navindra would that solve @SouthPark's concern about the journals clogging up Member Recordings, since then they could go anywhere?

I personally like the idea of a subforum or even a main forum dedicated to the journals (especially since it could have a blurb with expected rules e.g. "don't be rude in someone else's house"), which would make it an official place for them and maybe others will feel inclined to start their own journals! I also like feeling like it's my own safe space where I can say anything without it derailing someone else's thread. Maybe for some people it would be about their general piano journey (what they're learning, what they're listening to, various thoughts of the day about various piano-related stuff) and not as specific as practicing specific works. For example, last night I heard a performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata which is apparently one of the most challenging piano works. I'm not so interested in discussing it that I'd start a new thread just for that, but I could mention it in a comment in my journal and maybe someone wants to discuss, or maybe not. It might also help to reduce thread clutter from people who are inclined to create a new topic on every little thought that crosses their mind 🙂

I'm actually getting pretty keen on the idea of having a Journals forum/subforum. On the other forum I'm on, having this area has really created a sense of community.

    navindra Yes, that was my original suggestion (though worded clumsily, lol). I can see twocat's viewpoint too though so really I'm fine with whatever gets decided 🙂

      I'm all for it, particularly if Navindra is on board. One of my other concerns was one expressed by Navindra a while ago: too many forums makes the main page cluttered. But it sounds like he's not worried about it, so I won't either. I hope the idea takes off. I prefer twocat's idea of a separate forum over the subforum tag idea. It's less fiddly.

      Draft description:

      Personal Journals - Users sharing their piano-related journeys/projects. Please respect any commenting guidelines users have stated in the first post of each discussion.

      Then users can put something like this in their first post:

      Commenting Guidelines: Positive comments only please.

      I worry that guidelines will be easily overlooked, particularly if users are viewing from the "All Discussions" page. It would be nice if a warning message popped up any time someone was about to post a comment: "WARNING: You are posting to a personal journal. Please respect any commenting guidelines the user has stated in the first post of this discussion." A search didn't yield an appropriate Flarum extension, but I did find one other person looking for the same thing: https://discuss.flarum.org/d/21754-tag-instructions-warning-before-post

      EDIT: Maybe a similar "please respect the commenting guidelines" message would also be good to have in the "Member Recordings" section.

      EDIT 2: Maybe add the following line to the "description" and "warning" above: "If no commenting guidelines are provided, assume that only positive comments are allowed." (Our old discussion regarding the Learner's Lounge rules inspired this idea: rsl12 )

          rsl12 I was hoping you'd come up with a blurb! You're very good at it 🙂

          Regarding guidelines, if a journal owner feels uncomfortable with a post they can flag for moderation and I hope the mods will make sure that the owner's preferences are respected. But hopefully it's not really needed!

            rsl12 One of my other concerns was one expressed by Navindra a while ago: too many forums makes the main page cluttered.

            @navindra suggested maybe repurposing the Teacher's Forum? If it is going to be inactive, perhaps that's a good idea. Also, it can always be started back up if teachers come here and ask for their own space.

            I think PT evolving into its own thing is wonderful 🙂

              True. A teachers forum could always be started up again. Or if a journals forum is about the only other forum addition needed, then keeping the teachers forum and adding a new journals forum should sort it. And having the journals forum would most likely be another significant one-up on PW.

              19 days later

              Hey @navindra, is this supposed to be like this?

              On the home page, I see a horizontal scrollbar at the top nav row, even at full width. There's also a "More..." link that just reloads the home url https://forum.pianotell.com.

                Gombessa Weird. I see that too now. It definitely was not there before... I can do a quick CSS hack to remove it but I'd like to know what causes it.

                Edit: I think it's related to the new tag recital-submission-open that I added recently, not exactly sure why. I've added a CSS hack to suppress this though. You might have to force reload to pull down the new CSS.

                --
                Beach L168, Wish, baCh, WOW Petrof, Fake Steinway, VS
                TIME

                  Thanks! The hack did the trick, I just had to refresh the page. 🙏

                  I have a request. I haven't read everything written above, and I apologise if it has been discussed before.
                  I would very much like to see pages within threads. For instance, the Neuroscience-based efficient practice schedule thread is so long that it is difficult to handle. It is very good that I can click to Original post and to Now, but scrolling through the whole thread isn't easy at all.

                  *
                  ... feeling like the pianist on the Titanic ...

                    Just thinking out loud here, but wondering if a 'non-classical pianists' section would be welcomed by enough members?
                    Possibly with a catchier title though. 🙂

                    Rob I love both genres - probably equally much 😊 It always pained me that in PW there seemed to be almost a bit of animosity between people who sometimes loudly declared to belong to one "side" or the other.

                    So as always speaking strictly for myself I'm enjoying the current mingling very much, just like I appreciate so very much that there is no longer a distinction where beginners are supposed to dwell and advanced players.

                    I think this forum is more friendly and welcoming because of it. But again that's just my personal opinion 😃

                    • Rob replied to this.

                      Sophia It always pained me that in PW there seemed to be almost a bit of animosity between people who sometimes loudly declared to belong to one "side" or the other.

                      That is a very fair comment, Sophia. I am all for minimising division, here.
                      Maybe I should have thought it through, more. 🤔

                        8 days later

                        OK, this has been bothering me for a while. When I click on my notifications it goes directly to the post but if the post is a reply to an old topic I don't always remember what it's about. Would it be possible to have the title visible at the top instead of the post number?

                          BartK If the post title is displayed at the top, I hope it can still be clicked (on mobile) to bring up the ability to jump to new/old posts.

                              BartK "At the top" - do you mean at the top of the full thread view (like where it says "Piano Tell - World Forum)?

                              Good suggestion, I'm not sure I get a lot of value from "World Forum" since most everything falls under there.

                                  Gombessa "At the top" - do you mean at the top of the full thread view (like where it says "Piano Tell - World Forum)?

                                  I'm usually viewing on the mobile interface and at the top it displays the number of posts. Like right now it says "124 of 124 posts". To me that information isn't as useful as the thread title.

                                      rsl12 If the post title is displayed at the top, I hope it can still be clicked (on mobile) to bring up the ability to jump to new/old posts.

                                      Yes, I also view on mobile. The behavior doesn't have to change, only the text displayed next to that button.

                                        BartK Ah, I see now. Yeah, when you click on the notification you're brought "blind" into the target thread and can't tell which thread you're in. +1 to the suggestion.