Hey Talkers!
There have been several developments on the moderation front lately.
First, I am delighted to welcome "Mad" Miles as our first Community Moderator! This is a volunteer position (but it does have occasional perks...). Miles will be helping keep an eye on our active discussion areas (when he's not composing his own long and eloquent posts!).
In addition to ensuring that the dialog remains respectful, we'll be watching for misformatted posts, excessive quotes, off-topic posts, etc.
I'm looking for another person or two to help out with this task, with a 3 month commitment. Appropriate candidates should be avid (if not complete) readers of these pages, along with authoring at least several posts and be fair and open minded.
As contentious issues arise, such as banning, I will consult with the other moderators before taking action when possible. Please contact me if you are interested!
Speaking of banning, I recently asked LenInSebastopol to leave the forum after many, many posts. While his participation was not as detrimental as some other no-longer-welcomed characters, it was exacerbated by the frequency of his posts. I requested that he throttle back but he refused. Many users found his posts arrogant, dismissive and in general not in keeping with either the values or demeanor that I try to uphold here. I was very pleasantly surprised by his very gracious response. I will be posting our private correspondence (with his permission) as an example handling be asked to leave with dignity and respect.
I recently posted about "Dark Shadows" re-emergence as "Pawtucket Redemption". I hope this will be her last un-welcomed appearance, even though it did kick off a rather good discussion.
"Valley Oak" has voluntarily elected to take a break from the discussion areas of the board as well. As many of you have witnessed, his posts can range from thoughtful to crass. I'm hoping when he returns he will contribute just the former.
And lastly, while I enjoy and appreciate all you frequent posters to our discussions, I'd love to see more people participate. One way to encourage that is to keep this space "safe" and respectful, which is why I've taken the actions above.
Another thought I've had is to create some "space" for new people. I'm considering something like "Newbie Tuesday" when I'd ask the more frequent posters to take the day off (at least from writing) and encourage some new voices. Whaddya think? Got any other ideas of how to encourage other folks to join in?
Barry