Folks, this is a great discussion. Does anyone object if I move this thread to the rules forum so we can keep the racing/de forum more on topic.

BTW - I personally appreciate all the support for a very difficult decision and actions. It turns out that I actually took very few of the actions - other mods beat me to that. But I support the actions and seem to be the one with no life this weekend so I have been trying to be as open as possible with users on these issues.

I think it is very appropriate to move it...

This category is Racing and HPDE... It should stay that way.

Mike

I object. The issues are over how THIS forum is moderated. Putting the discussion in the "Rules Forum", which I don't even see listed btw, seems to me to be a way to sweep an issue under the carpet that many members of the Racing forum feel is important to them.

Mike, you can't find the forum for Posting Guidelines? That explains a lot

At the top of this or any page, click on Rennlist Forums, then scroll down to posting guidelines

Glad you put that smile there so that I know you are joking. I have to my knowledge never posted anything that remotely comes close to breaking those rules.

btw, I don't see anything there that says we can't post things that make the mod's angry. Just sayin...

I think it works like this, or atleast it did when I was an admin on another forum: You **** a moderator off... He links it to the "private" forum and they debate it... Another admin/moderator takes action so the moderator you offended doesn't take inappropriate action.

Pretty simple.

Some think or assume that there is an unethical action that is taking place. However, the admins and mods have to deal with their actions infront of their peers... My guess is they balance it and work among themselves to make things work within equitable guidelines.

Mike

As do I.

We were told that each Forum has its own "personality" developed over time, as most of us already knew. Then when all moderators were given the ability to moderate all Forums, some seemed to come here and not like the personality of this specific forum. Lets keep it in this forum, at least while it may still have some personality.

Perhaps we could move it into OT and see what happens there

Mark, Bob,

I'd have to agree with Mike and Bull here.

I'm just guessing that moving all of the threads related to the issue into the Guidelines forum is motivated by wanting to reduce the administrative burden on you guys - keeping up with everyone's comments spread across a dozen threads in more than just one forum is understandably a challenge. So it could make sense to consolidate the discussion into one place. However...

Appearances are that of being yet another area (in addition to avatars and offensive language) where moderators want to take a more active role controlling forum content. Perhaps innocent enough on its own, but in the current environment, it could be taken very differently, and may not help your cause on the avatar/language topic.

I don't think you can or should over-moderate the placement off-topic material - not without alienating a much larger group of people. Sure, the OT forum should be for stuff that begins as OT. But moving a topic that was very personal and specific with the people who frequent this forum (and HWFMR) to a "rules" forum will be perceived as the arrival of the OT police, on the heels of the avatar police. In a way, this topic isn't any more "off-topic" than the many others that start off on-topic and just wander off in the middle (some of the best threads go that way, IMO, and would be harder to find in OT). But if you've decided to walk down that delicate path of suppressing off-topic posts, your timing, and sense of what many people have taken issue with, are off.

I suggest letting people speak after whomever they choose - i.e. as response to something someone said in any thread, in any forum. That may make life on you guys more difficult for a while, but you might earn respect and gratitude - for a tough job well done, and for a willingness to be influenced by the members. Otherwise you may incite a new round of accusations for something you never intended.

Or, you could reduce that burden by assigning specific moderators to each Forum, allowing them to learn the "personality" of their assigned Forum and set the tone therein. That would keep moderators from jumping into other forums where they may have little clue about the "personality" of the forum......oh wait, a very wise man did that once......

OK. I will leave it here. The real points were:

This discussion transcends forums. In fact the major item that folks started discussing did not even happen in this forum.
This is the racing/de forum. We don't need 3-6 threads talking about this topic that is not racing/de. How about we keep the discussion to this one thread and I will keep it here. Take it multiple threads that start to drown out racing/de and I will move them to the forum that was established to discuss the rules.

Fair enough?

People use their own discretion

Getting it down to one thread per forum is a good compromise. Anything more than that is poor thread etiquette on our part.