All,
I have a belief that you can’t make changes to the future unless you know where you came from and where you are now. This site has been up for 10 years and we have seen our share of changes some good and bad. As the site has grown the demographics of the site has changed too. Just a few shorts years ago I could have named off every person’s screen name and their real name and a good chance what year Busa they had. We had a lot of people that were like minded and very willing to overlook the differences of others. At that time everything was about the friendships and the busa, folks were excited to come together and there was very little bickering or name calling. Over the years as more and more people have joined the site we have added many great people but we have also lost most of that understanding atmosphere. Today we have people that do nothing but lurk in the shadows and wait to devour others, people that want to do nothing more than complain and bicker with members. We have folks that use the site as an outlet from the tough day to come here to visit with friends. On the other side we have people that come here to act out and say things to other people they would never do in real life. I struggle with this constant battle of doing what is right when situations are brought to my attention. After 10 years of this I have become pretty good at being able to identify trouble makers or those people that just think that the site is here to use and not give back anything...
I think that the biggest change to the site we have seen is the inability to just agree to disagree. People want to argue to the death, you can be right in the facts and still be wrong in the presentation. I learned a lot of things from members in the past having discussions about religion, politics, differences in the members backgrounds. I learned things about Muslims speaking with them here on the forum, try to have that same discussion today and someone in just a few minutes will cross the line and make a derogatory comment. Think about what should be done with those people that cross the line but before you do that you have to determine where the line is at. How do you come up with what is and is not acceptable then figure out how you would deal with those people that cross the line each day… it is easy to armchair quarterback and say BAN em, everyone has a bad day and with a zero tolerance policy it wouldn't take long and everyone would be gone.. It’s a tough and time consuming job to deal with all those each day.
So now that we know where we have been and we know where we are what about where we want to be. Personally my vision for this site is right back where we were about 4 years ago. I want the members that are active to be here enjoying content, making new friends and getting away from the challenges of life. I want this site to be better than any one of us could be as an individual. I want us to show the world that grown adults can come together and civilly discuss topics and not make personal attacks at each other.
Am I tired? Yes……… In the past year I have had death threats via email and phone, I have had my house called at all hours of the night with unacceptable messages left for my kids to hear. I have had PM’s and emails telling me the way to properly run a forum along with every possible insult you can get, that wears on you day after day. I have heard it all, I’m tired of trying to please the entire group I just can’t do it. We have the best mods and admins you could ask for, I run 99% of my changes through them and we work together as a team to work out kinks in the plan.
As an example of what we are dealing with, people want to be able to talk about whatever they want with no censorship but those same people send complaints to me telling me that they were offended when someone else had a differing opinion. If I remove the differing opinion then now I become a censor nazi from yet another group. If I put the post back in place then I get notified from a third group that they are now upset that the thread is back up…. It never stops…..
In an effort to stop all the complaints and to try to get this place back to what I remember it to be 4 years ago I am making some changes….
We have seen many of these changes over the years and each one follows the basic flow of the site. Much like a boat captain I just steer the site in a direction on this river we call the Internet. I think that most of you would be astonished at the amount of email and PM’s the leadership (Admins and Mods) of the site get each day… Everything you can imagine comes to us from members, some of these messages are recommendations but the vast majority are just complaints that they feel something was inappropriate or someone offended someone else. Frankly I just don’t have time to deal with all of the correspondence that comes in, the admins and mods don’t have time nor energy to deal with it all either, we all have lives away from the site…
The change that I am introducing is as follows.
1. Any topic can be discussed except something specifically listed below.
2. Still no cursing
3. No Pornography
4. No personal attacks.
I think that it’s time that the site self police, you get your feelings hurt then I don’t know what to tell you. I suppose you can use the ignore function, scan the threads before you click them or grow thicker skin. I do know that I can’t keep up with all of you and your opinions and complaints. There are so many people that think that there are no ramifications to what they say or do on the Internet. I can tell you that the coddling we have had in the past is over when it comes to people that cross the line… You all need to self police, if you cross the line then expect your account to just not work when you try to log on, no warnings no request for coming back…. Many want things this way, guess what you got it.... but realize this is your warning, cross the line and you’re gone….
Who get’s to make the decision on what is and is not acceptable? The admins and mods collectively. Know that if you have been turned away it came from the group not one person….
In the end this place is changing, I think the rest of the Internet has caught up to us, it’s going to be up to you all to determine the future of this site… I ask that you be respectful of each other, remember that words can be misconstrued on the Internet and that someday you may just face the person that you just spit on….
