talkmagic.co.uk

This does seem one of the more popular suggestions - the only argument against is the vast number of rooms that we seem to be aquiring - but growth can be a good thing, and if it is something genuinely craved for - well why not?

any arguments against?

I've stated my personal opinion against. Only because some of the threads I might otherwise find interesting I likely would not make the effort to track down. I enjoy a general area for most magic discussion.

That being said, I also love the mentalist area and one could use the same argument against it that I use now. I have no specific problems with a children's area in particular, but I would start to lose interest in the TM as a whole if things were to start to get too segmented. I also think at the extreme it could be ultimately unhealthy for the TM community to be too segmented and specialized.

I'm not a fan of too many specialized forums, things start looking a little green.

Anyway that's my $.02 - adjusted for inflation.

I agree with tyler on this one. As I said earlier on, at the moment people, myself included tend to scan down through all the threads that come up and I'll offer help where I can and take information away that I find useful. It doens't really matter what the subject of the topic is.

I'm worried that if things are segmented, people will only visit the forums that they have an interest in and wont contribute to the others. It'll also make finding posts harder I think, 'now I've seen a post on something or other last week, which forum is it in?'.

That's one of the reasons I stopped posting at the bunny, because it was far easier to click on one forum and see what's there rather than got through 5 or 6.

I was humming and hawing in a state of great indecision over this. However I think that I am now in favour of it. It is actually a fact that 75% of money earned from performing is actually from children's entertainment. I know some people will take issue with this but I believe it to be an accurate estimate particularly for the average magician or part time professional.

In any event it is an important branch of magic and could be said to be even more important than mentalism in some ways. Of course before we know it someone might argue that a card section is essential because there are more card tricks than any other tricks combined.

Dunno.

However I say go for it. I have already posted good information on kids shows and I will probably post more if people are actually discussing the subject and I think having such a section will encourage people to yap about it a bit more.

mark lewis wrote:However I say go for it. I have already posted good information on kids shows and I will probably post more if people are actually discussing the subject and I think having such a section will encourage people to yap about it a bit more.

People who have been around for a while will know that Mark and I have had our "differences" in the past. The fact is, underneath he does talk sense and makes interesting posts. Some of the information on children's magic has been excellent and he was one of the people I had hoped would post if we do have one.

Some of the mods may be picking themselves off the floor after those comments by me, or even be suspicious. The truth is that I have found that while there are some arguments in children's sections in other forums, they rarely get extreme, more a difference of opinion.

I would like to say that although I would be disappointed if there wasn't an area formed for children's entertainers, I can see that that decision would have been taken by the mods/admin after some thought.

If people look through at some of the other requests made here for this section, some of the people are very active in other forums, giving advice and helping out. On here, they may have posted a few times, but left when they didn't feel this section of magic was catered for them here.

If a new section is put in, I hope that people like Lommy WILL take the time to look through. Some of the questions may be on the same lines as the other forums, yet the answers required are completely different.

Again, it will sound like I am having a go at mentalism, but I'm not, just it is a good comparison. ( Though I don't know if Craig will agree )

It is a simple fact that there are completely different skills in mentalism and children's entertaining, than are required for performing magic for adults. ( Don't worry, I'm not trying to say mentalism and children's magic require the same skills. After all, we all know that entertaining children is much harder. )

Lommy also said,

I'm worried that if things are segmented, people will only visit the forums that they have an interest in and wont contribute to the others.



Yet although performing styles and specifics may be different, the basic skills required are the same as others use. This would still mean finding those parts out in the main forum.

I kept from posting in this thread for a while, so it didn't seem as if I was trying to push all the time. I felt that now was the time to answer some of the concerns made by others though.

If people are unsure, then how about a trial for three months? If it doesn't seem to be working, then the section closed and the posts moved back to where they would be normally?

This shouldn't cause too much work for the mods, only because if there are lots of posts, they wont have to move them as it is obviously working.

If there aren't many posts, then at least they have an answer if the question should arise again.