Comment

Comment by turtlehead on November 16, 2015 at 5:59am

Just wanted to say thanks to Ben and Shane for listening and trying to make changes to please everyone.  Not an enviable task.  I like the way the featured articles are being presented now and personally I like the latest activity the way it is currently. That way we can see what's happening across the board, which hopefully keeps the discussions going strong.

Comment by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker on November 13, 2015 at 3:57pm

I gave it a try. The change had unintended consequences on things showing up in areas besides the latest activity list. Specifically, the "Latest Activity" section of people's personal pages. So I changed it back.

Comment by Cigar Box Nation on October 30, 2015 at 2:39am

Wayfinder said: I'm sure if some of us wanted a particular blog featured, a note to Ben with reasons why would be given all due attention.

Every morning, I scour Cigar Box Nation for content to feature. IF YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT, TELL ME!

Best way to get a hold of me is to catch me on Facebook chat or email me at shanespeal@yahoo.com.

We need more feature articles.  Nation members' content is driving new visitors to this site in droves.  We share the features on Facebook, my Guitar World column, on Reddit and many other places.  Our entire goal is to continue to spread the concept of cigar box guitars and homemade instruments.

so... HELL YES!!!

Comment by smilingdog1 on October 29, 2015 at 2:55pm

Well said gentlemen, I'm embarrassed to say I for one never noticed the down climb or up climb here on the nation. I guess working overtime for past five years does that. The nation has always been fair and generous in allowing us old farts to post most anything with little restrictions. I witnessed some very funny blogs that went viral and had to be shut down for good reason but those are far and few between. I've noticed with our festivals and club house, how folks ether get it or don't about all the free time and energy devoted to making these events free and available to an interest we just enjoy sharing with others.

The nation has served me for free in ways I can hardly repay other than to patronize it when ever opportunity offers itself.

The nation was and still is a place to connect us to folks all around the world with homemade music and instruments. Yes, it may be ebbing like a tide but as long as it is willing to change with the times, I feel it will weather all challenges.

Thanks for letting us rant or what ever you want to call it.

The bonehead mic is cheesy, funny and sounded amazing on cardboard.

It's easy for us to see what we don't like about what others may say or do, however I find that there are as many things good about those others especially when we take the time to get and know them. Some of those redundant comments that make us cringe are recognizably from folks I know that do a lot for the community and nonprofit organizations that do much for those who need it. Peace!

Wew. OK rants over! 

Comment by Jim_N on October 29, 2015 at 9:47am

Contrary to it's intention, I imagine, I think the  "Latest Activity" section actually may be discouraging some people from CBN.

I'm not referring to everyone or every post, of course, but, IMO, the Latest Activities section has become too much of a time/space-waster for people making numerous- and often simplistic and predictably lame, comments on photos and videos- selfishly, it seems, just to see their name/avatar, etc., in the lights, so to speak, obviously not caring if they bump off non-self-serving, thoughtful, interesting posts.

I doubt I'm the only one who doesn't enjoy scrolling thru' a number of the thread's "More" buttons, just to find something more articulate than, "AWESOME!!!," "Me likey!!!," or whatever banal thought happens to be the first thing to enter someone's head.

I think CBN would encourage more people to get involved (and certainly eliminate a lot of nOiSe) by limiting posters to just a couple of messages per day- or better, perhaps, 7 per week. Heck, if someone needs more attention than that, perhaps they need to...

Well, you know.        

Comment by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker on October 29, 2015 at 7:43am

The fact is, Cigar Box Nation was calcifying and stagnating. A long slow decline of users and traffic, stagnation and repetition of content, competition from Facebook and other platforms... so we had to think about what to do about that. Our goal is to make sure Cigar Box Nation remains the beating heart of the cigar box guitar and homemade/handmade music movements.

Updating the and modernizing the design was one thing we decided to do. Giving the home page a touch of "news magazine" aspect, via the feature articles, was another. Working in tandem with the Cigar Box Nation Facebook page was yet another. 

Results have been very promising, overall. I am sorry if some of the changes have angered some of the old-timers. That is always the danger of shaking things up. 

I can tell you that as long as I own Cigar Box Nation, it will never have a shopping cart or be a "store" unto itself. It will always be a free resource, without censorship of other folks trying to sell their creations. We will continue to advertise C. B. Gitty here as effectively as possible, but with an effort to not have the advertising be too invasive or distracting from the content.

That about sums up where I stand on it.

Comment by Cigar Box Nation on October 29, 2015 at 7:27am

BTW, the Nation was on a downhill slide before the redesign.  We were watching attendance drop off to nothing.  At the same time, we saw a real need for a place to post feature articles, how-to's and other 'guitar magazine' style posts. 

Our first step was to bring the Nation Facebook page back to life with daily postings.  Then we added the features on the front of this site.

We haven't touched the forums and blogs.  Everything is still there and people are posting a lot.  But the end result of all these changes are a HUGE increase in readership across the board on here.

As for Gitty's ads...  What people don't realize is that he's reinvesting a huge wad of his profits on the advancement of cigar box guitars, homemade instruments, it's history, design and more.  The ads keep things going. 

We now have Guitar World magazine behind us.  We have new historical articles published.  There's great plans and amazing content being generated by you all.  This is only the beginning, folks. 

Rant over.

Comment by Cigar Box Nation on October 29, 2015 at 7:19am

As the Don Quixote of this revolution, I will never stop charging at the windmills!

Comment by Kevin Sprague (Knotlenny) on October 29, 2015 at 7:01am

CBG culture is alive and well, as a hobbyist pursuit . . . . but can we stop referring to it as a "Revolution"? 

Lets be honest - The Revolution (like all revolutions do) has gone quite lame.   We're no more "revolutionary" here than a group of model railroad enthusiast. ho-hum . . . . (yawn)

Nobody is to blame, it's just the way of things.  This is the price of merchandising and marketing.

Let's just stop pretending it's something else, shall we?

Comment by turtlehead on October 26, 2015 at 11:38am

I agree the community has taken a hit since the redesign.  I don't begrudge Gitty for advertising and trying to make a buck, but it seems like the life is gone from the comments sections across the board. 

My suggestion is to put the discussion activity box back in the main column and show the latest 10-12 post like before.  Having everything visible right on the front page was nice.  Now you have to do some digging to really see what's happening.

Featured articles are getting lots of views and presumably driving traffic over from Facebook and other places, but it's pushed user content further down.  Also, I'm not sure how I feel about featuring member posts and then editing them and putting an ad at the bottom.  (see the Converting 6 string tab lesson by Patrick Curley). 

It's not the end of the world and Ben and Co. can do whatever they like, but it's starting to feel like Cigar Box Guitar Center around here, with discussion and content being driven from the top down rather than the bottom up.  That's not CBG to me. 

Power to the people.

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