I'm really surprised this happened...should I be?

[sommrluv]

Feel free to move or delete this if it is no appropriate.

I post on a lot of forums. I can no longer work, so it's nice to get some form of human interaction during the day. I figured I'd ask this here because there's a lot of crossover membership between here and BYC.

I haven't really been participating the in "OMG you changed the forum and it's ruined I'm never coming back" threads. Mostly I just read over there. But a thread title caught my eye about the new format. I chimed in a little....I didn't think it was inflammatory, but I did express surprise over a mod stating, basically, that if they don't like it, they don't have to post, that new members will come (and that 100 had signed up in the last week) and they don't know about the 'old' format so end of discussion. I said I was surprised a mod had stated that, especially on a board that is running on advertising revenue. I did state that I found it hard to find the advertising with some of the new side menus of breed reviews, everything just kind of was a jumble. Because my brain is tuning out the breed reviews on the right...I also lose all advertising on that side of the page.


I can't remember my wording because I honestly didn't think it out or anything...I tend to be very casual in forum posting. But, I still took time to format my thoughts and share them. My comment was removed...no explanation, no email, nothing. A few others were as well. Now the thread is one person against new format, and a bunch of people for.

Now, I also run a forum, so I get the politics of it all. But...a little aggressive? I'm surprised. All I basically said about the one comment was I was surprised by the attitude expressed by it. So was it that, or the fact that I said advertising impact was diminished?

I REALLY hate when I return to a thread to read and find out that kind of thing has happened...it just cheapens the value of reading/writing anything if it's going to be so heavily moderated.

So, should I be surprised? Is that just the norm, now? I realize forums are generally one person's playground...they have an idea of the way they like discussions to go, and if you color outside the lines too much, you must take your ball and go home. But seriously?

 

[trinityoaks]

Some forums are just like that, unfortunately. I'm sorry you had to deal with that. It's one of teh reasons that MaggieJ started this forum and we all came here.

 

[akane]

*doesn't frequent byc anymore* They come up so high in the search engine results that they can do whatever the hell they want and they get a ton of kids so we have everyone catering to children, teenage drama all about, mods running around with power gone to their heads, and no one cares because like they said they have a 100 new members at any given moment. Try chickencrossing.org. All the info, none of the drama.

 

[Bad Habit]

I found a rabbit forum that I disliked that way. Someone started to bring up something about spaying my rabbit, and I asked that they not give me the "spay" speech, because I knew the information but had yet to make a decision. That was apparently rude and unforgivable, and I was essentially told by one member I would receive no more information from them because of it. When I posted later, I didn't get a reply for a couple days, and when I did, I think it was a pity post from a mod.

I found this forum while searching something specific - can't recall what now. However, I'm happy to have found it.

 

[Farm Girl]

 

[MaggieJ]

I really would prefer not to see discussions of other forums here on RabbitTalk. It so often leads to bad feelings between the forums and when people are members of both groups that can be very awkward. I won't delete this thread at the present time because the discussion has been very moderate, but please do think before posting on this topic.

 

[sommrluv]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ruffle feathers. I can edit my post to change the name. Everyone has made me feel better, however. It's not my first frustrating experience there so I guess I should know better.

I think MEN has a chicken forum as well. And I have noticed the thing about the kids there...

 

[Farm Girl]

Sorry Maggie I will edit it. I should have known better.

 

[hoodat]

That's why this is one of my favorite forums. We have everything from pet people to meat people and everything in between; even some who don't have rabbits but just like to read about them and we all get along.
Advice is usually given gently with no insults being tossed around and everyone honestly trying to help one another. I hope this forum can stay just as it is. I think we're doing it right.

 

[pastelsummer]

i agree what i love about here is that we are open to discuss something without having it deleted or being banned because we stepped on someones toes. I have only twice seen nasty responses and they were by 2 newbies who left the board shortly after. I love that trolls and meanies dont stick around long because we all stick up for each other. Plus i was gone for so long and was welcomed back with open arms not alot of boards do that!

 

[opie7441]

I left BYC years ago bc of politics back then.

 

[Legacy]

I'm not on BYC but I just wanted to say thank for the admin of this sight. I really enjoy this board and probably spend more time here than any other site.

 

[akane]

Someone started to bring up something about spaying my rabbit, and I asked that they not give me the "spay" speech, because I knew the information but had yet to make a decision. That was apparently rude and unforgivable, and I was essentially told by one member I would receive no more information from them because of it. When I posted later, I didn't get a reply for a couple days, and when I did, I think it was a pity post from a mod.

I had a similar incident on the budgie forum that comes up first in the search results. I posted about an accident that nearly happened to my budgie with other animals because doors that should not have been opened all got opened at the same time removing the separators and safety measures. It got deleted, I got a warning pm about discussing keeping birds with other animals, and no one answered my posts from then on. Some of the breeders there won't even sell to homes with other animals while my birds can walk across my dog and she just gives me this abused "save me" look because she knows not to touch them. They knew nothing of the situation and don't care about individuals. They just have this overall rule and speech about having birds with other animals of any type in the house.

 

[SatinsRule]

Everyone will likely have their own opinions about what I'm going to say here, and I won't argue or chastise anyone for their opinions, but please consider what I'm about to say and give me that same consideration.

There are 3 things I've observed which bring about changes in peoples' demeanors and actions:

1-Wealth
2-Power
3-Alcohol

Some would argue that they change who a person is. My view is that they simply bring out what has always been inside the people involved. Their inhibitions are lessened when any and/or all of the 3 become available to them, and it is easier for them to act out what they'd likely always been thinking in the first place.

