This forum needs a...........

This is the place for any magazine-related discussions that don't fit in any of the column discussion boards below.
Ron H
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Post by Ron H »

philba wrote:Mr. Al,

I am all for moderation being light and not stifling free interchange. However, I see this board as being unmoderated. I draw this from the fact that name calling threads have been allowed to persist and that that no one has ever been banned for a violation of the rules other than spammers. In fact, I'm not even sure anyone has even been warned though I could fully be wrong.

Let's look at an example board that has moderation: electro tech. While the moderation is fairly light, runaway threads get closed and abusers get banned. Not a lot but it keeps the focus on electronics and related issues rather than personality. I think it's no accident that it is a significantly larger and more robust forum. The recent rant and compressed air car threads would have been long ago closed. I would much prefer to see that level of moderation here. With out it, n&v forum will continue to be an also-ran board - people that want to discuss electronics mostly don't want to be the subject of verbal abuse, especially if it's unrelated to electronics.

I take little comfort that I was the target of the only deleted posting (I was called a racist name even though I'm not a member of that racial group). Had that happened on any other board, the poster would have been banned. This was not the first time that the poster used racial language. As it was, nothing would have happened to the offensive posting had I not reported it to the editors of N&V. To be clear, this was before there were any moderators.

Personally, N&V is way down on my list of forums due to the dynamic that exists here. Wading though bulldog determined defense of ludicrous opinions is simply not interesting to me. Trolling, baiting, racist remarks, name calling, character assassination should all be grounds for banning. If that happened, this board could become something worth spending time on.

Phil
Well said, Phil. Those are my sentiments exactly. I used to spend a lot of my forum time here. Now it's mostly spent on electro-tech.

Ron
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philba
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Post by philba »

thanks, Ron.

For those that don't know, Ron is someone that an electronics forum should work hard to attract. He has a deep knowledge and is incredibly generous with his time helping people. If you got 5-10 people like him contributing, this forum would simply take off. But that's not likely to happen here. The trick with creating a community is that you must balance decorum and freedom. The great moderators do that.

Don't get me wrong, electro-tech isn't perfect. IMHO, it could use a little more policing as they do scare off the newbies sometimes. But they also kick out the people that are trying to reduce it to chaos. And the helpful folks like Ron keep the newbies hanging in there.

It's N&Vs decision to make. But I have no confidence they will ever fix the problem.

Phil
Robert Reed
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Post by Robert Reed »

WHOOA! Easy Chris - you are insulting without a doubt THE TOP posters in this forum , such as the likes of RSHayes, Philba, Hackles up,Dyarker, Dean and a dozen others ( please fogive me for omitting names as space does not permit). I am no Einstein, but spending the better part of my life in the electronics field, I can follow, understand and put to use good information. I can also read replies here and be able to weed out the crap from the real thing. These boys are obviously well educated and experienced and that is well demonstated on all their replies. This forum would suffer a terrible loss should any of them be
discouraged from using this forum. I not only read their replies. but I study them and 90% of the time I learn and/or totally agree with them. The other 10% may be false assumptions by myself. I cannot comment on the physics related posts on this forum as that is not my feild ( although I have a basic understanding of its concepts) but this is a secondary subject being that this is an Electronics Forum.
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MrAl
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Post by MrAl »

Hello again,


Ok, i have been reviewing some information and it turns out that many
of the complaints are perfectly justified.

Here is a repeat of the pertinent part of the regulations for using this
board that must be agreed upon during registration:

START_QUOTE
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful,
threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any
applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and
permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP
address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You
agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum
have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time
should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have
entered above being stored in a database.
END_QUOTE

I want to draw attention to part of the first line:

"You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening"

This goes for everyone, and i see 'slanderous' as most notable because
several posts have already violated this rule, and it is clear that many
people do not want to see this kind of thing, even though it may or may
not violate any actual law.

What this means is that any post that does not comply should at least be
deleted, so without further delay this policy will go into effect immediately.
Any post that openly mocks others will be deleted as soon as possible.
I feel that banning is a bit extreme, but if you feel otherwise you can
ask Mike about it.

I would also ask that anyone who has a post deleted not hold this against
any of the moderators, because we are also simply members too who
just want a good web site just like you do. Also, no one will know what
moderator (if any) actually deleted the post anyway.

In closing, there are many topics that come up here that are very interesting,
and with a little discretion on the part of the post authors there will
never be a need to delete anything!
LEDs vs Bulbs, LEDs are winning.
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philba
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Post by philba »

sounds good to me!

A couple of suggestions:
- instead of deleting the post, delete the content. i.e. leave evidence that it was deleted and who posted it.
- some threads that flirt on the edge but are clearly running off topic should get locked. this will leave an example for people to understand the boundaries
- I agree with not banning people for a single offense but I think 3 offenses should be met with banning. Or perhaps 3 in a set period of time like a month. we all get wound up at times but, for the most part, know how to calm ourselves down.

Thanks again. I'm confident that we will find a happy medium between freedom of the press and public order. (said only semi in jest...)
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Chris Smith
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Post by Chris Smith »

Insults and Respect are both Earned.

[Edited for content]
Robert Reed
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Post by Robert Reed »

Some things never change.
Ron H
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Post by Ron H »

Robert Reed wrote:Some things never change.
And if they do, this forum may fall apart due to the total absence of intelligence and expertise.
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Chris Smith
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Post by Chris Smith »

Some people never change, or learn for that matter.

[Edited for content]
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philba
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Post by philba »

Just singin in the rain,
just singin in the rain.
What a glorious feelin,
I'm happy again
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Chris Smith
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Post by Chris Smith »

Im sure your right up their with....

"Air pressure, not heat, drives the internal combustion engine"

.......Just to be one of the biggest cronies we have here, cutting off the nose to spite your face.

Sing what did you say, time to dump the garbage?

Well duhhh!
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