What a bittersweet announcement, Robin. Back in the good old days (mid to late 90s), I met two of my favorite Mensans here. At each of the last two AGs I attended, I ran into people who remembered me from those days. The Sunday conferences were great...you never knew who was going to show up.
Bocephus
What a bittersweet announcement
I don't really see it that way, Bo. Sure, those were good days, but time marches on. Now, instead of having just one organization to have stimulating ties to, we have the full range of all the recognized high IQ societies. It will take a while to get all our links and contacts in place, but that's the interesting thing about the current turn of events. We get to be in on the building phase!
Dot
Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.
--Voltaire
>If you have comments, suggestions or questions, we'll be happy to take them on.<
Could you share why we couldn't continue as a SIG?
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Cole, I don't think any of this is secret. Sure, I'll share everything I know. <g>
I really don't think the possibility of continuing as a SIG was ever on the table. Bear in mind that AMC has its Communications Committee, formerly the Cyberspace Committee, I believe, to oversee American Mensa's online presence. Any "official" presence of Mensa would have to be vetted by this committee, and (as I understand it), it's this committee that decided not to pursue cleaning up the long-term situation in which AML and CompuServe had failed to agree on a contract for the forum. CompuServe has been extremely generous in allowing the forum to continue to operated on a day-to-day basis with no contract, but it hasn't been comfortable; and ultimately, the committee recommended, and AMC agreed, that it would focus Mensa's entire online presence on American Mensa's own Website. Accordingly, they've asked that CompuServe "take the Mensa name" off of this forum. The idea of doing an end run around the process by operating the forum as a SIG wouldn't resolve the contract issue; nor would it resolve AML's apparent intention to vest the official Mensa presence exclusively in its Website.
The funny thing about it is that this move impacts this forum a lot less than we had thought. We continue as before, with the same participants, most of the same contents, and similar policies. We're no longer an "official" function of Mensa, but to be blunt, we've really been an orphan child for quite a few years anyway. We can, and will, still be friends of Mensa. We will provide links to Mensa's Website (American, International, British and others). Now we're also free to be a portal to, and offer online publicity for, Intertel, Triple Nine Society and other high-IQ associations. We can chart our own course and host discussions about intelligence and its testing, living as upper-percentile people in a "normal" world, raising gifted children, and carry on all the issues discussions, personal relationships, puzzles, games and jokes we always have. We don't seek to form a new, competing High IQ society but to continue very much as we have, a friendly and civil place online where smart people (self-defined) can gather to enjoy civil conversations with others similarly inclined.
I'd venture to suggest that as time goes by, this change will be all but transparent ... except that we're probably less likely to get bogged down in Mensa politics. <g>
Next question?
I posted the announcement on the Intertel list, and hope to see some of my pals from there dropping around.Oh, thanks! We hope to see participants from many of the high IQ socities, in the long run making the forum a richer place for discussion and socializing.
We all suspected there would come a day when things would change, but our greatest fear was that CompuServe would close the forum, since there hasn't been a contract since (I believe this is the correct date) 1997. The staff has been pleasantly surprised to see that everything has come out positively, and our fears were all for naught. It doesn't get much better than that! We will no longer carry the Mensa name, but in the long run that means we can be more inclusive.
Because I am already a CompuServe contractor, business partner and Wizop of two other forums (WineLovers Community and The Genealogy Forum), I've agreed to take over the contract. Although this makes me technically the "Wiz," I have asked all the current staff members, including Bill, Dot Welch, Eva Jo, Miriam Brown and Mike "Shrineswallow," to remain on staff, and they've agreed. I won't use the Wizop title nor assign an Assistant Wiz; I think it's more appropriate for us to continue operating as a community of peers, and we won't make policy decisions without a staff consensus and, insofar as possible, consultation with you, the regular forum members.
Even though I haven’t really been a regular here since the changeover to the web format, I do appreciate the fact that you and others behind the scenes have continued to keep this place open for business in some way, shape or form throughout a lot of tumultuous times. Given all of the changes in the past few years, it has to have been a royal pain at times, to say the least. I’m sure that there have been times when you’ve all felt like throwing in the towel, but you haven’t done so. Of course, that could simply mean that you should all be re-tested, but I’ll interpret it in the more flattering sense---that you really do give an at's rass about the place.
Thanks to all of you guys and gals on the sysop roll, and look for a little something extra in your bonus checks this month!
-- Jim
It's my pleasure, Jim, and thanks ! If that "something extra" could be in the form of a halo shine, that'd be super! It's been a looooong time.....
You know we're hooked. We have to keep coming back for our fix. Allowing this place to gather dust would be like running our best dealer out of town. <g>
How about a couple of lobsters (See my entry in Humor.)?
Miriam
It's twoo! It's twoo! Now get YOUR rass back in here, you wingnut ...
I try. Honest. I still check out the RSS feeds and make sure I pop in when a subject line sounds particularly interesting. It could get ugly, though, if they ever start feeding individual messages, rather than just the thread titles.
If I hear that Robin is tooling around town in a Lamborghini, I’ll know that this is more than just an analogy.
Ulp.
