Today has been pretty crappy.
Most of the things involved in running this place are hidden from view.
Nobody here apart from the admin staff need to concern themselves with things like optimising the forum database, applying upgrades to the software, backing up the site etc... That's not to mention the job of promoting the forum, reading through all the posts, organising competitions and challenges, adding new games to the arcade, posting help and source code and so on....
Luckily there are a really dedicated team of people who moderate this forum and make these a real joy to do 99.9% of the time.
Please take a look through the forums and see how many topics are locked...
I don't think you'll find many.
Or posts where a moderator has had to edit the content.
Again, this doesn't happen often.
It happens far less here than on other places and it means that we can get on with making good competitions and developing useful content such as source codes and sound libraries etc for everyone to use.
You get it all for free with no adverts or spyware and what you bring in return is you... You help to make this community what it is with your posts.
Sometimes people really care about thier subject. For instance I am a real advocate of oldschool style code and because I care so much about these old productions, I would not be true to the art if someone posted something that could be improved and I told them it was brilliant.
Then again I would not want to destroy that person either.
This is where I feel that we have the balance right here and that's what makes this place different. We do not flame, we offer constructive (and kind hearted) help.
You simply do not see the words "STFU nOOb" here.
Very occasionally something will be posted as happened in the graphics and sound forum recently and in this case I took the view that the post was unnaceptable. When no reciprocation seemed forthcoming I banned a user.
My decision was then commented on with expletives from one user on the forum which put me in an untennable position. In the end I decided to carry on and do what I was going to do anyway. I wanted some dialogue with the user who I banned before I re-instated his account so that I could be sure that the atmosphere of this forum remained the same and that there would be no more posts that so blatently broke the rules of the place which is the whole foundation of this website.
The banned user is re-instated and my dispute with him is over.
I may still have a problem (I hope I don't) and that problem is the topic is rolling on, it's not fair to pollute the authors topic with those comments and thinking about some of the suggestions that were levelled at me (that I was creating an oppressive atmosphere), I also feel that that comment also causes a problem.
How can I make a decision on administering the forum without feeling the wrath of angry people here?
Actually I think that most of the decisions that I have made over the last few years have worked out well and these decisions have included some which were really difficult.
I hope that this matter is now closed.
I have thought about it and everyone here agreed to the terms and conditions of the forum when they signed up, these terms and conditions are inclusive of the forum guidelines, which I have just made an ammendment to.
I will continue to administer according to those guidelines and my own common sense, so will the rest of the admin team and all the good stuff will continue.
If you do not agree to adhere to the terms and conditions or want to perpetuate the argument, please find somewhere else to do it.
I won't see the time of all the people who post here, provide help and help to administrate here wasted because a smattering of users want to argue the toss.
Thank you.
