Discussing site concerns

I think there was a more recent storm, because I wasn't around in 2018. I remember people asking how he was at the time, and I'm pretty sure it was shortly before I talked to him in 2020.

 

Haha yeah I think we have like over 100 castles or something. I'm not sure, but there's supposed to be a lot. I'm not a castle enthusiast, but Prague's a really nice place to live.

 

I remember that one ... my own Puerto Rican friends became refugees on the Mainland soon after. They said conditions were unlivable. I know they're alive and well still and have since gotten accustomed to living in the mainland. Think they settled down in Florida.

I was living the UK at the time and even though the hurricane receded into a storm by the time it arrived, it still caused mayhem. It was eerie, seeing cars flipped over, pylons fallen and hearing news of massive power outages thinking my friends live through 2x the hell ten-ish days before.

 

Ok yeah, that was the big one. The one I remember was much lesser, but people were still worrying about Wrey. I guess that's an every spring thing.

 

I noticed that a lot of the forums started to have less traffic in 2020. There was that early period of time when it increased during the lockdowns, but starting in May 2020, even some of the frequent posters started to disappear one by one. I hope they're doing ok. One of those forums that I know of had members talking about being infected or having infected coworkers who got quarantined. The member who talked about her infected coworkers was allowed to stay in her office after testing negative. I don't know if this is the case with the Writing Forums because I don't know when the lower traffic here began. Judging from the posts above, I guess it's mostly for different reasons. There's one other forum that I know of that started to decline before 2020. It was because the MODs over there didn't handle a lot of the trolling. When I looked again a year later, I saw that some had gotten banned. But the damage was already done. After the pandemic began, the forum became even more inactive.

I think another could be financial reasons. I know some people whose work/businesses got disrupted during the pandemic.

 

I joined this writing forum in July 2020. I cannot comment on how active this forum was prior to my joining however, by and large I would say it has had consistent activity.

The forum is excellently laid out with more than enough to keep the writing community busy, should they choose to engage in the various sub-forums / groupings.

Overall the site is well managed, so well done to the site owner(s) and moderators. Keep up the good work.

 

Minor leakage of classified (ex)Mod information: That is the result of a lot of work by the Mod team when it consisted of Moose, Jan, and I. Pages upon pages of discussion between the three of us checking ourselves and each other to make sure that we weren't just lashing out, to make sure that offenders were given sufficient information and time to reform their ways if they so chose. Since we were a wolfling (David Brin, Uplift series) mod team nothing was simple, but I'm pretty proud of how things here were (and still are) when I had to take my leave.

I'm still in regular contact with him, and I don't think he'd mind me saying that life is back on as even of a keel as is expected in that area.

 

I'm curious now. Did they reform, for the most part?

 

That is, unfortunately, something I'm not at liberty to discuss.

 

It's funniest when they flounce off and demand you delete all their posts.

 

As a former mod myself I find this a bit concerning. What happened?

 

That's S.O.P. for chronic trouble-makers. It's NEVER their fault -- and especially not when they've just spent weeks nudging the absolute limits of the rules just as hard as they could while (in their minds) not actually violating any specific rule. I'm a moderator on three (non-writing) forums. I regularly find myself accused of unfairly targeting some idiot. And, like here, on the forums where I'm a moderator any potentially debatable post or member is discussed privately among the "staph" before action is taken.

But the usual suspects always blame it on over-zealous and vindictive moderators.

Also true for most forums, in my experience.

 

Ok! I was worried it was something a bit different, haha. Sounds like a bad time though. Never been interested in being in a clique, but I think I remember the sort of stuff that once went on. The forum doesn't need that nonsense.

 

Yeah I've noticed that too. I'll admit I've been a bit of a douche on this forum over the years. I've been here since 2006? I was 16 I think. But I'm older now, and a little wiser. Even when I was intentionally being provocative, if called out on it I would admit it.

 

I've been a moderator on a dance forum for what must be close to twenty years. (Egad. Does that calendar really say 2022?) We've had our share of "arteestic" tantrums and flounces and more than our share of trolls looking for "hot gurlz." About ten years ago, there was a huge schism over alleged cultural appropriation. The Superior Beings finally flounced off and formed their own forum which disappeared in under six months. The original forum still chugs along quietly but steadily with discussions of technique, venue, music, and costume. I miss some of the lively debates, but I don't miss the self-righteous attitudes and name calling. God bless the flouncers for they save the moderators the effort of evicting them.

 

That sounds like a ... shitty argument?

Haha-haaaaa.

I'll see myself out.

 

Done.

 

It's late, but I will sort out tomorrow.