And so the hijack begins…
I can’t say this without running afoul of the junior modding rules, but as per my Op, I think this detailed level is off-topic and there is a thread about Baldwin’s suspension already. I am sorry and I hope you understand why I am asking. I know I nudged it off course a bit first.
I don’t think the heart of the Straight Dope can be here when there is no place to be completely, sometimes brutally, honest. We are the adults – sometimes even seniors, who are told that words are dirty when they are sexual. And even when the sexual word is not used sexually, we must avoid it. Some of us find that not just wrong, but creepy.
Healthy sex education begins with teaching a child not to be ashamed of her or his body parts. They are not “dirty.” Sex is not “dirty.” It is beautiful and fun and about as civilized as civilization can get.
Selfishness is more uncivil than any words.
Don’t become “Ozymandias.”
This issue has been covered elsewhere, such as here and here. I think the whole topic’s been covered already, but if you have questions I’m happy to take them- either way, let’s not hijack this thread.
Marley, did you have a lot of regular posters in the Pit with varying ideas on how the Pit should be used before the last month or so?
Thank you, my respect for you has been rewarded.
I recognize this feeling. I’ve been divorced twice.
Yeah. It bites. But one day you wake up and realize that what you’re getting out of a relationship does not equal the investment you’re putting in to it. One can only continue that for so long.
C’est la vie.
I’d say there are, and always have been, varying ideas about how everything here should be done.
This is the bit that I don’t understand. It was announced that there would be changes but that input from the community wouldn’t be necessary/welcome/needed. Despite that, many Dopers did offer constructive suggestions. It became clear that Ed - for reasons that he hasn’t made suffiently clear - is hell bent on carrying out these changes, and that he either doesn’t care or isn’t interested about the general unhappiness that has ensued.
Funnily enough, quite a while back, I started a thread asking Ed what his ‘vision’ or gameplan is for the Dope - what sort of board he wants, but he declined to answer. I’ve never understood why he was so adamant in his refusal to share his thoughts and opinions with us. He seems to be displaying the same sort of attitude now. As has been said many times, this is his playground: he can do what he wants. But I don’t understand why he seems so keen to engender ill will, when it would seem so easy to keep the troops on-side.
It has always been thus. Back before the boards went P2P, we offered up suggestions on how they could make money from the Dope without going P2P. These were rejected without serious consideration. When that didn’t work, other things were tried, all of them implemented in the same ham fisted manner as P2P. Some of them were only repealed after we ground the entire board to a halt and spent our time bitching in a Pit thread and filling the inboxes of various management types with complaint letters.
Now, however, it seems that the camel’s got a cracked vertebrae, if not a broken back, because prior to this, no one had set up another board(s) in which folks departed to en masse. Some people left, its true, but not in the numbers which they seem to be doing now. TPTB seem to have adopted the cellphone company model of customer service, namely “We’re not happy, till you’re not happy.” That “works” so long as your options are limited. In the case of message boards, however, its not a wise business move by any means.
I was going to say pretty much the same thing. It’s not as much the new rules but how they were implemented. We were treated like five year olds and, unsurprisingly, that’s how many of us acted.
Interesting comment.
Are you saying you were treated like 5 year olds before the rules were implemented, or after?
Along those lines, did you act like 5 year olds before the rules were implemented, or after, or both?
Cuz I might be seeing some cause and effect here…
The source of my comment was just an observation from the front page of ATMB:
Can someone explain the Banning process?
Baldwin suspended for one month
What happened to don’t fight the hypothetical?
About Sapo’s suspension.
Absolute stupidity [about Baldwin’s suspension]
Ed, just ban the whole lot.
Sure is a lot of talk about banning and suspensions.
Maybe none of these bannings and suspensions have anything to do with the recent changes. Maybe they all do. I haven’t read all the linked threads, nor am I up on all of the associated events that may have led to resultant suspensions/bannings.
In any event, that was just the “or” part of a phrase that also referred to posters leaving voluntarily. To this I could also refer to the recent number of mods stepping down, and the upsurge of various splinter boards.
I forgot to add what my post was leading up to. :smack:
Which is: I think it is now even more necessary and relevant for Ed to answer my question. As you (Ed) obviously don’t want the Dope to be what it was, what do you want it to be? I think a clear answer would help everyone. They may not agree with the proposed direction, but at least everyone would know where we’re going.
If you’re not going to read them, it would be helpful and better-informed if you didn’t jump to conclusions based on the titles.
Yes, let’s please continue with the nitpicking of one offhand comment and ignore the OP.
To be frank, actually we were treated like it is a privilege to post at Ed’s Board.
Please understand that I am not trying to be snarky, but if the practical opposite of “privilege” is “right” isn’t it true that our posting privileges are just that: privileges?
I know it is common (and I’m no different) to feel a sense of ownership with a place you’ve invested some of your self in, but that feeling alone doesn’t confer “rights” does it?
The roll-eyes smiley just doesn’t cut it. We are customers. Businesses shouldn’t make their customers feel like they are lucky to be allowed in the door.
It does not confer rights, but this is not about rights. This is about Ed losing potentially and theoretically valuable members of the board due to heavy handed administration and not treating the community with much respect. It is his board. He can do what he wants but he risks alienating the community and losing part of it and I think this time he had done so as a culmination of many poor decisions, poor planning and lack of communications.
He began an upgrade process without sufficient resources.
He does appear to understand the Dope has grown beyond the Cecil fan board.
He is making a list of banned words but only banned against users, not banned in general. This does not appear very rational. Inconsistent censorship is worse than pure censorship.