Beginner Carving Set Thread

[BobD]

Over the weekend, while I was on a business trip, the moderators identified a thread that got out of hand. Three members got into an argument and violated the Message Board Bill of Rights, specifically the section referring to respecting other members.

In the interest of fairness, all three members have been banned for a set period of time.

Decisions like this are difficult for me to make. The thread the three were posting to is, in my opinion, very valuable to especially new members of the message board. I do not feel that a thread we fully expect new carvers to find and post to is the place for an strong discussion let alone a full blown argument. If you feel strongly enough about something that you think it could be an argument, use the private message function.

Over the next day or so, I plan on going in and removing the argument and reinstating the thread because I do feel it is valuable to the message board in general.

Please feel free to private message me if you have any questions.

Best regards,
Bob Duncan
Technical Editor

[Marci MN]

Thank you Bob for at least cleaning it up and bringing it back. I was counting on having it to come back for reference when I can afford more tools to purchase.

[gene-messer]

Thanks Bob .. you know how I feel and Thank you again for doing a tough job

Gene

[chuckbolton]

bob- often times jobs like yours are thankless-- and im sure that this decision, made in the interest of the whole group, is one of them-- i quit reading the thread-- because of the gripes. so i guess it got worse later--

so -- thank you bob

[Lynn O. Doughty]

Shoot!!! I missed that one. Maybe you ought to consider a thread where you could post those posts that get people in trouble. You wouldn't necessarily have to give out the names involved but when someone gets hung out to dry for a while it would be nice to know what they were swinging for!!

[chuckt]

I actually think Lynn's suggestion (but in an even more generic form) might not be a bad idea. The tough thing is that too often these situations are just so subjective and a "judgement" call. Ultimately - that is Bob's and to a much lesser extent the team of Moderator's responsibility.

It would be interesting to see if we could come up with some examples of what is considered by WCI to be appropriate, and what is inappropriate. The Bill of Rights goes a long way towards this, however, there is still a fair amount of vagueness.

Does quoting someone once and disagreeing constitute lack of respect? Two times? 70 times 7 times? In a medium like online text it is often easy to misread and misinterpret intent. Especially with a wide variety of language skills amongst members (some from other countries and cultures).

Just a thought. Not sure if this could be done effectively or not though.

ChuckT

[whittlewomen]

Darn...I missed it too! Oh well, I'm sure there will be others!! HAHA

[BobD]

I don't think it's really possible to give specifics like that. It's really context specific. That's why the Bill Of Rights (BOR) is written the way it is; the mods, editorial team, and I can discuss problems and decide how to handle them.

That said, I know in the past we've gotten pretty lax about following the BOR. As of Monday, April 20, 2009, the BOR will be enforced exactly as it is written. People have gotten away with a lot more in the past, but that isn't fair to the membership in general. So...I consider this fair warning...if you violate the BOR, you will suffer the consequences set out in the BOR.

If you want to make a post that you think could be in violation of the BOR, Private message me or one of the Mods. We would be glad to read over what you've written and will let you know if it is a violation or not, and how to change it so it isn't a violation.

Bob

[BobD]

Ok, I have another apology to make. I was just trying to prune through the posts made in the beginner tool sets thread, and somehow deleted the entire post. I'm not sure how I managed that, but the thread is gone. I will start another one this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

Sorry gang...I messed up!

Bob

[xsailer]

Lynn's comment,
"when someone gets hung out to dry for a while it would be nice to know what they were swinging for!!"

It would be nice to rubberneck at times. Do you have Instant Replay within the software?