Quote:
Originally Posted by Rickypt
That is usually what happens when you get a bunch of strangers together, in real life or on the internet. It can be annoying, but I don't see how you can moderate it away. And if you eliminatethe chit-chat forum then it will just play out even more in the FM-related forums.
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I just wanted to bring to light that a lot of you keep referring to
if the Chit Chat forum goes away...it
has been taken down in the past (One more thing only us old-timers would remember, Brian
). So there is precident; it's not just a theoretical solution.
When to moderate, what to moderate...it's not so cut and dry. Remember this is a board where the members call for a complete freedom of speech for everyone...except for Ethan...because he's annoying.
We are accused of "selectively enforcing the rules." For the record I don't belong to any group or clique that I can percieve, so I'm not sure who I would be "selecting." But here's some of those rules:
If all you have to add are harrassing, insulting, taunting, nasty remarks or name-calling, you'll be asked to go somewhere else.
Any statement that defames, abuses or threatens others
Material that advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them. This includes any threats including death or bodily harm
Material that contains vulgar, obscene or indecent language
Sexually explicit language, images or other content (pornography)
Imagine if we went after every post, and poster, that could fit into one of these categories. Aside from the immense amount of time and effort that would take, there's very few of you that wouldn't end up with warnings and strikes at the end of the day.
Perhaps that is how we should move forward. My hope, is that we go after the really egregious cases and kind of have faith that the rest of you are adult enough to handle the lesser cases. Either that or we intervene when someone asks us to or when someone seems to be ganged up on. Is that wrong? IDK, you tell me.
Perhaps we are guilty of sending out too many warnings and not enough strikes. Sometimes there are posters who have gotten a number of warnings from us in the past and then, when they finally get a strike or a ban, to the group it's percieved to be for a small infraction, when there has actually been a history of, for lack of a better word, "abuses."
(Please take my words at face value; they apply to people not involved in this case and don't apply to some who are.)
I really don't want this to become a novel, but I'm telling you that we do the best we can. No one wants this to be an unwelcoming place, for long-timers or newbies, and while there's been a lot of talk about what the mods have done wrong (and mods admitting and apologizing for those things) I see very little talk about personal responsibility on behalf of the rank and file. Something to think about, and I'm sure I'll be hearing from those of you who think I'm wrong. That's OK. We're just talking, here.