I will be kicking this off tonight at midnight, as with this freedom I will also be closing the accounts of several people that I know have violated these very conditions in the recent past or who cause more problems than peace to the org…
Cap
I have a belief that you can’t make changes to the future unless you know where you came from and where you are now. This site has been up for 10 years and we have seen our share of changes some good and bad. As the site has grown the demographics of the site has changed too. Just a few shorts years ago I could have named off every person’s screen name and their real name and a good chance what year Busa they had. We had a lot of people that were like minded and very willing to overlook the differences of others. At that time everything was about the friendships and the busa, folks were excited to come together and there was very little bickering or name calling. Over the years as more and more people have joined the site we have added many great people but we have also lost most of that understanding atmosphere. Today we have people that do nothing but lurk in the shadows and wait to devour others, people that want to do nothing more than complain and bicker with members. We have folks that use the site as an outlet from the tough day to come here to visit with friends. On the other side we have people that come here to act out and say things to other people they would never do in real life. I struggle with this constant battle of doing what is right when situations are brought to my attention. After 10 years of this I have become pretty good at being able to identify trouble makers or those people that just think that the site is here to use and not give back anything...
I think that the biggest change to the site we have seen is the inability to just agree to disagree. People want to argue to the death, you can be right in the facts and still be wrong in the presentation. I learned a lot of things from members in the past having discussions about religion, politics, differences in the members backgrounds. I learned things about Muslims speaking with them here on the forum, try to have that same discussion today and someone in just a few minutes will cross the line and make a derogatory comment. Think about what should be done with those people that cross the line but before you do that you have to determine where the line is at. How do you come up with what is and is not acceptable then figure out how you would deal with those people that cross the line each day… it is easy to armchair quarterback and say BAN em, everyone has a bad day and with a zero tolerance policy it wouldn't take long and everyone would be gone.. It’s a tough and time consuming job to deal with all those each day.
So now that we know where we have been and we know where we are what about where we want to be. Personally my vision for this site is right back where we were about 4 years ago. I want the members that are active to be here enjoying content, making new friends and getting away from the challenges of life. I want this site to be better than any one of us could be as an individual. I want us to show the world that grown adults can come together and civilly discuss topics and not make personal attacks at each other.
Am I tired? Yes……… In the past year I have had death threats via email and phone, I have had my house called at all hours of the night with unacceptable messages left for my kids to hear. I have had PM’s and emails telling me the way to properly run a forum along with every possible insult you can get, that wears on you day after day. I have heard it all, I’m tired of trying to please the entire group I just can’t do it. We have the best mods and admins you could ask for, I run 99% of my changes through them and we work together as a team to work out kinks in the plan.
As an example of what we are dealing with, people want to be able to talk about whatever they want with no censorship but those same people send complaints to me telling me that they were offended when someone else had a differing opinion. If I remove the differing opinion then now I become a censor nazi from yet another group. If I put the post back in place then I get notified from a third group that they are now upset that the thread is back up…. It never stops…..
In an effort to stop all the complaints and to try to get this place back to what I remember it to be 4 years ago I am making some changes….
We have seen many of these changes over the years and each one follows the basic flow of the site. Much like a boat captain I just steer the site in a direction on this river we call the Internet. I think that most of you would be astonished at the amount of email and PM’s the leadership (Admins and Mods) of the site get each day… Everything you can imagine comes to us from members, some of these messages are recommendations but the vast majority are just complaints that they feel something was inappropriate or someone offended someone else. Frankly I just don’t have time to deal with all of the correspondence that comes in, the admins and mods don’t have time nor energy to deal with it all either, we all have lives away from the site…
The change that I am introducing is as follows.
1. Any topic can be discussed except something specifically listed below.
2. Still no cursing
3. No Pornography
4. No personal attacks.
I think that it’s time that the site self police, you get your feelings hurt then I don’t know what to tell you. I suppose you can use the ignore function, scan the threads before you click them or grow thicker skin. I do know that I can’t keep up with all of you and your opinions and complaints. There are so many people that think that there are no ramifications to what they say or do on the Internet. I can tell you that the coddling we have had in the past is over when it comes to people that cross the line… You all need to self police, if you cross the line then expect your account to just not work when you try to log on, no warnings no request for coming back…. Many want things this way, guess what you got it.... but realize this is your warning, cross the line and you’re gone….
Who get’s to make the decision on what is and is not acceptable? The admins and mods collectively. Know that if you have been turned away it came from the group not one person….
In the end this place is changing, I think the rest of the Internet has caught up to us, it’s going to be up to you all to determine the future of this site… I ask that you be respectful of each other, remember that words can be misconstrued on the Internet and that someday you may just face the person that you just spit on….
I will be kicking this off tonight at midnight, as with this freedom I will also be closing the accounts of several people that I know have violated these very conditions in the recent past or who cause more problems than peace to the org…
Cap