As to avoid confusion.. this is connie.
A friend asked me to please come in and say something here as they think I have a good head on my shoulders. Wow.. I sure have them fooled lol
This may get long, and I apologize if it is. And please bear in mind that its just my opinion and how I feel about this entire forum/communication in the net world thing.
Being a moderator REALLY sucks. Im talking about it really sucks if you are a member. Anyone who runs a forum should be aware of this from the get go.
A mod should never ever be someone who frequents the forum alot as a member.
Bad bad bad idea. Even if they are a good person with a good head on their shoulders it is going to at some point go bad. If you, as a moderator, talk ijn a forum with other members alot and become friends with many of them as well and you then interject your own personal opinions and beliefs you are going to immediately be taken as trying to tell people what you can and can not talk about or how you can talk about it. As a member and a person just wanting to talk you may say that you dont care for that particular topic or dont agree with it. (Debate can be healthy if done so with care) but when you are also a moderator everyone KNOWS you are a moderator and if you say that you are GOING to be taken as trying to tell people they cannot bring up certain things. It means that as a member and a moderator you pretty much have got to keep your personal feelings and opinions out of everything. Now, as a human being that isnt so easy to do. We do, afterall, have a right to say as we believe and feel about things. My personal opinion is that a moderator should be someone who just watchs over the forum and makes sure that things do not get out of hand and that the rules as set forth by the owners of the forum are abided by by all. When , if, they step in to take care of a problem that arises EVERYONE would know its coming from the moderator and that would cure a huge problem. Its just the nature of the beast and Alwil should have been aware of this from the get go.
I do not know what the cure for this is.. Ive thought that one over abit. I would hate to see Alwil close this Off Topic Forum down out of not wanting to either deal with it anylonger, or out of not wanting to moderate it themselves. It DOES take time, but I think it does serve a purpose here. oh sure, it does contain a huge amount of sillyness here and there. But, we live in a very stressful world these days and Im sure it gives some a place to let loose and have a little fun and laugh and set aside the stresses of our daily lives. No harm in that at all. And if you really look through it there is also some very useful information contained throughout it as well.
Okay, well.. I dropped in as requested
take care ya'll