I have lurked more than posted on here. But I've seen some spectacular blowouts in some threads and even seen just how ridiculously far people are willing to go to prove that the mods here are the big bad. But I come at this from experience.
Owning my own web forum for many very loooong years now, I can sympathise with the approach the mods have had to take to bring the board past a period of instability around certain areas of the site. Forums morph into bigger entities over time. It's not a bad thing, especially where this site is concerned. More members, participation and ideas is a good representation of how well Jim's stories are being received by the masses. Unfortunately it can result in 'growing pains' for the site. You get the technical problems with servers unable to accommodate your resulting bandwidth needs and at the same time some of these new members arrive arguing religiously for their "Right to be right". It all results in a slow and unavoidable build up of pressure that let's itself be known sooner or later. It's quite interesting to see how this forum has evolved almost identically to how mine did, in terms of expanding the number of discussion forums and spreading things out for more fun & creativity. You put your members first all the time, but in doing so you effectively give yourself more places to moderate, more work to do and all so you can create a more harmonious atmosphere. It's hardly the act of people who want to stifle debate, in my opinion.
I try to maintain a level head with my site and remind people who tell me they have freedom of speech that it's a privately owned and operated site. Freedom of speech is not denied. I don't tell anyone they can't say something, I only remind people that there are limits and consequences, lines you should avoid crossing. But I'm no-one's parent or guardian. People know full well how they will be received when they start writing snarky, uninvited vitriol. Fine, I say. You made a choice and now I'll make mine, which is almost always a very dispassionate undertaking. The internet is the Wild West of our age and this website like many, many others is a growing township, founded by the Sheriff, with ever-evolving laws that help keep the town in order. As quickly as you check in, you can be checked out and that's how long you are remembered.
And here's the thing, moderators are assumed trigger-happy tools who employ their powers liberally and completely biased toward one side of the debate. Depending on how we judge an issue, we end up sitting in our zen of not being able to do anything right, whilst simultaneously not being able to do any wrong. It's difficult to convey our judgements to members, because you try to respect privacy where you can. You don't publicize what posts are reported for a reason, therefore it's impossible to show every instance where you've acted in the interests of the site, not in the interests of a clique. People will unfortunately form a very one-sided view of you, but you just have to maintain your approach and hope people get why you are doing this, even if they cannot agree with it.
It's a great website, here. Lots of good debates. Wish I had time to post more. The mods here do a great job and the fact they are willing to hear us out, to allow peoples voices to be heard if there are issues is better than a lot of places that would slam a door in your face and ban you for nothing more that suggesting a decision was wrong. No one is infallible, we all make mistakes, so the opportunity to be seen & heard is a vital one for any growing community.
