when I'm back this evening.

grace, as promised some comments on your valuable summary:<P>1) a new name for criticaldance (see 'nice site' for suggested options)...<P>2) action to get higher priority on the search engines,<P>>>These two are linked, as I have a concern that our lack of success with Search engine recognition may be due to the name not having dance at the front. Azlan is looking into this, so for the moment we should defer any decisons until we have more information.<P>3) change of title for the ballet and the modern dance 'performances' topics, to be<BR>more inclusive, rather than just reviews,<P>>>>Unless anyone has any objections, I will take this forward over the next week.<P>4) possibly splitting 'Behind the Scenes' into at least 2 topics - one practical, as in for<BR>the dancer/teacher etc., the other technical/production stuff, which is an area that<BR>seems to be unique to this board,<P>5) new appropriately qualified moderators for the abovementioned two areas,<P>6) trina suggests a younger dancers forum, (but i personally would like to see that stay<BR>within the 'older' dancers topic area, at THIS point in time...maybe later if the need<BR>becomes evident?)<P>>>> Three related areas. I am tempted by a 2-way split as discussed in 4) with new Moderators, names to be discussed. I'm not so sure about a separate forum for younger dancers initially. They will certainly be welcomein the proposed forum, but I am wary of splitting into 3 or more topics, given the relative failure of this format on another site. I am also aware that Victoria Leigh on Ballet Alert does such a good job and has built up such an audience base, that we may just be duplicating an already successful activity. But if we get lots of youngsters we can always split at a later date. <P>7) pages to be split, with the moderator adding a 'turn the page' reminder/instruction<BR>to readers whenever they split a page,<P>>>> Azlan is looking into this, I think. <P>8)trina suggests "Dance Education' as a topic area heading, but i would like to let you<BR>know that that specific phrase has a connotation in australia (and i think maybe in<BR>england, too) of general education in the schools ABOUT dance, rather than actually<BR>dancing. there is a slight negative perception about it, because it isn't thought of as<BR>actual DANCE, but as theorising and playing at it, rather than serious application.<P>>>> That sounds fine - let's think of another name. <P>Looking forward to comments from other readers.<BR>

I'm looking into what? Oh yeah, search engines. I've got a few tips in my mail box that might be handy. I think it's going to take a team effort. Cygnet did a lot of the original ground work and maybe now we need to take it to the next step.<P>I don't think however that putting "dance" in front of the name helps but I will confirm.<P>As for the page-turning thing, it will have to be done manually by the moderators. This means more work for the moderators. If the moderators are willing to do it then maybe we should give it a go.

stuart, re your point 6 above: i am really glad you agree, that victoria leigh's area is so well handled at Ballet Talk that CD should not even ATTEMPT to duplicate this service.<P>i have the greatest respect for victoria's work, and i am quite sure that no-one else could do anywhere near as good a job (i hope no-one here minds me saying that?...)<P>i really think her approach is exceptional, , so the comment above is no insult to anyone!<P>if young dancers write to this board, obviously CD still needs to respond constructively, but if young people want a dedicated forum for questions direct to a teacher, she's the best!

Grace, what I've done when approached by a young dancer is to refer them to others like Victoria and Lugo on danceart.<p>[This message has been edited by Azlan (edited April 13, 2000).]