OurPath Open Forum

This Open Forum is funded and administered by OurPath, Inc., (formerly the Straight Spouse Network). OurPath is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides support to Straight Partners and Partners of Trans People who have discovered that their partner is LGBT+. Your contribution, no matter how small, helps us provide our community with this space for discussion and connection.


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May 20, 2023 7:22 pm  #41


Re: admins censoring content

Yes.

This is my last comment on this thread.


No - It's not too late. It's not hopeless. Even there, there's something I can do. I just have to find the will. Ikiru (1952), film directed by Akira Kurosawa 
 

May 20, 2023 7:56 pm  #42


Re: admins censoring content

okay, thanks.

 

May 20, 2023 8:09 pm  #43


Re: admins censoring content

I keep hearing the claim that the name change made this board impossible for new people to find.
Where is the evidence of this ?

If you open the general section, I see four or five new names on the first page and it only goes back to April. In the Support section - it looks like at least 10 new names. Is He/She Gay - probably another 10.
And a few in Our Stories. Maybe one or two in the MOM section, but that category has never been overly busy.

This is without checking page two or diving into the actual posts in each thread. I'm also not checking Sean's thread, which may have other peoples first posts in it. I don't believe there's been any significant decrease in activity here. There are occasional lulls, but that's always been the case. If the board software has admin reports that track member signups and post numbers. It would be interesting to to see this compared to the last year or two.

It's a rare day that I can log in, click on the new posts button, and get a response back that there are no new messages to read.

 


“The future is unwritten.”
― Joe Strummer
 

May 20, 2023 8:39 pm  #44


Re: admins censoring content

We've been averaging 1-2 new members per day ( along with 10 to 20 spammers I have to get rid of some days). Not all new members post. Spammers are pretty easy to spot, there are a couple websites that can identify them from email or IP address.

 

May 20, 2023 10:45 pm  #45


Re: admins censoring content

Sam (Admin) wrote:

We've been averaging 1-2 new members per day ( along with 10 to 20 spammers I have to get rid of some days). Not all new members post. Spammers are pretty easy to spot, there are a couple websites that can identify them from email or IP address.

 Not all new members post. Not all new members may be straightspouse either. With the new welcoming/inclusive vibe the Forum may get the lgbtq community thinking they belong here too.
The number of new members don't really tell us anything anyway. Anybody can read, and join (those who aren't spammers) but I have discerned a lowered number of unregistered viewers. 


 


KIA KAHA                       
 

May 21, 2023 9:42 am  #46


Re: admins censoring content

The number of new members tells us that the name change does NOT have the impact on the discoverability of this form that some here insist it does.

The thought of non-straight spouses being here does not bother me. We already have had a few over the years. Some, like Sean and Diff, are still around and do make a valuable contribution that helps others figure this out. Others might learn something from a perspective that often gets overlooked.

Walls and locked doors do not help, IMHO.
Any organization with a public forum has a responsibility to moderate within well-defined posting guidelines. Anything else is reckless and potentially liable.

Probably my last comment on this topic. It's a holiday weekend where I am and the sun is out.

 


“The future is unwritten.”
― Joe Strummer
 

May 21, 2023 10:28 am  #47


Re: admins censoring content

I will comment on the name change. I googled for a married to a gay online site in 2018. I found nothing useful. I tried again in 2019 and found the straight spouse site after trying a bit harder by changing search terms and reading through more Google result pages.  The name Our Path doesn't necessarily make it harder or easier to find this site on Google. You always have to be persistent to find sites which do not pertain to the majority of people online.

In the US, Google searches are ad driven. I find 5 or more sponsored websites appearing first. It can be up to 15. That's a page and a half of things that would have appeared 50-100 sites back unless the company paid Google a lot of money. It's not a trivial amount of money either.

Google's prime interest for existing is profit. A non profit specialized organization is going to be hard to find no matter what. Our Path cannot afford to pay for top listing on Google.

It has nothing to do with politics, name changes, or the intent/lack of focus of the Our Path board members. Again, it has everything to do with Google's goals to make more profits, keep the company afloat and make shareholders happy.

I am a tech professional and have some idea how search engines work. Am also aware of the incessant drive for profits. I don't know if anyone recalls Netscape. They were the first most successful web browser around 1999. They made some missteps, lost profits and don't exist. Am sure the powers that be at Google are aware of that.

Last edited by MJM017 (May 21, 2023 10:34 am)


No - It's not too late. It's not hopeless. Even there, there's something I can do. I just have to find the will. Ikiru (1952), film directed by Akira Kurosawa 
 

May 21, 2023 12:10 pm  #48


Re: admins censoring content

Nobody is expecting OnePath to pay for advertising surely!

The way it was explained to me is that the search engines don't read sentences, what gets picked up first are the key words on the banner.  So Our Path is what gets picked up first instead of Straight Spouse.

I was also told the number of times the key words are on the banner counts.  And people will write blurbs on their banner using their key words over and over.  So the use of the term straight twice in the blurb is good but would work a lot better if the term straight was in the title.  Have things changed from that?


  

 

May 21, 2023 1:48 pm  #49


Re: admins censoring content

It has changed a lot from a few years ago.  Here's the latest from Google about how they do it:

https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/#:~:text=Beyond%20looking%20at%20keywords%2C%20our,learned%20systems%20better%20estimate%20relevance.

Many countries have their own version of Google for many reasons as you know. You can view any of them yourself to see.

Edited to add: It's so easy, a no brainer to add straight spouse network in the keywords in the front page code. It's necessary because most icons and banners are pictures and decorative elements, not text.  There's lots of room for text and phrases that is read and interpreted by search engines. They do look at sentences. Take a look at Google translate to watch sentence interpretation in action.

It's much more sophisticated and nuanced than it was even when the name change took place.

Last edited by MJM017 (May 21, 2023 2:04 pm)


No - It's not too late. It's not hopeless. Even there, there's something I can do. I just have to find the will. Ikiru (1952), film directed by Akira Kurosawa 
 

May 21, 2023 5:35 pm  #50


Re: admins censoring content

thanks for the link - I've been reading it.  Yes it has developed out of sight from when I was given that information - including trolling through my data to improve relevance.  wow.

but as far as I understand it, the premise on which I say we lost visibility by changing the banner to Our Path from Straight Spouse Forum still stands.

If you look at our current banner Largest Type is Our Path, tiny type of straight partner imbetween but Next Largest Type is Our Path Open Forum.  Which is good as it puts the site into forum-land but still ignores the content.  Then you get straight twice and spouse once in the blurb.  I can only assume Our Path is more interested in promoting their name than the purpose of this forum.  Fine, that's their prerogative.  I want to be known as myself first too.  But if I remember correctly the numbers of new posters dropped off dramatically with the name change and have been improving over time.  It would be interesting to see the result if the old banner or similar key wording was reinstated for a month. 

 

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