Recently, in regards to a few individuals, we've heard grumblings of dissatisfaction from a few members. There has been mention of mass exoduses, abandoning the site, etc. because of comments made by a few individuals.
I would like to address some points here.
1- When you read something that is a violation of our rules, use the Report to Moderator feature, so that we know there is a problem. If you do not, we may not see the problem. The Report to Moderator (RTM) is an icon of a white triangle with a red border with an ! in it. It is located at the top-right of each post. Please only send 1 RTM on an issue, or 3 max if its a problem that jumps threads.
2- Being an idiot, a moron, a poor speller, a poor writer, a close minded fool or a pompous windbag are not violations of our rules in of themselves. If they were, we'd have to fire at least 4 staff as well since they violate at least 3 of those.
3- "I don't like this persons posts, so I think hes a troll and you should ban him or I'm going to leave." Ok. Bye. We have a feature on this site, it's called "ignore". You can put someone on your ignore list, and then you will not have to read anything they say. Interestingly enough, in 1 such recent case, there is a very vocal individual who we have received many complaints about the content of his posts....but only 4 people have placed him on ignore...none of whom are the ones complaining that he posts crap. Use the tool folks. Thats why it's there.
4- "All the good people are leaving." No, but they are abandoning the field and giving the win to the vocal yet wrong. We would much prefer to see the good people post more, and call in more good people, who can not shout down, insult and ridicule someone like so many other sites, but drown out their misinformation with solid, professionally written information.
5- "Bob you do nothing to stop these people." If anyone honestly thinks I am here, sitting on my duff, enjoying watching nutjobs and dangerous people trash things, then I honesty want to say I think you're a fool. I try very hard to keep things as fair as possible, to give people a fair shake. We get 'invaded' by losers and trouble makers all the time. We get a bunch of honestly uninformed and misinformed beginners all the time. I am sorry that we don't jump to ban people just because someone doesn't like them, or thinks they are stupid or has a different viewpoint than the mainstream. We try to be fair, sometimes more than fair, before booting people. I spend hours each day on the phone with staff discussing things, hours in conference discussing situations, etc. I visit other forums where possible problem users have been, checking their history, and communicating with other board admins about problem members. We are doing quite a bit, but it's behind the scenes. In public, we warn, we nudge, we correct, and when we have to we suspend and ban.
Another point is, I'm sorry but there are arts I know nothing about, or so little as to be pointless. For me to jump in to the fray, would do nothing. A no-belt trying to back up senior practitioners in an art that someone is now claiming rank/knowledge/etc in just holds no water. Guy with a pistol doesn't really reinforce an armour column now does it? Call in air support, or bring in more mature experts who can support your position and drown out the other guy.
Bottom line: The board is, what it's members make it. We, the staff aren't here to babysit anyone. If you don't like what you read, then if its a rules issue, report it, if its a different opinion, debate it, if it's a person who drives you nuts, ignore him, and if its someone posting complete crap, bring in some experts and out post him. Once we are aware of the problem, we can look into fixes. But not until then.
You don't stand watching your house burn while holding a cell phone crying about non-responsive firemen. You don't stand by a payphone watching a mugging crying about no police. You don't read a message board crying about trolls and no mods while staring at the RTM/PM/Contactus Form links.
Period.
Complaints, comments all welcome.