I sense that what happened in the minds and hearts of the moderators referred to with Summer's first post is that the power of being able to orchestrate anything and everything on that website brought out a side which few if any people who they were familiar with ever knew existed. Think about it for a minute: How many of us knew someone in school whom we were good friends with, but today won't give us the time of day after achieving lofty societal positions in their lives? Probably most of us, if not all of us. That precisely supports the point I'm attempting to make.

 

[sommrluv]

I would agree with your statement. I think a lot of online sites have mods that can go on power trips...it's just a symptom of the internet. It almost coincides with my theory on forum users..

There are only a few types of people who use online forums..

1.)Those that are forced....e.g. stay at home moms, retirees, disabled people...those that would like some adult interaction and intelligent conversation.

2.)Those that prefer it....e.g. someone who is shy,or has anxiety or is just uncomfortable in certain situations...helps them interact with people on their own terms.

3.)Those that have no choice...those that really have limited social skills, have burned through their 'real life' friends, or are just the normal crazies...


That's my experience...and than of course there's trolls who just don't count. And, I mean, I have friends who have high functioning autism that I know in real life that just prefer to chat online...I wouldn't put them in group three. Group three is really just mean people.

__________ Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:46 pm __________

And thanks everyone for making me feel better. I get so annoyed when I don't even get an email or an explanation...it just makes it look like they are deleting any comments that are criticizing the site.<br /><br />__________ Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:33 pm __________<br /><br />Now, funny enough....I don't get fighting on my forum. It's also NOT very active anymore. My rules state that if someone goes off on a temper tantrum....within reason (mostly language...it's a women's biblestudy group) I will leave your comments up. I don't delete, I don't police, I don't censor.

Which also means...you must own your words. Oops, you had PMS and told mary lou you think she dresses like a hussy? Yup...that stays. And reminds you to own your words.

I've had a few people leave because I wouldn't remove stuff. I'm guilty of being mean sometimes...I just think having someone police every word makes it too easy to not have to be accountable for those moments.

 

[akane]

I've had a few people leave because I wouldn't remove stuff. I'm guilty of being mean sometimes...I just think having someone police every word makes it too easy to not have to be accountable for those moments.

Ahhh.. for the days when the internet had no control and deletion of anything. All organizations were a private group of people with similar views who often had all equal power so there was no banning. More often a new person who didn't belong in the group and attempted it would get flamed until they left. Occasionally in some groups wars would break out but there was no mod to settle it. Eventually after days, weeks, months they would agree to disagree, someone would leave cause the group sided against them, or the whole group dissolved and you found a new one to try again. Oh did we reign over our little corners of the internet with no one to tell us what to do except ourselves and our equals.

 

[Jack]

Um, yeah, remember for some IT IS their business, I hang out on gun sites, they have volunteer mods, actually hang on one site because it has a basement (yeah it ain't the break room (mod chat) but well the hair ain't up.

The format was changed, people did lots of work, the point was either ease of use, or more money, or both,
OR the hosting software (like V bulletin or such) interesting I though MC ran this on V bulletin, but I don't see the corporate stuff.

 

[PulpFaction]

I would add a 4th reason to the list: Those that are forced to because they have no local outlet for discussion of whatever given topic. I have a pretty active social life and, granted, do get burned out on social interaction, but there are few interested in the subjects that I enjoy talking about that I can easily meet up with.

That being said, I have been on the other forum in question and rarely if ever notice serious issues. Then again, I primarily frequent the Breeds, Breeding and Showing board, the meat board, and the breeders and hatcheries board. There used to be a thread in the Random (or whatever it's called) board for people that were in state, but we pretty much all migrated to Facebook so I have no reason to see the chit chat or deal with the more social/chit chat groups. I get all the socializing I need through the more, hmm...learning-based conversations might be the phrase I'm looking for?

Don't throw the baby out with the bath water. There is plenty to be learned there and plenty of ways to avoid the drama.

 

[opie7441]

What bothered me was what I would call bullying from others, if a person made comment or posed a question that wasn't a "correct" way of doing things or thinking maybe from being a newbie, ect. I have to say that I only 'lurked' at BYC bc I was just afraid of saying the wrong thing. That isn't the only forum that I have seen this happen, I watched this going on, on a horse forum and it ended up that some people that lived around the person that would make some unpopular comments, (I also didn't agree with the comments) but they blocked this person, then they planned on wrecking this persons reputation and spoke freely about it. I couldn't stomach it and left. When I ended up on BYC and read how vicious some were there, I just wanted to be educated, not attacked.

 

[Gone]

interesting I though MC ran this on V bulletin, but I don't see the corporate stuff.

This board is running on a somewhat modified phpBB 3.x. The script is GPLed, and there are no legal restrictions on removing the branding. I do this because malicious scripts (the ones responsible for a lot of "hacked" forums), and spambots both exploit Google and other search engines by looking for the "Powered by..." and copyright lines of well known scripts. We have very little spambot activity here compared to other similarly active forums that leave those lines visible.

About the only "drawback" as it were, is their support forum insists you keep the branding if you want their help. That's fine, not unreasonable, and not to sound totally arrogant, but I helped people on there a lot more than I ever asked for help, so I'm unconcerned. It's not nearly as pleasant a place as it was some years ago, so I don't often do that anymore either.

Btw, I HATE VB, absolutely hate it. What braindead idiot decided it would be a good idea to store all the forum's image files as binary blobs in a MySQL database, as well as all template HTML.... Yuck! :soap: