Originally posted by broomer5
People are people
Members are people
Moderators are people
Very true, Broomer5 and, as such, when we frequent and become members of a board like this we do what all people do and create a community. I consider myself a member of that community.
There are a few things I find interesting about this thread. One being that Richard started it and he's someone I pay attention to when giving advice, but, the most interesting is that this theme has been coming up frequently lately. Not about mods in particular but you can find curt and sometimes rude replies by members in general. I've been here almost a year and a half and I can say that recently the "tone" of this board has taken a turn for the worse and there doesn't seem to be much of a sense of community.
OT threads on this board used to be a lot of fun, things that would get you really laughing. Check out the first "people behind the threads", the one that got Ryebread to put pics up on a website. Yes, even the red sponge. If I signed on and checked those threads after a hard or stressful day at work, I cruised this board with a smile on my face and that reflected in questions I asked and answers I gave.
Why is it the members of this board are even addressing a question that asks would we rather have good advice with attitude or bad advice with a smile? I would prefer good advice with a smile.
We used to have that here. I think we've lost some good members participation by some of the attitudes shown around here lately.
Yes, there are always troublemakers and always will be but, they used to be handled with humour (English spelling for Tim) or if they were bad enough, quietly behind the scenes. Now it seems like a lot of people have gotten on some high horse that I totally blame on golfish's evil twin BigMac and his "Responsible Aquarist" thread.
Seriously, though things have been going downhill. The sense of community and shared love for this hobby that I used to feel on this board has been severely downgraded and I'm really not sure why. No one whose advise I care to take has ever given me anything other than good advice in a nice manner but, others have. I had to take my email off my sig line because of a rude, hateful email I got recently. I've been around here a while and never had I gotten an email that referred to anything other than the hobby. A mod took care of it right away but, I was really surprised to get some tacky email from a member here in the first place.
Lately, I've had a couple of questions but handled them through personal emails rather than here. I would have never done that before. I would have put it out there to see what advise I got. Now a poster can't be sure what idiot is going to post a rude comment or infer that they are stupid. Even if I don't pay attention to the bad advice or the idiot response, it doesn't mean that other people aren't reading the thread. I have read threads here recently where someone has actually done a search and re-read a thread starters posts for the sole purpose of accusing them of lying, being stupid, not taking good advise etc. What a waste of time! Why spend the minutes of life given you in such a useless manner. Don't respond and the people who post for just such reactions will go away. People who are sincere will benefit from your restraint, stay and learn. It's that simple.
Mods - whether you like it or not, whether it's in the "charter" or not, whether it's policy or not, members of this board are going to think you are "experts", "more experienced" or have some knowledge above the average hobbyist or you would not be mods. There would be no need for you. The Mods are the community leaders and like it or not, you have the ability to set the tone of the board. If you don't have the time, or are too tired or whatever, don't answer. If you are burnt out being a mod, resign, it's not like your livelihood depends on it. From what I understand you are volunteers anyway. You don't have to be a mod, be a member. That being said, we all need to lighten up a little bit around here, myself included.
OUCH! Dang, I think I broke my ankle getting down off my soap box. .....one more thing, if you want to bash swf don't do it here there is another board for that.......oh yeah, one more thing, should I buy a pair of the black and white percs?
