This is the appropriate place...

[highlandtide]

To discuss your thoughts on the moderation of this forum. Please also read the Rules at the top of the forum. They have always been in effect but now they are posted.

[Graham]

OK since you ask...I think you are a very strange man but you are doing a great job.

I've not always agreed with your handling of posts, but I respect it enormously.

(you can use Paypal if you wish)

[highlandtide]

Hehe. Thanks Graham. I dont have a complex or anything. I just dont want Chaos here.

(do I have to pay you in AUD? Is that what your money is called?)

[STONE CHUCKER]

Please don't get me wrong.... I was skimming through post as I tend to do during the summer months and BLAMO there was all this talk about people leaving and posting being deleted ect.... it seemed like the gent was very upset regarding posts being removed. From his version of what they included they did not seem that risky. Then celt and robbie are gone.... all this is news to me. It is a shame to lose anyone over something that may have been worked out. To take an attitude of "OH WELL THIER LOSS" doesn't sit well with me. I have a brain pain trying to be political here I AM NOT SAYING ANYONE HAS TAKEN THAT ATTITUDE THOUGH. I am curious what is the issue? We touch on sticky issues here before and seemed to get through. Everyone always chimes in with praise about maturity and inteligents, can we not handle discussion about things other than pleats and what to say if someone asks what's under our kilt? I have had allot of experience with email being misunderstood, you can't read the tone and body language in an email. What is the solution and what can we do as a community to resolve the issues that have already taken place?

always smilen'.... don't forget that
and yes I know I can't spell



Chris

[Alaskan]

I don’t know if there is anything I can say that I haven’t said before. The reason you started deleting posts was to preserve the peace of the forum and keep people from leaving, but I see it as having the opposite effect. People aren’t going to want to stick around if we always have the same stale conversations, and if we aren’t allowed to have any disagreement without the thread being deleted, then the same stale conversations is all we will have. It has now been shown, people aren’t going to feel welcome if their posts or threads are deleted with no explanation why. With some posts it has been pretty obvious, but with others it has been more difficult to figure out why the post was deemed unacceptable. Sometimes it has seemed that a thread has been deleted because someone disagreed with the popular people on the forum, and that is not right. I never contributed to the bandwidth fund because of the unexplained deletion of posts and threads.

I know it sounds like I think there should be an absolute lack of moderation, but that isn’t really the way that I feel. I found the movement of threads to be overdue. In fact, I have seen many threads that were not moved, that I thought should be. When someone starts a thread in “general kilt talk” that really doesn’t have anything to do with kilts, then it does deserve to be moved to “off topic” section. If somebody starts a thread about their new USAkilt in the Utilikilts section, it does deserve to be moved to the USAkilts section.

I understand that it is difficult to find a balance, that you don’t want too much or too little moderation. However, I would think that it is better to err on the side of too little moderation. Just because people are having a disagreement is no reason for a thread to be shut down. Nothing will be resolved that way and animosity will continue.
I have often had “brain pain” like Stone Chucker because we all have to tiptoe around and try not to hurt any feelings, unless it is one of the popular people on this forum, then they can feel free to say extremely rude things, and usually they won’t be called on it because other people are trying to maintain the peace (and keep threads from being deleted). If they are called on it, they will either ignore the fact that they have been rude, or blame will be placed on the person who doesn’t ignore people being rude.

[Graham]

I've been both moderator and admin on other forums and had to delete posts from people who were either rude or pushing an agenda, it's not easy, you can't please everyone all the time - it's impossible.

Hank, you do your best with what you know and at the end of the day it's your board, you pay for it so you have the say. Those who don't like it can lump it.

Those who just want to talk about kilts will always stick around.

[Calico Jack]

Who are the popualr people on the forum? You seem to have mentioned quite a number of times, but I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out who they might be. There really hasn't been any rudeness here in quite a while, and any rudeness we had in the past was quickly patched up and life went on. If you feel that something needs to be said, like Nike said, JUST DO IT. That being said, I don't want to have to read posts that bash other members for their views, unless there is a sense of blatant rudness in their words. Frankly I don't want to see anyone else leave over something stupid, like a difference in opinion. I'll agree that the deletion of posts just to stop an argument, or deletion without an explanation may not be the best policy in the world, but I'm not going to get all flustered about it. To each his own, though.....

Walkin on down the Road,
Calico Jack--Red Hot Chili Pirate

[Alaskan]

Those who just want to talk about kilts will always stick around.

And all they will be able to talk about is kilts. Talking about accessories for the kilts has lead to controversies that didn't get resolved because the threads were shut down.
So we will be sitting here talking about our kilts. "Does this kilt, pleated to the stripe, make my butt look big?" or "Does this shirt go with this kilt?" and we will sound like a bunch of women.

Even if we stick to kilts and only kilts and can't even talk about Argyll or Prince Charlie jackets there will still be controversy.
We couldn't even talk about the Masonic tartan without someone making some sort of insinuation about the Masons. Our history of the kilt discussion also lead to quite a bit of controversy.

There really hasn't been any rudeness here in quite a while, and any rudeness we had in the past was quickly patched up and life went on.

I agreed with most of what you said, but on that one point, you are wrong. First off, I don't know how long "quite a while" is to you, but there has been rudeness here within the past few weeks. A lot of times the problem is not "patched up" instead it is ignored. The thread is cut off and nothing is resolved. Yes, life went on, but the same problem will pop up again if nothing is resolved.

The main point I am trying to get at is that it doesn't matter what "rules" we make anytime you have two or more people together there are going to be things they don't agree on. We can't avoid having differences of opinions and we should be free to discuss some of that without every thread where a difference of opinion arises being shut down with no warning or explanation why. That won't solve any of our problems, it will only give us a little bit of time before it pops up again.

[beverlonian]

Keep up the good work Hank. There will always be prima-donnas in every walk of life who throw the rattle out of the pram when things don't go their way. My opinion is if people want to leave - goodbye (sadly - but it is their choice).

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Hank, you do your best with what you know and at the end of the day it's your board, you pay for it so you have the say. Those who don't like it can lump it.

That's right. And I can respect that. Period.

When the conversation went to Daisy Dukes and Hamish couldn't get the idea of what they were... I posted a picture of Catherine Bach. No nudity. No porn. Nothing bad. Just not kilt related.

When Colin mentioned Princess Leia... I posted the picture before that one got questioned. No nudity. No porn. Just not kilt related.

When I was told "Nice try, Jimmy" and the posts were deleted like I was trying to pull some Larry Flint action over on the site... I was pretty p***ed-off. And I still am. I always tried to inject a load of help and humor on this board. Right now, I don't feel real helpful or humorous.

Therefore, if anyone has real concerns about a kilt situation, I'll try to help with a PM. If there's a question on a company or one of the suppliers that I know very well, I'll try to PM.

As you said... it's his board, he pays for it and makes the rules. I have no problem with "lumping" it when my actions are inappropriate.

And no beverlonian... it's not having a tantrum or whatever in the h*ll you're trying to suggest. It's merely respecting the board owner, the readers, and the content that's appropriate for this site. Since my methods are not what is appropriate, then I have the alternate method of relaying helpful information through PMs. Period.