A new Board? Any interest?

FredHayek wrote: Good point SC, if you can't handle the heat in the Courthouse, visit the Campfire(pun intended.) or other forums. The only place I have seen other big arguments here is on the Sports forum and usually just those nasty Packer/Viking/Bengal fans.

lol Bengals fans aren't nasty, they're just frustrated. Like a 16 year old boy who desperately wants some action and can't get any, only worse cuz it's been that way for decades. LOL

KodiakJack, I too appreciate you being here and you can certainly handle it. None of these people know you so their opinion of who you are isn't based on reality and therefore not necessary to take personally at all. Quite likely, anything they say is actually a reflection of what they worry about concerning themselves.

[quoteemMtnGramma:1uis8f80]This is a paraphrase of something I heard today:
Our culture has accepted two huge lies.
The first is that if you disagree with someone, you must fear or hate them.
The second is that to love someone means that you agree with everything they believe or do.
Both are nonsense.
You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.[/quoteem:1uis8f80]Agreed and I would add another lie: that "To disagree with someone is to mean that you don't appreciate them and have no respect for what they've done".

[quoteemchickaree:1uis8f80]A new board won't change the dynamics. They reflect the country as a whole. We care more about boosting our " team" and tearing down " theirs". Ladyjazzer isn't the only one. On both left and right assumptions are made, insults thrown, logic ignored. The big gun debate is an excellent example. Everyone pretends that either a total ban or arming everyone with AKs are the only solutions, when neither is seriously on the table. I believe a vocal few enjoy the rush of verbal combat, thus muddying the waters for those of us who wish an intellectual discussion. Science Chic tried to deal with this by having The Ring, but cross-contamination seems inevitable. Making sure you never hear anyone whose opinion differs from yours just makes it all worse. Model the behavior you'd like to see from others, don't hesitate to call out bad behavior from " your" side and things may slowly change. How many new boards have been started just to die and familiar voices are forever lost in the process?[/quoteem:1uis8f80]

[quoteemfrogger:1uis8f80]just because businesses are hesitant to contact you or members don't want to share the info with you doesn't mean the claims have any less validity. there are businesses that wil not do business here based on the tone. i didnt get the feeling anyone was asking for anyone to be banned. I got that the op was begging for some civility and asking those who preferred a rougher approach to use the appropriate forum. either they are grown up enough to do that or not. It shouldnt be your job to babysit a bunch of grown ups[/quoteem:1uis8f80]And nowhere did I say that the claims weren't valid, as I did ackowledge that [quoteemSC:1uis8f80]...many want this forum to be better, as they have a right to expect and we have an obligation to provide. It is not my wish to have a forum that makes people unhappy, or causes them to leave the entire site altogether and I will do what I can to make it better.[/quoteem:1uis8f80]That's why I asked to have the opportunity to speak with them, because frankly I think they are missing a huge opportunity to grow their business by basing their opinion on one forum of this business without taking into account everything else that we have to offer and the reputation that we've built with the rest of the business and nonprofit community. The claim that I was addressing was that "businesses were leaving". There is no way for me to track whether businesses are not participating in the Free Classifieds because they don't like what's posted in the Courthouse, or if it's because they just don't have anything to post, or they forget to post here. I can track my Business Partners, and our website analytics, and that's the data I presented to rebut akilina's claim. We've got one of the biggest Facebook followings of any business along this corridor, we're growing by leaps and bounds on Twitter, we're adding marketing outside of the area and our visitors are up by 300% since the site upgrade - if you are a business and you aren't posting here, not going after that exposure is shortsighted, especially if it's based on what's happening in a separate forum that has nothing to do with your business.

Nor did I see anything where people were asking for members to be banned, which was why I stated [quoteemSC:1uis8f80]So what I'm hearing that it boils down to: you want more moderation. You don't want people banned, you want freedom of speech, but you don't want to read what you are currently reading in the Courthouse.[/quoteem:1uis8f80]I want to make this point very clear, which is why I'm reposting it. We have not ever endorsed banning, nor will we change that policy. All I'm asking for is input as to what everyone thinks should be split out of the Courthouse because frankly, it is my job and it's obvious that asking people to self-moderate, cajoling, and calling them out publicly and privately hasn't fixed the problem that keeps recurring on a regular basis since we started. I'm all about solving problems and moving on, not revisiting the same one over and over again inefficiently or ineffectively - it's counter-productive and harmful to business. I will not allow this site to turn into Pinecam, where people are suspended or banned because the mods personally don't like them, and they lazily lock threads because they can't handle contentious topics, but I keep hearing that the moderation is too lax - so I need to know from all of you what you think goes to the Ring, and what stays here because I'm not going to decide those guidelines or you're going to accuse me of going Pinecam :adminpower: :modgun: and imposing stricter rules upon you that you didn't want. Screw that, I will not accept that responsibility, it's not mine to own.

BearMtn, this always has been a moderated site, otherwise we'd've gone the route that 285freetalk had and ended up just like it did. Yes, it is likely that increasing moderation will open a can of worms and piss a bunch of people off, but it also might make a bunch more people happy. If implemented, time will tell. And yes, it will certainly create more work for the mods, but that's our job. If I personally get burnt out, then you can buy it and do whatever you want with it. :thumbsup: I'm glad you've found value in the videos and thank you for adding your thoughts, I appreciate it.

No one is really interested in a right-wing echo chamber nor a left-wing echo chamber. Locked forums and "locked" threads go that route. Everyone has differing opinions of what's acceptable or not, but when it gets to a point that enough people think what's currently acceptable isn't good enough, then we need to address the problem and fix it. And if that doesn't work, then we try something else. SO if you want the guidelines to change, here's your chance for input, otherwise it'll end up how you don't like it, or we won't be able to change anything at all. And I need specifics, which is why I asked the questions I did in my initial post in this thread.