I wasn’t particularly saying that Plusheal needs to be an EJ, rather just using EJ as a well-known example to point out how boards like that have carved out their own “niches” in the community, and you know what they can give you that you won’t really find anywhere else. I agree completely that PlusHeal is definitely a more comfortable place, but what I was meaning is that it could still use more “direction” if you will, something that people will know that they can only get there; be it a great atmosphere to ask any question, etc etc. I also agree that what it needs is more input from moderators of course

Hopefully this made a little more sense in clearing up what I was saying!

Here’s the counterpoint to what Tulani said about EJ. As a long time EJ user–though not a frequent poster–I can identify several areas in which plusheal has an advantage.

1. More readable forums. Yay! I have to bring out my glasses to handle EJ’s color scheme.

2. Smaller topics. I hate poring through threads with hundreds of pages of stuff I don’t want to get to the one detail I actually do.

3. Different community vibe. It’s definitely a more comfortable place to ask questions. If I had to characterize the druid posters, well, I’d say they’re all really nice people and on their best behavior so to speak. There’s not much number-crunching going on, to be sure, but that may say more about who the active posters are than anything else. I’m interested in theorycrafting, but only from a reading someone else’s analysis perspective. Mathematical models were never my strong suit.

I think what we’re seeing is a community that has the possibility of developing–not exactly like EJ, but as its own thing. What we do need is more moderator input. Sometimes there’s discussions I’d like to start. In fact, I think there should be a topic every time a blue post goes up. I don’t do it myself, though, because…well, I’ve used up my writing juice on the blog.

2) Speaking as an officer, it’s truly a pain in the arse sometimes. People are pains. They won’t ever see reason when they’re angry unless it’s what they want to hear. However, I think that you were fine in what you did. Stand your ground, try to talk with them, but don’t put yourself out too much. I’m sure you’re doing fine, but if it’s too much (and let’s be honest, blog + RL + raid + officer = difficult) then don’t worry about it. You can still help out without having a stupid title in the guild tab – don’t forget that.

3) About PlusHeal: I think the biggest “issue” is that it’s new, and it hasn’t opened a niche yet. For instance, being a major EJ troller + contributer, I’ll always go there first. EJ is -the- place for great WoW conversation and theorycrafting (and it focuses solely on endgame, with heavy forum moderation that makes sure that every single post is a gem of information). So it has that side of WoW covered. SPriest.com has a niche in the spriest community, especially with havign topic after topic devoted to the spec and tons of theorycrafting. BlogAzeroth is, of course, devotied to blogging. Currently, PlusHeal is still just a board about healing, but not with the theorycrafting and large respect base of EJ, and not with a specific niche of spriest.com or anything else. In my opinion, while a “healing board” is great, you need to focus on what you want it to be: if you want it to be for all healing like it is, then keep going, but realize that a lot of people will still just go check their EJ boards and may end up forgetting about the “baby board” of PlusHeal, which I’m guessing is probably a lot of what’s happening.

The biggest thing that boards like EJ have going for them too is that everything is backed up with math and numbers to -prove- that it’s the best. They spent a long time fostering the discussion of theorycrafting, and overall that’s why people keep going back: they know they’ll find up-to-date and correct information on what they should be doing. A lot of smaller boards simply state people’s opinion, or just link back to EJ. I’m not saying you want to be EJ, of course, but it’s just food for thought: what do you want to bring to the community that hasn’t been brought with other boards? I also think that highlighting great topics on your blog would help generate interest.

In short, I think it’s just like a blog. You want to foster great conversation, but you want to be sure that there’s something memorable to keep people coming back – whether that be in the depth of discussion, the topics, the moderation, whatever. I think choosing things to focus on and develop that will set you apart from being “just another board” will help.

However, you should definitely think about this AFTER your midterms. Hopefully I helped!

I think the deal is that there is nothing quite new yet. When Wrath hits I’m sure the new instances and raids will have people wanting to know about them and how to deal with the problems therein.

Supposedly things are pretty easy right now – raid bosses with -30% health and such. Times are good all around. When stuff gets hard, when times are bad, that is when people go looking for answers. That’s when I expect traffic to increase.

As for the guildie – there is no excuse for him to need the guild to supply his repair bill. As you said, its not like hes a raider or sub, he’s just a guildie. And with the state that the game is in atm, he should spend 45 min doing dailies and cover his 15g repair bill (I mean its PVP cloth, how expensive can it be???)
My guild has it set up so that the gold in the bank is there for the raid tanks. And even then, we dont cover the entire repair bill, only about 10% of it, and only on raid nights. Its just something the guild does for us tanks (I am the guild’s primary tank as well as main healer when I’m not needed to tank) as a thank you for hefting the large bills 90% of the time.

As for the issue with being broke down on the side of the road, I guess its all about where you live. I live in South Georgia, and I always stop to check on people who are on the side of the road, unless they look really sketch (enter the redneck dressed in faded camo that looks like he’s packing a K-bar on his body)

Final note – dont over-stretch yourself. It would be awesome to add paladins and shamans to this community, but at the same time, it wouldn’t be. Having Syd around to talk about druid healing is nice, but only because we use alot of the same mechanics/gear as them (druids). No other class prioritizes spirit like trees and priests. If we (your loyal readers) want to learn about shaman and/or paladin healing, then we should go to the official forums and read the stickies there. There are also other blogs for us to visit (Plusheal maybe? I dunno, never heard of it before today).
If someone (pally/shaman) approaches you and asks to be included in this awesome blog, then feel free to look into it, but dont feel like you should go out of the way to find one.

GL one the paper man, take it easy, and stop punching concrete.

And on Plusheal, I wouldn’t worry about it too much, once expansion is out more discussion will be up and if more people are like me.. they are at work and quick copy/paste a post in Word to look like they working)

Your car – Get BCAA. They have saved my butt when I died in the Massey tunnel. (scary) and on Oak street rush hour. And my multiple flats…..

Plusheal – I really like plusheal.The quality of the answers that people respond are fabulous. Everyone is very nice. Newsletters don’t interest myself. But what I enjoy the most and keep me coming back after my basic healer questions are the funny ones in general. The ones about mistaken gender were hillarious and when the subject came about our children playing. More of those posts would be great. One forum I visit the moderators are always “fabricating” questions that to keep up the visits also. For example with plusheal: What was your biggest faux pas in an instance? Gosh I was so embarrassed with my healing when I …… What’s the biggest lie you told to a guildie?

Now, at plusheal, it is a once stop shop. I can ask my completely newb questions (like after my first fail at kara), and I can read some of the really in-depth info put up by people more knowledgeable than I am. I have learned quite a bit, and come far from my newbness using the forums there. I even have enough knowledge and confidence to *gasp* disagree with my gm, who is the only other person in my small guild with a healing priest, and even more *gasps* back it up with real info.

Stop, come on by and ask your questions. But, ask a bunch, I have found, that with very general new posts, often details are not passed on, as there is just so much info, you need to know what people want. I know, even I would have some answers for your questions, and there are some very very knowledgeable healers there.