Going Nuklear

[Chahiero]

I find this entire charade very funny. As an administrator of my own forum, as many here can attest to, I will be the first to admit I have made mistakes.

However I find the entire tone of the administration and the moderation in regards to this issue is insulting, to themselves as well as to us the people. They are the caretakers of this community, they take a lot of time out of their lives to moderate this forum. And yet, they are treating the community that they have created as if they are not worthy of respect.

I respect Shiney for being the voice of the administration, for I know that such things are not snap descisions by the moderation team and thus he's taking one for the team by being the bearer of bad news. That takes a certain strength of character and I respect that. However he loses some of that respect with the tone he has taken with the community. He has come off as arrogant and condensceding, perhaps with reason but it is still nonetheless not conduct that is professional nor respectful to himself or the community.

The problem with this descision is that they are trying to make the forum just for the web comic, when it has grown into so much more. They arent showing a lot of respect in cutting back the forums in such a way without at least doing it in a professional and polite manner. I think it really shows a lack of respect to the community that they - we - were not consulted in this matter AT ALL. Insofar as I know, we were never told it was a problem. WE WERE NEVER GIVEN A CHANCE TO FIX IT OURSELVES. And that shows a complete lack of faith in the community, I think.

[KefkaTaran]

Having already said what I've said and sticking by what I've said and by my apologies, I must agree with Chahiero.

As Spirit of Vengence says: Go to another forum. I'm sure Mash, Brian, and Shiney will not care. And that is, perhaps, part of what has bugged me most about this all.

As was said by me: We are Brian's fan, he provides us with free entertainment, he owes us nothing. But as a writer myself, I prefer caring what my fans think, what few I have. This is not to say that Brian does not care for his fans and not to say that the smart idea would be to reverse this decision.

In fact, I'm not really sure what I'm saying anymore.

Mash is right that the lack of respect was shown towards the mods also, which isn't right.

Chahiero is right that a lack of respect seems to have been shown towards us fans also, which I just can't agree with. *shrugs* It's really just turned into a ridiculous no-win situation and the more I look back on it, the more I can't think of how that could've been prevented.

[Otaku Son]

Originally Posted by TheSpiritOfVengance

If you need "Real political disccussion." Just go to a different forum I am sure that Mash Brian Shiney and will not care...

Amen.

Originally Posted by The Evil Rules Of Iron-fistiness!!!111

Sorry. If you don't like the way we're running things here, feel free to start up a forum of your very own. EZBoard offers free message boards for anyone who wants them; they're as good a
place to start as any. We wish you the best of luck and will be watching your future career with interest.

Or my personal favorite...

This is a privately-owned message board, not the floor of the House of Representatives -- your "freedom of speech" ends where the rights of your fellow posters (and the moderators' stupidity tolerance) begins. Again, if you don't like it, feel free to start your own Very Special Gold Stars All About Me, Me, ME Super Cool Message Board Only ME Allowed where you can exercise your right to be vulgar and idiotic all the day long.

[Edit]Just think about it. All the time you guys have spent whining about being allowed to discuss politics on this board, is time that could have been spent opening up your own board and discussion politics like you wanted. You've successfully wasted a lot of time. Not everyone on NPF wants to discuss politics, and those who do will follow any link you put in your signature.[/Edit]

[Chahiero]

Otaku son's post personifies one of the aspects of the problem.

We the community are being treated like criminals because we want to talk about the world around us and not be caught up in a bubble , a single subject, that being the webcomic.

Not only that, but these posts show a general lack of respect for the forum, as they are saying that this forum is just another brick in the wall, that there is nothing special about THIS forum. That lack of respect is hurtful to the entire community.

[LeefRyder]

I think you're all expecting a bit much. You say the moderators don't respect the community. I say take a look around at the community and how the community generally treats moderators. Alot of the people posting in the discussion forum make no attempt to use their common sense in a debate. MANY threads have turned into near full-on flame wars. Every time Bush or Kerry sneezes in a way that offends someone suddenly there's a new thread about it. I don't think it's SO much to ask for some of you to take your election motivated posts to another forum **TEMPORARILY** because I don't exactly remember anyone saying this was a permanent thing. Whining about how you're not getting the respect you supposedly deserve will get you nowhere, except perhaps the complete destruction of the sub-forum you all seem so fond of.

[Thaumaturge]

I must admit, I can sympathise with the mods. I know that I certainly wouldn't want to have to moderate a discussion that ended up in the predicted flame-war.

Ah well, think about it this way, mods: it could be worse. It could have been discussions about the Zimbabwe elections, with a user base half Zanu-PF and half MDC. Considering what happens on the ground, I can only imagine what magnitude of flame-war might result.

To Fifthfiend, in case he reads this:
Surely it's not that bad? There are still plenty of interesting discussions here, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who found most of your replies in other threads interesting.

[Osterbaum]

Some of you are making this a bit too much. I do find this a bit annoying, but I keep in mind the fact that it's not forever. And even if it was, there are other forums. Just go google some place. You seem to fail to see, that the decision is final, and though this thread might prove useful in some way, it wont change the mods decision. This is not a democracy. We don't get to vote on the matter. All the useless wining is just stupid.

I forgott earlier to add something to what fifthfiend posted. About how Shiney lost his temper. Mods or not, they are still humans. Humans loose their temper.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

Personally, I don't know really how I feel. Part of me is saying that I should look elsewhere, but the fact is, I don't feel like discussion in any ol' place. I want to find a community, whose focus isn't merely politics, and has a variation of fun topics I can talk about.

Maybe with one subject I know a bit more about that the others.

It also has to have faces that I can get to know, as I'm really normally a very shy person, and it took me well into the Webcomics board until I even made the attempt.

Finding another board like that is fairly daunting, and I'm not sure if I can even find one. Plus, I don't carry off long-distance relationships well, so I'll likely have to give up this board in order to accomodate.

So yeah, I'm a bit bummed about the new decision, and maybe I'll change my mind. Then again, once I eventually finished up my big ol' archive of stuff I've done (includding filling in sprite gaps that I hadn't touched upon), I doubt my services will be called upon again, so there's just one less thing holding me here.

Sky Warrior Bob
- And Osterbaum, part of the problem is that this decision is still very raw, and then part of it is because politics holds a bit more meaning to some than otheres. Its a personal thing, and complaining about people complaining isn't going to make things better.

Myself, I'm going to try to calm myself down even more, and try to think about this rationally. I'm still prompted to make more gut reactions than I'd like to admit. But, it is entirely possible that I might opt to move to greener pastures.

[Chahiero]

My door is always open for anyone who does want those sort of discussions and more.

The problem is we shouldn't have too. They've done the same thing as more than one metal band, they've created a legion of diehard fans, spat in their faces, and then told them to go elsewhere.

I'm going to find it hard to respect the moderators when I feel so blantly disrespected myself.

[Lycanthrope]

Okay here I come with my favorite two bits in the voice of reason in hopes of mediating a dispute.

I will be frank. First, I didn't see the reason for the moratorium, however as they said it wasn't permanent didn't see the point in risking the allowance of future discussion by turning this into a pitched battle. Second, I don't see exactly why people have exploded about this. Sure its a little off, but god! I find it hard to even characterize what you people are acting like. Is this going to ruin your life that much to hold your tongue as to who you'll be voting for? Most of us already know just about every argument in all dirrections for everybody here.

Next, and this goes for everybody, we've been turning this into a shouting fest. People are lashing out at whomever they can find.

Finally, to those who are adament about all of this, what do you attempt to accomplish? Do you really believe that your going to be able to win an argument by spitting out a constant stream of invectives and ad-hominem arguments against the people you're trying to persuade? Or do you want to organize a digital insurection that you know you can't win? I'm not particularly happy about all of this either, but you know what? Tough cookies. Life goes on. I'm not about to let a single moratorium upset my life at this forum, and I'm not about to let this forum upset my life.