What did we learn at the Q&A?

[Cyncie]

I think it went well and I appreciate the hard work the mods put in. I know the server was struggling, because I got an error message a few times.

As to allowing more "important' questions to have priority, I strongly object to that idea.  I think the only person who can decide what question is best to answer is the guest themselves, not a board of super fans who want them to expound on some bit of forgotten trivia that maybe doesn't even interest them anymore. Some questions were silly, yes. But, if the guest wants to have a bit of fun by answering a few silly questions, let him.

It looks like, to me, a lot of people on here wanted their big important revelatory moment with Brian. Instead, he answered a question about pizza.  But, the way I see it, a Q&A is supposed to be a two way process. It's not just about what we want to ask, but also about what the guest wants to answer. Maybe the guest wants to have some fun with the fans, but really doesn't want to spend his time digging into obscure details from the past.  And, I don't think it's up to us to decide that. This should be his conversation, not ours.

Now, I do think it's a shame that questions submitted early probably weren't even seen. And, I did see at least one member bumping their post by editing in order to push it to the top. So, now that we know what the logistical problems are, we can begin to address them.

On one forum I was on,  we opened up a question thread for a few days prior to the Q&A, and submitted those questions to the guest ahead of time. They then chose the ones they wanted to answer from the full list and posted their answers in the Q&A thread.  Follow up questions and new questions were then asked "live." It was a smaller board, though, so I'm not sure if a similar thing could be done when over 400 people are crowding in to post.

[Mikie]

There are some who came out of the woodwork to ask questions. Poster's names I haven't seen in ages or not at all. Some with alias's with new names and 500+ posts. Some with just a few posts under their belt. I wonder how many registered just to ask questions.

I'd like to address this. The decision was made to put a temporary hold on new board memberships in advance of today, enough of an advance to be viable. That decision was in place leading up to this event. The reason why was simple: This event was for the fans on Smiley Smile. Registered members of the board would be the only ones who would participate and be able to ask a question. Anyone visiting from anywhere could browse and read, but only actual members could join in if they chose to.

There are many, many registered members here who simply do not post that often. They read, they keep up with what's going on, but choose not to post for their own reasons. Does this mean they should have been filtered out somehow, and if so how could that have been done to justify excluding a board member who has been here for several years but doesn't post as regularly as others? There is no way to enforce that.

Had new registrations been allowed up to today, it could have presented issues and problems well beyond the unfairness of thinking long-time members were shut out or somehow denied equal access to the question process by all the new memberships coming on to ask a question.

So I can confirm 100% that no newly registered members had signed up and came on the board solely to ask a question having not been involved or registered on the board previous to all of this. If some of them don't post as much as others, that's their choice, as was having access to ask Brian a question as a board member.

That's good to know, GF. There seems to be quite a few new members in the last 2-5 days, some with under 5 posts and others with different names with hundreds of posts. One poster addressed me today that I've never seen/heard of before. Again, it's really good to know that Smiley Smile members are asking all (or most of the questions) here. Not that we're a bunch of territorial rats or anything; it's just that members of the board should have priority when joining the fray. And it's a great idea to somehow prevent questions from being submitted under the wire. A lot of good preparation of questions beforehand went for not because of last minute submissions.

[guitarfool2002]

And Brian never even got to see that question.

How do you know this?   

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

[Cyncie]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

Yep, It's hard to face the possibility that Brian liked the pizza question better than the question about the 500th retake of DYLW.

[Beachlad]

I thought it went well. Much better here than on his site.<better software>  I didn't ask a question I figured their were more than enough but I enjoyed the process.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

Yep, It's hard to face the possibility that Brian liked the pizza question better than the question about the 500th retake of DYLW.

I don't know. Back in my dating days, I always thought it was good conversation to talk about the minutiae of my work, rather than my personal interests.

[Cyncie]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

Yep, It's hard to face the possibility that Brian liked the pizza question better than the question about the 500th retake of DYLW.

I don't know. Back in my dating days, I always thought it was good conversation to talk about the minutiae of my work, rather than my personal interests.

How long have you been single? 

[Mikie]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

To quantify this, what about the questions posted the day before yesterday? And what was the total amount of questions submitted? I witnessed MANY questions that were answered by Brian on both this board and his, which were already at the top of the list when he answered them. I was bouncing back and forth refreshing and saw new posts fly to the top.

