Firstly let me say that I'm pleased that post counts have been removed. I wasn't around at the beginning but I assume the awarding of posting categories, like portyholic, was a form of encouragement to persuade people to post more often. We are more mature now and I believe a perceived status awarded by post count can be off-putting for many. It has served its purpose.
Secondly let me say that I deplore the creation of the playpen and with the exception of this discussion on "freedom", I don't feel inclined to post until its gone.
Rathbone is spot on when he states that the suppression of the counting and ancillary threads is a threat to the wellbeing and future of TP. The removal of the counting thread(s) is a fundamental issue.
We have a good bunch of Mods, they are all decent people but even decent people sometimes get it wrong. I think we need a change before we lose them or lose more members like ecm and hatstand.
BB has tried her best to put forward a fair-minded summation of what has transpired and she a precursed with "its my personal view point". To me this is the root of the problem.
bellybabe wrote:
I was not around on the forum when all this kicked off; Marya asked the team if we should delete the thread because of its post-pumping nature, and there was some confusion over what the responses she received meant ahead ............and deleted the thread.
BB -post-pumping is not against the forum rules, therefore the deletion of the thread was a personal prejudice. Subsequently we discover that no-one is bothered about post counts. It is therefore hard to argue that the mods who backed the deletion have a good feel for what we users want or why we are here? In other words you imagined a behavior and then imagined a rule to prevent it. Do you think that's fair? It has to stop.
bellybabe wrote: there is in fact a guideline reminding people to use generally accepted netiquette,
Post-pumping is tolerated on many forums it is part of netiquette so again we are talking about your (the Mods who were against) personal prejudice. It is simply not good enough.
bellybabe wrote: However, what I will say, and not for the first time, is that when something is removed from the forum by the mods/admin, it is completely unacceptable to either repost the removed material or to recreate the same material.
What guideline indicates that such behavior is "completely unacceptable?" You are making up your own rules again. I have lost count of the times posts that have not breached guidelines being removed, supposedly for further discussion by the Mods, Only to be never heard of again. No explanation given not so much as a by your leave. Its bloody outrageous. I'm not particularly bothered who owns TP but if you want to carry on just suiting yourselves then you will make it a most unwelcoming environment and lose more good users.
bellybabe wrote: Thus, whilst I’m very open to hearing debate etc, it’s not ok to respond by starting another thread where everyone counts.
Reallly? Have you PMed Wangi to tell him this? he seems to be using the replacement counting thread as a testament to good Moderating!!!
At least you have admitted the error and your part in it but I still contend there is way too much personal interpretation and or prejudice.
bellybabe wrote: On a final note, when we do something that upsets people, there’s often a lot of talk about our accountability. When we made the changes earlier this year, with the support of the majority of our users (9 out of 10 cats who expressed a preference…), we stepped away from the community council, something I had pretty much always been opposed to anyway. However, when that change happened, what you got was a forum owned by Marya, Wangi and myself, and run by us and our two excellent mods. This is a privately owned forum and when you don’t like what we’re doing, you complain; we listen and then try and decide what to do about it. I’m afraid there is no higher authority though because at the end of the day, this is it. Nobody is under any obligation to use this site but those who choose to are bound by its rules. It’s not a democracy; very few internet forums are. It’s a small group of people giving up a huge amount of time and work for free, to run something for you all, because we think it’s important. And we are accountable to you in that we need to listen to the users and if you don’t like what we’re doing you’ll walk. Anyone who doesn’t like the way we do it overall is free to leave at any time. I hope we do a good enough job most of the time for most of you to want to stay; we try our best, and sometimes we *** up, but mostly we seem to do ok. And we mean well, you know.
Bellybabe
I feel that the current situation and other recent issues are due to the previous heavy handed and prejudiced moderation of the forum, which in itself was a consequence of the controlling influence of the community council. Maybe we need to completely sever the link,. For example I genuinely thought that Bob was pulling the strings on the counting thread deletion, its well known he dislikes the frivolous threads. So if I think that what do less experienced users think?
Maybe we should have the forums moderated
solely by new faces? BC and Poppy would qualify. If we could find volunteers we could perhaps have a rolling system where people became mods for a year? The current admin bods could take a well-earned break and return rejuvenated next year. Lets invite Hatstand and/or ecm
Finally, i think we need a new approach to Moderation. There is no need to scour every post that's made here on TP the place should be free until a complaint is lodged and dealt with. We are way too much of a nanny state.
- I like the wit and lightness of touch Bob, and I have now counted to ten twice.
