Recent thread about copying other's work

[BobD]

Hi Gang,
I deleted the thread posted here in the General Woodcarving area about copying work.

I'm not in a position to decide who was right and who was wrong. Ultimately that is up to the two people involved.

We all tend to be friends here on the board, but we forget that we are writing for a larger audience than just friends. Look at the Currently Active Users area. As I write this, we have 338 users, but only 67 are members. Sure, some of those users are search engine bots, but we can expect that many of them are lurkers who still read the posts.

In the future, I don't really want to see something like this on the open forum. If you want to vent to friends using the private message function, feel free. But it really doesn't belong in the open forum.

Best regards,
Bob Duncan
Technical Editor

[carvinginnyc]

Thank you Bob for doing something about this situation. however as the person whos work and reputation were trashed, shouldn't I be allowed equal time? Anyway thanks for stepping in and stopping it. And one wonders why I rarely ever visit these boards

[K. Ellenburg]

Your preaching to the choir now Bob. Let me hear a amen in the back row.
Keep up the good work.
Kevin

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I agree completely. That thread was allowed to go on for quite sometime with only one persons side of the story being told. As soon as the other side of the story appeared it was quickly shut down. Now we're all left with the question of just who was right in all of this. That's not very fair to either party.

[cannuckcarver]

LOL, Lynn you are a cowboy....What a mess lets all move on.

[BobD]

Unfortunately, in my opinion, there is no perfect solution. If I leave it up, how many people are just going to read the first page and move on to another thread. They'll never see both sides of the story.

The thread was up for less than 24 hours and it shouldn't have been up for that long.

After taking everything into account, I chose to delete the thread. I understand that some people will think my decision is unfair. I can live with that.

Moreover, let me ask this as a rhetorical question: Do any of you, as members of the message board, want that to be the first post a new or potential member sees? I don't! And I have the responsibility to make sure he or she doesn't.

Best regards,
Bob Duncan
Technical Editor

[Thor]

Lynn,
The unsubstantiated desecration of a woodcarvers' reputation on this forum is wrong.
This is not the place for that.
I completely support the decision of the administration to remove the entire thread from the forum.
Christina / Thor

[gene-messer]

Thank you Bob so much for the quick response .. Being a new moderator myself .. Iam new to how far you should let something go before stepping in .. This thing was starting to get way out of hand and personal preferences were getting in the way ..

No amount of concern is enough to ruin anyones reputation or question their honesty over a carving ..

This is one of the finest boards and magazines offered to us carvers ..

any misunderstanding can be solved with the right people and in private ..

Thank you Bob for leadership in this ..

Gene

[TreeWizard]

Amen!!! Amen!!! Amen!!! Hope this makes the message long enough to post one amen and I was told the message was too short.

[chuckt]

I echo Gene's sentiment. I was uncomfortable with the thread from the start, but feel too new to know when to step in. But once the other party became identifiable I think it moved into dangerous territory. I am glad to see that you stepped in Bob. I had to step away from the PC for the last couple hours and hadn't had a chance to follow up.

I truly like and respect both parties involved and would hate for either one to feel that they cannot participate here or that they've been irreparably harmed. This is NOT the place at this point though to continue to attempt to resolve who is right and wrong, and for that reason I think Bob did the right thing.

My hope would be that the two involved would PM and work through the issue giving each other the benefit of any doubt. The fact is - good people on both sides of any disagreement make mistakes and errors in judgement and when addressed honestly, should be willing to make amends and move on.

Best to all.
ChuckT