The enthusiasm for change and the accompanying willingness to assist is inspiring. smile

However, I agree with Kevin on the implications of adding to what's already here. it would lead to more confusion. If anything, a streamlining would be of greater use: one example would be to have only one lyric critique forum (with people tagging their lyrics in the subject line as to genre) and to drop posts/threads older than - for instance - 6 months. It might be more useful to replace certain forums/sections rather than to add to them.

Two things I'd like to see are:

1. The Shout Box returned to its initial function of being a place for all members to feel welcome to drop in for a chat or a passing "hello" rather than being the venue for ongoing private collaborations. These - very commendable - collabs could be more effectively conducted via personal email or PMs. Or - just a random thought - maybe in one of the forums a separate thread could be started for each song that's being worked on. Collaborators and interested parties could then go straight to that particular thread;

2. The return of those wonderful monthly mentoring sessions in which a different lyric/song was selected and critiqued in depth by a bona fide professional songwriter and by other "seasoned" JPF members. With so many people joining who are new to songwriting, such sessions would be invaluable for guidance and discussion involving the effective and diverse use of structure, rhyming, and so on. Such a session would be like a Skills Development workshop.

Well. Those are my thoughts this Saturday morning. wink

Donna