Do we want an "Anything Goes" Forum?

[Johanna]

Johanna, another thing to consider is; I you think you are going to have to censor really outragous posts, do you really want to put yourself in that position and all the certain accusations of bias that that will bring?

No. I don't want to have to decide where to draw the line, as I have needed to recently. That is why I asked you folks what you want out of YOUR forum. You folks are telling me that you don't want a forum for off-off topics, and that you don't want to read heated or hateful discussions that serve no purpose to leatherwork. That actually makes our jobs easier. We mods usually PM someone "You may not realize it, but in that post you sound like a jerk, and could be misunderstood as a fill-in-the-blank. Would you like to edit or modify your post?" Then when we get a response, we know what we need to do. In the last week or so there have been some posts that concerned the staff a great deal. No one here likes to censor or "invisible" posts by our members, but when they cross the line to "racist", for example, well, we can't have that on our forum. We don't want hateful ugly posts on our forum, and I'm glad you all agree. We are a friendly and helpful community of leatherworkers, cooperating for the advancement of education, entertainment & fellowship. I'm glad we have decided to keep it that way.

Johanna

[HorsehairBraider]

YAY!

[Joy]

There are lots of other forums people can discuss what they want. Keep this a leatherwork site - that's what it started out as, and I think that's where it should stay.

[rawhide1]

Johanna

That's cool!! Lets get back to leather or rawhide!!!

Mike

[tashabear]

no no No No NO NO and hell no.

I really don't want to know what an off-the-wall nut bag some of my fellow members are.

Giving people an opportunity to vent anonymously is like giving a teenager a bottle of booze and the car keys. We don't need to turn this forum into a freak show train wreck.

We have "about us" and "off topic" that is enough. If folks vent politically, remove it...if they do it more than once, warn them, after that ban them..... this is a leather forum, not Meet the Press.

David

Who said anything about anonymously?

[whinewine]

Who said anything about anonymously?

Y'know, it's even worse if it's NOT anonymous, because you know who perhaps hates you because you simply are who you are through no fault of your own behind your back even though they're so super nice to your face... I'd rather deal with someone on a 'professional level' who deals with you as an individual and as business/hobby person. What their beliefs are are their beliefs & as long as they keep it to themselves & keep it out out of the professional realm, I don't care. But I don't want or care to really deal with someone who makes a deal with me & then makes a big racist/political/religious/moral judgement comment of our transaction in 'an anything goes' forum. My bottom line: treat me as a human being: don't make a deal & then laugh later because I'm not on same 'moral level' as you believe YOU happen to be. If you are this way & you can vent in 'an anything goes' forum about me afterward, well, I don't want to deal with you at all, because you can't keep it between professionals (because then YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL! fool).

[tashabear]

Y'know, it's even worse if it's NOT anonymous, because you know who perhaps hates you because you simply are who you are through no fault of your own behind your back even though they're so super nice to your face... I'd rather deal with someone on a 'professional level' who deals with you as an individual and as business/hobby person. What their beliefs are are their beliefs & as long as they keep it to themselves & keep it out out of the professional realm, I don't care. But I don't want or care to really deal with someone who makes a deal with me & then makes a big racist/political/religious/moral judgement comment of our transaction in 'an anything goes' forum. My bottom line: treat me as a human being: don't make a deal & then laugh later because I'm not on same 'moral level' as you believe YOU happen to be. If you are this way & you can vent in 'an anything goes' forum about me afterward, well, I don't want to deal with you at all, because you can't keep it between professionals (because then YOU ARE NOT A PROFESSIONAL! fool).

Well, if there isn't going to be a password-locked forum for controversial topics (major opportunity lost, IMO), can we at least ask that people label their posts better? Since there isn't a teaser pop-up when I hover over a topic, I have no idea what I'm in for -- eight times out of ten, the stuff in the off-topic forum is stuff I don't want to read.

[HorsehairBraider]

Well, if there isn't going to be a password-locked forum for controversial topics (major opportunity lost, IMO), can we at least ask that people label their posts better? Since there isn't a teaser pop-up when I hover over a topic, I have no idea what I'm in for -- eight times out of ten, the stuff in the off-topic forum is stuff I don't want to read.

Tashabear, I think this is a terrific point - I mean, that people should label their posts better. A post labeled "Help Me Please!" does not really give much information, and I sometimes look at these thinking I might be able to help, only to find it's actually about something I know nothing about. And then of course there are the posts that I am completely not interested in, usually in the section you mention. Most are really good about labeling their posts, though. And this is great because it really helps out when you need to find out something, and use the search function. If the posts are labeled in a rational fashion, you can find the posts that will help you learn more about floral tooling etc.

[JohnBarton]

It has been suggested that we set up a special section for people to rant and rave about any subject they choose, excluding personal attacks. Some of you want to discuss world events and controversial subjects, and this would be the place to do it. Those of you who hate those conversations could ignore the section entirely.

Please vote. Comments welcome.

Johanna

On the billiard forum I participate in there is an NPR - Non Pool Related section. Over there it's all politics all the time and things get pretty ugly. You would think that people would be happy to put politics aside and share the common bond that is the love of the game.

The problem is that often the controversies which get so heated in the NPR section spill over into the other sections with snide remarks, stalking troll posts, and just general bad vibes.

I vote no for anything like that here.

All of us have our opinions on how the world works, what's wrong with it and how to "fix" it. The staunchest conservative and the bleeding heart liberal here have one thing in common, they agree that the leather doesn't know or care what your views are, you either work it right or you don't and you stand back and admire each other's work regardless of your views on life.

I come here to get away from all that other stuff and I still don't have time to keep up with everything.

Let's not create a place to sap our energy and creativity and cause divisiveness.

[Johanna]

Well, if there isn't going to be a password-locked forum for controversial topics (major opportunity lost, IMO), can we at least ask that people label their posts better? Since there isn't a teaser pop-up when I hover over a topic, I have no idea what I'm in for -- eight times out of ten, the stuff in the off-topic forum is stuff I don't want to read.

The hover preview does not work with the "view new posts" or "view active topics", but it does work on every individual forum on the board.

Some people subscribe to forums they are interested in and get an email notification of any new topics. They can then decide to follow that topic or not by clicking on the links in the choices in the email, or later, while reading the thread, by clicking "options". In My Controls all the email notifications can be adjusted to a member's preference.

I agree, clear topic titles are easier for everyone.

~J