#73327 - Board writers demographic and location

[S.A.M.]

When the Board moves beyond being an online forum of volunteer students, it will quickly lose it's identity, and just become another Q&A site. A major part of the Board's draw is the fact that the answers come from BYU students. The pool that the writers are pulled from is what makes the Board interesting to me. These are not a professor's, a general authority's, or some stake president's answers. The audience has really become the whole world, but the identity of the board is tied to who the writers are.

The difficulty of finding good writers is part of the adventure. It is really fun to see new writers grow and become great writers.

[S.A.M.]

I just asked a question about the readership of the Board. Then I did a little more searching of the archives and found question #72582. Laser Jock wrote

"In the past month, 21% of our visits came from Provo, and 37% from Utah as a whole. That means the vast majority of our readers are from places outside Provo/Utah.

Judging by the people on this site who live in the Provo area but are not BYU students I would suspect that the number of current BYU students who read the 100 Hour Board is a very small percentage of the audience.

Why is BYU and Provo considered the target audience and location, when in fact they are the small minority?

The majority of readers may be from outside of Provo, but are the majority of question askers? What's the breakdown there?

[Marduk]

I don't think a little more diversity would cause the board to lose a sense of identity. The audience, by and large, comes from those who have some sort of tie to BYU; current students, alumni, parents/family of students, etc. One could draw the writership from this same pool without destroying the identity as a BYU related institution.

[Portia]

Ultimately who the editors hire, as well as who they decide to rehire, is always handled on a case by case basis.

I see nothing wrong with having a policy in place, and then applying this rule.

[Marduk]

But, see, then it isn't a policy. A policy only works if it is applied uniformly. In effect, if that is the way it works, what the policy says is "no non-BYU students, unless we like you."

[No Dice]

I don't think a little more diversity would cause the board to lose a sense of identity.

I will, as always, repeat my tired refrain asking people to actually say what they mean by "diversity," including what viewpoints exactly the Board is lacking and how precisely expanding the pool of potential writers would remedy those deficiencies. For people to actually mark what's missing and then carefully weigh that against the problems of expanding the writer pool would just be Christmas come early for me.

In any event, count me in with the "BYU students only" crowd. I've been graduated now from the Y (and out of Provo) for just over a year, and if the editors gently showed me the door in order to keep a more BYU-centric writer group, I think they'd be totally justified. The 100 Hour Board is a BYU service; it's not an LDS service, or a smart people service. Keeping a strong BYU flavor is part of maintaining the Board's purpose. I don't see how discovering that a bunch of people who don't live in Provo read the Board changes any of that.

[S.A.M.]

Ultimately who the editors hire, as well as who they decide to rehire, is always handled on a case by case basis.

I see nothing wrong with having a policy in place, and then applying this rule.

But, see, then it isn't a policy. A policy only works if it is applied uniformly. In effect, if that is the way it works, what the policy says is "no non-BYU students, unless we like you."

With any policy, there is usually a mechanism to override it as the need arises. Someone needs to be able to make exceptions, or even adjustment to the policy. The editors pretty much are the board of directors for the board. The writer alumni event was a fantastic exception and I hope they continue to do that. Strict adherence to a policy leads to more frustration than occasional, occasional, exceptions. I see nothing wrong with calling this a policy, and allowing the editors to make exceptions to it as needed.

[S.A.M.]

In response to the OP's questions:

Does having a "corps of writers of the same demographic and location as our target audience" make the Board a better institution?
...
Should Provo be the location of the target audience?

I don't think it makes it "better" than other Q&A sites. It makes it what it is, a Q&A board primarily for BYU students, but willing to answer questions from anyone, anywhere.

The origin of the board as a physical board in the basement of the Wilk, limited the target audience to anyone who had access, primarily BYU students in Provo. When the board moved online, the possibility of questions submitted by anyone, anywhere became possible - the potential audience grew tremendously. So no, the target audience now seems to be anyone, anywhere interested in BYU students' answers to questions.

[Genuine Article]

When the Board moves beyond being an online forum of volunteer students, it will quickly lose its identity, and just become another Q&A site.

Agreed. Being tied to BYU is what makes the Board special.

I've been graduated now from the Y (and out of Provo) for just over a year, and if the editors gently showed me the door in order to keep a more BYU-centric writer group, I think they'd be totally justified.

Again, agreed. I just had my three-year Board birthday and know I should probably move on, but the Board is hard to give up. Really I just want the position of Board Emeritus to exist so I can still have access to all the behind-the-scenes stuff.

[UffishThought]

Hee, wouldn't that be nice? That would have made it easier for me to retire when I really should have. It's kind of addictive to see the answers as they roll in, and know who's writing what, and be able to pitch in yourself, when you're really passionate.

Ultimately, though, I think it was the right move for me to move on. And though I love (LOVE!) many of the graduated writers, I do feel like it's the *BYU* hundred hour board. If you're not at BYU, then you shouldn't be a writer. And if you're gone, but still love writing, there are other Q&A sites that might be glad to take you.

I think a lot of us have matured with the board, and so we're not really anxious to see a lot of 18 year olds moving in and giving advice we consider to be bad or shallow or foolish or just inexperienced. But it took us, when we had all those same problems, and I think that's an opportunity we should let the next generation have, too.

I think both writers and editors should take some initiative to make it happen. If you're around and think you should probably retire, follow that feeling. If you're an editor and you've got people hanging on for dear life, edge them on out. I know (because I'm who Whistler was talking about) how hard it is to find good new writers. If I were still hiring editor, to combat that, I think I'd make the application much simpler, and do some hardcore advertizing for new writers. And then I'd take some of the crappy-looking ones, and push the long-gone lot out of the nest, and let the board hit a new generation and find their own way.

Of course, I'm not the editor, and I can't make policies like that, because I'm long graduated too, and I ought to practice what I preach and let the new guys do what they think is best. But I feel like, even if it's unaffiliated within BYU, the Board should act like a BYU entity, and be compiled solely of BYU students. And if saying so makes a difference, I have said it.