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Make suggestions, report errors > "Welcome to ESL printables, we ´re glad to give you 5 points as a starter present and are looking forward to your contributions" - how does that sound?
"Welcome to ESL printables, we ´re glad to give you 5 points as a starter present and are looking forward to your contributions" - how does that sound?
I am happy to see we are going back to envisaging more generosity!
Honestly, since I have been a member, I have seen the desire for so many rules kill this site !
quote from Marvin Marshall:
Rules Rules
are meant to control, not inspire.
Rules are necessary in games, but
between people they immediately
create an adversarial relationship.
When I started, I did not know anything about making ws! I used textbooks and photocopies from textbooks..... Then I discovered the site and thought: " what a wonderful idea" and I registered.... And I can say lots of members here helped me with their generosity... I e mailed them my ws which they ´pampered up ´; They downloaded my ws to help me gain points! And do you know what, Because I thought these people were so generous, I decided to take lessons in computering! I had a private tutor come home, whom I paid in order to participate and be part of this great site!
This site inspired me!
NOW, I am not happy on this site anymor! I don ´t download many things.... I don ´t feel like sharing anymore ! So many members are now suggesting so many more rulrs that the site is totally stifled and has lost its originality! I am sad indeed, because here I have made lots of friends .... I even made the step to invite a member home and that was a tremendous experience and believe me after you have met you don ´t think of petty things like stolen, copied and the rest!!
So, It will break my heart but I think I will soon resign.
redrover, I admire the wholeheartedness with which you call someone who prepares a class for the next day at the last minute a CRAP TEACHER.
I am definitely a crap teacher then, and I admit to sometimes preparing classes at the last minute. And I ´m sure 99,9 % of our members would admit the same without blushing for a split second. Does that mean we have to leave this site because we are not MODEL TEACHERS for it as you say? You ´re going to be very lonely....
Come off your pedestal, man (or woman?) and admit you ´re only human. Dorothea
I agree with redrover that sometimes "less is more". However, there is definitely something that is escaping us.
We have about 204000 registered members. That �s a huge number, but as we �ve pointed out only a few hundreds are active members. That must make us think on why that happens, just like we must think of the reasons why 75% of our students are not successful, for example. Is it 100% the students � fault? Definitely not! Is it 100% the new registered members � fault? Definitely not!
So, how can the teacher improve his/her students � success? So, how can we improve the activity of the new members? What is it we can do to make those new members stay with us, share with us, in a word, become active?
Dorothea gave us an idea. It �s not possible. So let �s think together of other possibilities.
I agree with you Mariethe that too many rules is not good for the site. As the French may say: "Too much Law kills the Law"
But in the same time no rules is not good too. Because... There is too much stuff taking place on the server uselessly. There are too many people taking profit from others work. There are too many people trying to get advantaged against others by all means There are too many people who are here just to download and never upload.
That �s why we should have rules. More because it is a community made up from different culture and points of view.
Yes, my dear mariethe! We all have so much to gain from other active members. We all have learned so much from your Generosity (I know I have!!), a key word for the improvement of this site, no doubt. So, it �s essential that we all think of what we can do to make new members stay with us, because, again, something is escaping us - 204000 registered members and only a few hundreds participating? We must find a way to change this.
I consider myself (and am considered) a generous person. I usually give more than what I am asked, BUT I can�t stand abuse.
I have had to work hard for everything I got in my life and I think that is the right way.
Be careful when judging. I am one of those who does not upload material so frequently. I do not download, either. I take profit of all we share here and of the very good experiences carried out with some teachers and our students. I love the site, take part, try to help when possible and hope it goes on being the best on the net.
As long as I know, every person who has asked for help here, has been helped in many ways so I cannot understand what you mean.
As regards "rules", you surely know that in every organized society (and the idea of "society" starts at home, with the family) rules are a must. The lack of rules leads to chaos.
Unfortunately, the more members, the more rules needed...
This really looks like a big debate-like indeed!!! But I am with all of them who believe that the current rules are fine....it �s not been even a month since I joined!!!!I tried and got points....it �s possible for everyone.....
I totally agree with Tere-arg that rules are needed.....
I remember saying these few lines to my students....
How about a very simple tutorial for the newbies? They keep asking about the same thing all over... So how about to give them some simple tricks - make a colourful first page, include bw version, upload several pages, insert resized (small) cute pics, choose a good name, write several short exercises, you can use copied text, but exercises must be yours, add key...
The quick reading exercise - copy a simple text, delete some verbs, write the verbs below the text in their base form + add some comprehension questions...
Some sort of tutorial, which would be accessible from the main page (linked) ??? What do you think about it?
I am in agreement with Mariethe, and I have also stopped
participating on the forum as much. There is a HUGE sense of elitism
lately, of new members automatically being bad people because of
emulating somebody �s style or ideas... BEFORE things were not that way,
but lately it seems like a lot of inflated egos are wandering around
the site and all generosity and politeness has flown out the door.
There are so many rules now - some senseless at times but obviously there to
protect us members with 10,000 or more points, from unscrupulous new
members who haven �t a clue as how to start... (please note the
sarcasm...) - all sense of generosity and wanting to help out the newbie is
gone.
And I honestly think that we should be looking toward ourselves and
asking why has the site got so many registered members and yet so few of them are
active?? Maybe, we should be listening to complaints and trying to
understand why new members are complaining, than flying off the handle and insulting them (THIS behaviour embarrasses me to no end!)... Is that a nice way to greet and help out prospective members?
And while you all go on about people taking advantage of others and so
forth. Do you think a paid membership is really a bad thing? Do you
think Victor gets the web space for free?? Wouldn �t it be better to
allow people to pay a very small fee to download, if they wanted to instead of uploading??
It would certainly allow Victor to pay for an ever growing site...
Also, a two tier system is NOT bad, it allows us to grow and for others to
use our resources, talk about how great we are to others, etc. It does
not make us a bunch of commercialized, greedy prats...
Anyways, that �s my solution since Dorothea �s idea (which would be best) is not really all that feasible...
