diablo
Master Don Juan
Just a thought, and it might not be too clever, but I'll let you be the judge as to it's merit.
I've noticed that there are a lot of people who make Boot Camp threads (searching for threads with 'boot camp' in the title yielded 120 results), but virtually none of them have ever been completed. To back this claim, I present the following threads, along with a brief synopsis. Now, bear in mind that I'm not picking on any one person in particular by bringing up their Journals; rather I am trying to further a point by the using their logs as examples.
The following thread showed great promise. Pugsley_f5, a Senior Don Juan, posted his intent to start his Boot Camp on 10-20-04. On 10-21-04, he posted a detailed account of his first day in the program. Several hours afterwards, he bumped it. It's now been 2 months and we still haven't heard any news as to if he ever completed Week 1, Day 2.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61249
Now, on to a more inpiring Journal, that of MrCode's. It begins on 9-18-04 and continues on until 10-07-04. All the way until Week 2, Days 4-7. He had up until this point been doing an excellent job of keeping a detailed log of events. After October 7th, we have yet to hear back.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59109
Now we move on to Seraph, another Senior Don Juan. He informed the SS community that he would be starting up his own Boot Camp on 8-1-04. A third of a year later, and we're still wondering if he made it to day 1.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56091
The trend continues. Even my own Boot Camp, started when I was brand new on the board, lasted for just 24 hours:
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48562
As you can see, there's no set pattern between who finishes and who doesn't. Just the fact that on average, people give up or stop posting within 1 week, 2 max. Many within their first 24 hours. I propose that there be a set of people who would be kind enough to volunteer a few minutes of each day, or even every other day, to encourage and dog members of the forum who are interested in starting their own Boot Camp. Perhaps they could even do their Boot Camps together, encouraging one another instead of it being one-sided. Teamwork has long accomplished that what doing solo cannot. Perhaps the lack of motivation, the unwillingness to complete the Boot Camp will wither with the onslaught of 2 people joined in bettering themselves. Even if it's just a "buddy", someone who sends you PM's and IM's saying "Hey, how'd your approaches go today?", it's far harder to ignore what you've set out to do and tell yourself "I'm too busy with life, maybe tomorrow".
Of course, this would take a dedicated Boot Camp Journal section of the forum to really be feasible. Without this, if it got off to the start I envision, the main discussion forum would be overrun with Journals being updated every day to every other day. Self improvement would be the norm instead of the exception, and we'd have a better quality batch of posters actively contributing and adding their real-world experiences to our forums.
Perhaps it's idealistic, but that's what the S&F forum is for, right?
I've noticed that there are a lot of people who make Boot Camp threads (searching for threads with 'boot camp' in the title yielded 120 results), but virtually none of them have ever been completed. To back this claim, I present the following threads, along with a brief synopsis. Now, bear in mind that I'm not picking on any one person in particular by bringing up their Journals; rather I am trying to further a point by the using their logs as examples.
The following thread showed great promise. Pugsley_f5, a Senior Don Juan, posted his intent to start his Boot Camp on 10-20-04. On 10-21-04, he posted a detailed account of his first day in the program. Several hours afterwards, he bumped it. It's now been 2 months and we still haven't heard any news as to if he ever completed Week 1, Day 2.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=61249
Now, on to a more inpiring Journal, that of MrCode's. It begins on 9-18-04 and continues on until 10-07-04. All the way until Week 2, Days 4-7. He had up until this point been doing an excellent job of keeping a detailed log of events. After October 7th, we have yet to hear back.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59109
Now we move on to Seraph, another Senior Don Juan. He informed the SS community that he would be starting up his own Boot Camp on 8-1-04. A third of a year later, and we're still wondering if he made it to day 1.
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56091
The trend continues. Even my own Boot Camp, started when I was brand new on the board, lasted for just 24 hours:
http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48562
As you can see, there's no set pattern between who finishes and who doesn't. Just the fact that on average, people give up or stop posting within 1 week, 2 max. Many within their first 24 hours. I propose that there be a set of people who would be kind enough to volunteer a few minutes of each day, or even every other day, to encourage and dog members of the forum who are interested in starting their own Boot Camp. Perhaps they could even do their Boot Camps together, encouraging one another instead of it being one-sided. Teamwork has long accomplished that what doing solo cannot. Perhaps the lack of motivation, the unwillingness to complete the Boot Camp will wither with the onslaught of 2 people joined in bettering themselves. Even if it's just a "buddy", someone who sends you PM's and IM's saying "Hey, how'd your approaches go today?", it's far harder to ignore what you've set out to do and tell yourself "I'm too busy with life, maybe tomorrow".
Of course, this would take a dedicated Boot Camp Journal section of the forum to really be feasible. Without this, if it got off to the start I envision, the main discussion forum would be overrun with Journals being updated every day to every other day. Self improvement would be the norm instead of the exception, and we'd have a better quality batch of posters actively contributing and adding their real-world experiences to our forums.
Perhaps it's idealistic, but that's what the S&F forum is for, right?
I do consider myself a decent writer, so maybe that helps.