Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » SALSA in CARDIFF on a Wednesday?

I don’t put everything on the front page mainly because of the difficulty of keeping the information current. Promoters will announce the start of a new class but if it is not successful they will quietly drop it without letting me know. If I were to feature every class that started up on the front page I would have to phone round every couple of weeks in order to keep the site up to date. Which I’m not prepared to do.

My personal opinion is, if someone wants to run a salsa class, they should get some CDs and provide a bit of practice time. That’s why I restrict the front page to established events that I know have a bit of staying power and can provide an evening’s entertainment.

Your point about forum post-titles is nonsense. It’s up to promoters to promote their events with relevant post-titles, and they usually do. A casual visitor will find a salsa class on the front page, more enthusiastic dancers will browse the forum. So, where’s the problem?

I don’t understand your implication about the events page. I know it’s looking a bit sad at the moment, but if I hear about relevant events in the site catchment-area I will feature them there.

This is a constant problem and not only on the Salsa Cardiff website... All website managers have their own way of keeping things current relevant and tidy or not as the case may be!

As an alternative idea with regard to out of date information... wouldn’t it make sense to give all advertising a three-month time limit so that promoters would have to post originally under these terms and would have to keep their information up to date or have the post deleted? I personally feel that three months would be a fair amount of time, and then out of dates information would dissapear naturally and without any hassle for either party!

This site is - it is fair to say - one of the better-managed sites even if you might dissagree with some of the rules... IMHO

Fair points Hugh... altho perhaps telling the organisers of the classes that they must email you every 2 weeks to confirm the classes are still running or face getting automatically dropped from the listings, may help.

My point would be that in the forums any news of new classes starting up can soon sink out of sight for allbeit the most determined of forum browser to find. A lot of people casually passing through this site looking for new classes/dance nights will stop at the main page and take the information from there. Which is great for the established teachers and established nights that already have plenty of custom and so may need the exposure less but hardly encourages new nights and venues which need time to grow so that eventually social dancing times with the venue owners can be neogtiated and extended.

Also there is a lot to be said for the one hour class in the local fitness/social centre for example that would not get a listing on the front page, these classes can be more local and convenient for potential new salsa dancers as well as less intimidating and provide a great stepping stone for those that eventually want to come to the more established nights.

Basically the encouragement of new nights and classes and there promotion ulitmately benefits the entire salsa scene. If we want more great new dancers/teachers and salsa nights for everyone.

Competition is a healthy thing... and gives the consumer choice,... also just like in any free market only the fittest will survive, faced with more choice, salsa students are more likely to find those teachers they like and who know what they are doing... and those teachers who know they are more than capable will always last and have nothing to worry about.

I don’t think anyone wants to tell you how to run your site Hugh... am sure you have a proper job and time constraints etc... but perhaps its time to re-vamp and upgrade the site to cope with the changes in the Cardiff salsa scene over the last few years, and enable it to keep up with the salsa sites of other areas where they are able to handle the increased listings thus benefiting there salsa scene whilst we are still left a little behind the times...

Just a suggestion... :-)

Welsh Wizard.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I’ll give them some thought. I’ve no objection to promoters bumping their messages back to the top if their classes are continuing, and, if they’ve stopped, it’s just as well if they disappear from view.

Teachers could use the forum as a promotional tool by responding to questions, starting discussions, giving advice, etc. But not many do. The only contribution some promoters make is to plug their event and then pose as a customer saying how great it was. (They think they are sooo clever.)

This post of yours is a little naughty Hugh and you might want to reflect on this, as you alone have knowledge of who has transgressed in this way … readers of this post however don’t. I appreciate your not wishing to name and shame but if the actual transgressor is not named the problem will be that all promoters can now be open to the accusation that they are less than honest in their promotional posts!

I think you’re seeing a problem where none exists. I was trying to make a serious point; namely: there are good and bad ways for promoters to publicise themselves on the forum.

I and all the visitors welcome sincere and informative posts.

The specific problem Hugh is that if you inform readers that certain promoters post false replies (a reprehensible/dishonest practice in my view) without naming who those specific promoters are...

Readers of this forum not having access to the IP addresses as you do, won’t be able to distinguish who is or who isn’t guilty of such a transgression. I don’t know how you view such acts but personally I find that kind of thing unacceptable and I wouldn’t want anyone to consider that I might be one of the promoters you are referring to

A better way to deal with this problem in my view would be to block the posts you refer to or inform the guilty party that you are on to them and this is not a correct way to proceed rather than potentially tar all promoters with the same brush by default

I do remove fake posts. I was just making a vaguely humourous allusion to the naivety of some promoters and hinting that there might be a better strategy for them to pursue.

I am not “tar[ring] all promoters with the same brush by default”, either actually or “potentially”, and I’m sure nobody else thinks I am.

The posting of fake messages is a widespread phenomenon on the web, it has come to be known as astroturfing, and it is not surprising that it happens here too. Therefore, it shouldn’t be surprising or distressing that I should allude to it. When it occurs I deal with it. I have nothing further to say on the matter.

I’m not really sure whether you understood my post at all Hugh...

My post wasn’t about you per se... it was about the fact that readers of this forum will not be able to distinguish who is, or who is not, guilty of the transgression you have ‘ humorously’ eluded to, without the knowledge that only you possess as this website’s moderator.

Potentially this leaves all promoters open to the same accusation and therefore potentially questions their integrity and I think my point is as serious as it is unambiguous.

If you’re not getting it then perhaps, as you suggest, it would be better to discontinue debate on the subject