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#Post#: 19558--------------------------------------------------
When you hesitate - should I register and write here or not... a
word for Guests
By: MartinSR Date: October 29, 2019, 5:01 pm
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Ok. As you see... There are not many things happening here
recently.
This time I would like to write a few words to Guests. When
you're just entering the forum to see what's going on here, or
to read any of previous discussions - the system treats you as
Guest. You may sometimes see the status info "2 guests and 1
member are viewing this topic" (or something like that - I
don't remember exactly). Of course a few of Guests can be
members who don't like to log in when they see no interesting
discussion to comment on...
But now I'm writing to you if you are really our Guest here. You
may be hesitating: should I register and write something or not,
should I start a new topic?
You probably read a few of discussions here and found them not
interesting for you... or maybe you found the level of
discussion too high (or too low). It happens to me all the time.
I read a topic and think "Oh no. I know nothing about this
subject" or I read the content and think "There are so many wise
people here, they seem to be experts in everything really. If I
try to write something they will consider me uneducated guy with
narrow horizons." When you have such an impression I can tell
you it may be very misleading. Every person may be interesting
to other people because we come from different parts of the
world, from different cultures, different societies.
You may ask why here? Maybe you are already active on Facebook.
Maybe you write your own blog. Maybe you came here from some
other online community like e.g. the language learning community
many people here came from.
This place is not a competition to those media I mentioned
above. It has a form which is different to typical social media
where people just take a look at pictures or just click "Like"
under posts of people they know (hardly reading the content).
It's not a blog either because we are equal here and even when
someone has an idea how to start a topic it doesn't mean he must
moderate the discussion and answer to all respondents.
Maybe some of my fellow members will like to protest here but I
say "It's not a language learning site". Of course you may find
a lot of language related content here, some word-games and even
writing challenge. It's because many of our members are
passionate language learners and even a few teachers and tutors.
But it's not the leading goal of this community. Many of us just
like to use a language they learned to not lose it. Some of us
are native speakers of English and other languages used here -
so they have other motivation... Maybe you would like to ask
them why do they decide to participate here.
And if you see there is something lacking here - too few topics
connected to a particular field of life, not enough content in
the language you speak, maybe something else - I may tell you
why is it like that - it is you who is missing here!
Maybe you don't want to engage in another online activity,
because your time is limited. You are not expected to trade your
soul to this community. You may register with the minimal
personal data you are safe to bring. You can use a nickname and
keep your identity private. You may just log in once a week or
when you have time, just to write a short comment, start a
topic, whatever. I'm one example of a very rare guest here
because of my busy schedule. There were even situations that I
disappeared for a couple of months. But I know I can return
here. The problem is that with so few active members the one who
drops in occasionally only, usually finds no active discussion
to comment on. But imagine there are 30 or 50 of us and everyone
participates in at least one discussion per month and starts at
least one discussion per year... Now you see what I mean.
What is unique to this site that you are unlikely to be punished
because of your views. When you try to respect that the others
may have different opinions to yours, you are safe. It's not
everywhere like that - you may trust me. Of course we had a few
unpleasant discussions here too. But we are humans. Everyone can
have a bad day. The most important thing is to solve problems by
discussing them.
The other thing what you may be afraid of is the language level.
Of course it's hard to participate when you don't understand
half of the discussion, but there are many topics where people
just ask about opinions of the others. The things you write
should be at least comprehensible and may be written with
limited vocabulary and only basic grammar usage. Of course there
are many native speakers of English and a few teachers here, but
there are people (including me) who finished their language
education long time ago and make many mistakes. You may see that
with every new comment the way you express your thoughts will be
clearer and easier to understand by others. But everyone should
remember - it's not a learning site - it's communicating site,
where we just use words to exchange thoughts. As little than
that... and as much.
These are my thoughts when I see this forum this evening. It's
time to go to sleep (we may be in different time zones) and my
phone battery sais it's 8%, so it needs some rest and recharging
too. So, my dear unknown companion, recognised as Guest by the
system - create an account, log in, write anything you want -
create new discussion, tell me what do you think about that, or
comment any other discussion. I can't promise I will answer you
myself, because I am as busy as most of us. But maybe some of
old members... or maybe your post will encourage another new
member. We will be happy to see you here...
And now goodnight ;)
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