I joined WBMUTBB? about sixteen years ago, to the best of my recollection. I
read the digest every day and try to post from time to time. It's easier to
post when there is lots of activity because then there is usually something
that I want to respond to. When there is less activity, there's not much to
respond to, so I confess that I don't post as much as I did in the past. When
there have been periods of low activity, I've tried to help spur interest in
posting, but I don't spend time every day trying to come up with things to
post. I just have too many other things to do. I don't mind the alumni
postings. However, since we don't have TV, I don't often see actors from TAGS
on other shows. I usually read the posts, but if I'm not interested that day,
I just skip over them. I also did not mind the question about least favorite
TAGS episode. I don't think that invited a "hate fest." Rather, it was a
discussion opener. I don't recall people making many negative comments. Mo
st stuck to the spirit of the question. The one about other shows, true, was
a little off base, but I thought it was a fun question and did participate in
that one. I do appreciate that Allan strives to keep our digest a positive,
friendly place, and I think that's important. On the other hand, we don't want
to take it to such an extreme that it stifles interesting discussion. I think
if people just try to avoid being unduly critical or going on rants, we are
usually okay. At the same time, if we try not to be overly sensitive, it
helps, too. In other words, if we all just try to be considerate of one
another and if we just skip over posts that we don't like or aren't interested
in, we can keep things in the spirit of Mayberry. Does that sound reasonable?
I would really like to see more activity on the digest, but I fear that social
media is to blame for the decrease in posts. On the one hand, it's nice that
we have more opportunities to interact with other TAGS fans and shar
e our "compelsion" with others. I myself belong to at least four TAGS groups
on Facebook, and I do participate a good bit there. The immediacy of Facebook
allows us to get involved in more give and take, and I like that. However, the
digest serves an important function, and I would hate to see it go the way of
the horse and buggy. Though the digest lacks the immediacy of social media, it
allows us to make longer, more involved posts, at least sometimes. In the
past, I've gotten into discussions on the digest about, for example, how
Barney's character changed after he left Mayberry to become a detective in the
big city of Raleigh. The digest allows for more in-depth discussions than a
Facebook group, I think, because you have the time to reflect and compose your
post. You don't feel you have to make just a brief, snappy comeback. The
question is whether enough members want to take the time to send an e-mail,
rather than just make a quick comment on social media. So I want to
make a challenge to our members. I just took a look over at
www.imayberry.com, and I see that we have 1,204 members. That's a lot! And
yet only a handful of people actually post to the digest. I know there are
many members who read the digest daily but never post. If you've never posted
to the digest, why not give it a try? You might tell us who your favorite
character is or your favorite episode or the reason you love TAGS--or whatever
comes to your mind. If more people posted instead of just reading, we'd have
a lot more activity on the digest and we would have a lot more variety in the
kinds of posts. That would prompt more people to respond, and maybe we could
keep it up. Allan does a lot of work to run the digest and the web site, and we
really ought to make better use of the wonderful resources we have available to
us as fans. Sorry for such a long post!! Thelma Lou(Janet)
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