MissTaken
Biker Chick
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2001
- Posts
- 20,570
I have spent a lot of time in the last couple of days working on some ideas for how to resolve issues and problems that are being discussed on the forum. There have been some great ideas posted.
It seems there are two trains of thought. Some people feel the forum should be more tightly moderated and others feel it should be essentially, unmoderated. I understand both points of view.
There are no simple answers when dealing with an increasingly larger and more eclectic group of people as we have here. With more people, comes diversity in points of view, experiences, personalities and everyone adds flavor to the forum. No one wants to lose that.
Laurel has told me she can give us a mini forum for chat that is off topic , akin to the General Board. Anything anyone wants to post there would be fine as long as they follow the guidelines relevant to potential legal action against lit. No underage posters. No copyrighted images. etc. It would also be moderated in terms of posting of personal information on the forum. However, whether the question is "What's your bra size?" or a thread about "The Rise and Fall of Richard Nixon", it would all be posted there.
Then, the BDSM forum would remain available for those who come to have serious discussions about BDSM topics. Now, I realize that many times one thread becomes another....serious to fluff and vice versa. In that situation, I would likely pm the thread starter and others on the thread to determine if the thread should be moved to the alternate BDSM forum or the thread should be split. That is to say, if a thread is hijacked by flirting, the flirtatious posts could be moved from the moderated forum to the unmoderated forum as their own thread, while the original thread remains in tact.
So, we could try this for a designated period of time and then make changes, keep it or ditch the idea depending on the feedback received.
No, this isn't an original idea. WD came up with it a long time ago and I reread his posts last night on the matter. (Giving credit where credit is due. )
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Second issue: regardless of whether the forum changes format or not, I will not be removing off topic posts unless there seems to be a real need to do so. In a situation where a thread needs to be moved, I will contact the poster PRIOR to moving it so that I don't find myself in situations comparable to the last two days, realizing after the fact that it was a mistake. As i have stated, I do not have the ability to return a thread to the forum. On the other hand, if we have two forums, I can move threads as needed.
Now, the catch is that you, the poster are responsible for notifying me of off topic posts that really need to be elsewhere and be ready to state why the thread is better served elsewhere. I will not go looking for them. As has been pointed out, many off topic threads can take on a life of their own and become relevant to BDSM. And again, I will contact the original poster before taking any action.
In the event that a particular poster is simply annoying to you, I will not remove their threads. Use your ignore option, if you feel that strongly about another poster.
In my opinion, we should still move personal ads to the Personal's Forum as a service to the poster as much as any of us posting here. A personal ad here isn't likely to get much positive feedback and is better served where the lit populace seeking company goes to read personals.
We are all adults here and I believe the forum can essentially moderate itself. I realize this plan is not fool proof, but it is a start to solving the problems at hand.
We will try this for a few weeks and then make a decision about what to do with the "Free For All."
~~~~
Last issue: I have apologized to A Desert Rose in private and am doing so now, publicly. I should not have moved the thread unless I was going to move all the off topic threads and was remiss in not pming her. I am sorry, ADR.
It seems there are two trains of thought. Some people feel the forum should be more tightly moderated and others feel it should be essentially, unmoderated. I understand both points of view.
There are no simple answers when dealing with an increasingly larger and more eclectic group of people as we have here. With more people, comes diversity in points of view, experiences, personalities and everyone adds flavor to the forum. No one wants to lose that.
Laurel has told me she can give us a mini forum for chat that is off topic , akin to the General Board. Anything anyone wants to post there would be fine as long as they follow the guidelines relevant to potential legal action against lit. No underage posters. No copyrighted images. etc. It would also be moderated in terms of posting of personal information on the forum. However, whether the question is "What's your bra size?" or a thread about "The Rise and Fall of Richard Nixon", it would all be posted there.
Then, the BDSM forum would remain available for those who come to have serious discussions about BDSM topics. Now, I realize that many times one thread becomes another....serious to fluff and vice versa. In that situation, I would likely pm the thread starter and others on the thread to determine if the thread should be moved to the alternate BDSM forum or the thread should be split. That is to say, if a thread is hijacked by flirting, the flirtatious posts could be moved from the moderated forum to the unmoderated forum as their own thread, while the original thread remains in tact.
So, we could try this for a designated period of time and then make changes, keep it or ditch the idea depending on the feedback received.
No, this isn't an original idea. WD came up with it a long time ago and I reread his posts last night on the matter. (Giving credit where credit is due. )
~~~~
Second issue: regardless of whether the forum changes format or not, I will not be removing off topic posts unless there seems to be a real need to do so. In a situation where a thread needs to be moved, I will contact the poster PRIOR to moving it so that I don't find myself in situations comparable to the last two days, realizing after the fact that it was a mistake. As i have stated, I do not have the ability to return a thread to the forum. On the other hand, if we have two forums, I can move threads as needed.
Now, the catch is that you, the poster are responsible for notifying me of off topic posts that really need to be elsewhere and be ready to state why the thread is better served elsewhere. I will not go looking for them. As has been pointed out, many off topic threads can take on a life of their own and become relevant to BDSM. And again, I will contact the original poster before taking any action.
In the event that a particular poster is simply annoying to you, I will not remove their threads. Use your ignore option, if you feel that strongly about another poster.
In my opinion, we should still move personal ads to the Personal's Forum as a service to the poster as much as any of us posting here. A personal ad here isn't likely to get much positive feedback and is better served where the lit populace seeking company goes to read personals.
We are all adults here and I believe the forum can essentially moderate itself. I realize this plan is not fool proof, but it is a start to solving the problems at hand.
We will try this for a few weeks and then make a decision about what to do with the "Free For All."
~~~~
Last issue: I have apologized to A Desert Rose in private and am doing so now, publicly. I should not have moved the thread unless I was going to move all the off topic threads and was remiss in not pming her. I am sorry, ADR.