[Chocolate Shake Man]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

To quantify this, what about the questions posted the day before yesterday?

As far as I can see, there were no questions posted the day before yesterday.

And what was the total amount of questions submitted? I witnessed MANY questions that were answered by Brian on both this board and his, which were already at the top of the list when he answered them. I was bouncing back and forth refreshing and saw new posts fly to the top.

He answered more questions from today than yesterday, to be sure = 18 from today, 12 from yesterday. And again, he skipped through nearly 40 questions from today.  So while I do think he answered some questions as they were coming in, it would be incorrect to say that he was simply responding to the next one in line. The facts just don't suggest that to be the case. If anyone wants to count all the questions, please feel free.

[guitarfool2002]

Absolutely -- and I just did a count and found that Brian answered 12 questions that were posted yesterday and didn't respond to nearly 40 questions that were posted today. So he wasn't only looking at the most recent ones.

To quantify this, what about the questions posted the day before yesterday? And what was the total amount of questions submitted? I witnessed MANY questions that were answered by Brian on both this board and his, which were already at the top of the list when he answered them. I was bouncing back and forth refreshing and saw new posts fly to the top.

There were no questions posted here the day before yesterday, the new forum for the questions and answers only went live what would have been Sunday morning my time EST. I'm speaking only for this board, the first question was my example question showing where to post in the topic and the text, then an actual question appeared. After that they were posted as they came in, and only questions posted after it went live were there today.

[Mikie]

Thanks, R&R and GF.

Hey, Guitarfool?

[SamMcK]

and can I just say that as someone who has been on this forum since 2011 and spent most of that time as a lurker that i'm saddened some feel that people who don't post as much aren't worthy enough or are just coming out the woodwork, its that kind of attitude that makes me not want to post here.

It was a fun event and i'm glad that SmileySmile got some decent attention from it!

[guitarfool2002]

Thanks, R&R and GF.

Hey, Guitarfool?

What's up?

[Cyncie]

and can I just say that as someone who has been on this forum since 2011 and spent most of that time as a lurker that i'm saddened some feel that people who don't post as much aren't worthy enough or are just coming out the woodwork, its that kind of attitude that makes me not want to post here.

It was a fun event and i'm glad that SmileySmile got some decent attention from it!

Hey, I'm going to let you in on a little secret that will probably get me tossed off the board:  I don't own bootlegs. I don't even listen to  bootlegs.  OMG!!! What kind of fan AM I?!?!?!

Now, let me tell you where that is on my "give a damn meter."  A big fat ZERO!

Enjoy what you enjoy. Don't let anyone else tell you what kind of fan to be. Post when you want to, stay out of the  crap and I'll see you around.

[Mikie]

Thanks, R&R and GF.

Hey, Guitarfool?

What's up?

Good job, man.

[Mikie]

Now, let me tell you where that is on my "give a damn meter."  A big fat ZERO!

Hey, I saw a picture of you and I don't think you're fat.

[Cyncie]

Now, let me tell you where that is on my "give a damn meter."  A big fat ZERO!

Hey, I saw a picture of you and I don't think you're fat.

You smooth talker, you….

[Mikie]

 

[Shady]

The best part about this is that Brian now has an account here and we can expect him to pop in now and then to announce something or answer a few questions.

It's fun knowing "The most honored guest" is here among us.

[guitarfool2002]

Thanks, R&R and GF.

Hey, Guitarfool?

What's up?

Good job, man.

Thank you, Mikie.   And thank you to everyone on the board participating, reading, and doing the behind the scenes work. You made a very memorable and enjoyable day possible.

[Shady]

And credit to the forum for only crashing for a few seconds at a time 

[guitarfool2002]

And credit to the forum for only crashing for a few seconds at a time 

That was one of the great unknowns, but the ol' machinery pulled through. 

[SMiLE Brian]

The board is magic

[Cam Mott]

Well I thought it was extraordinary. Twenty years ago no one dreamed anything like this would happen. Well, maybe somebody did. I hope it happens with the rest of the band too.

Outstanding work Mods. Thank you Charles LePage.

I was kidding about an Answerdome. It doesn't seem to matter how brilliant our questions, Brian chose the ones he wanted to answer. It seems to me he passed on the "brilliant" questions, so go figure.