In support of GWW

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05-12-2005, 04:08 PM
gaybucks_chip

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamesCSocket

Hello
I am new to this industry and the newest Account Executive at Cybers*cket. I had no idea I was banned from this board as an employee of this company. I have been informed by management that I am not able to post here. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

See, the above post epitomizes exactly what's wrong with the moderation of this board. James has done nothing wrong, yet he's banned by association.

The whole business of attempting to ban words such as c*ybersocket and be*dfellow and the*gayboard-dotcom and triplexgay.com is completely ridiculous for a board that is supposed to be a community resource.

Before my post was taken down (along with the entire thread, undoubtedly taken down because it made it obvious that everyone in the community EXCEPT the admin in question disagreed with his actions), I'd made the point that board admin/moderators have a special responsibility to the community they support. Yes, gww is a private forum, but it exists BECAUSE of the community that supports it. And if that community suffers from policies that apply to everyone but the board admins, or are applied inconsistently, it does an amazing job of alienating everyone.

I have been admin and/or moderator for a number of boards over the years (all non-adult), including one substantially larger in contributors and traffic than this one, and one with far more flames and contention than this one. Yet with all of those, there's never been a problem maintaining cohesiveness among the community, simply because all of the moderators realize that their role is to facilitate friendly interaction, limit conflict, and above all, calm, rather than inflame.

The moderators/admins of a well run board that seeks to develop a community around it know that the path to success is by exemplifying and modeling the behaviors they want their members to follow. When they fuck up, instead of simply deleting threads, they own up to their shortcomings and apoligize. When things get hot, they interject to calm things down and privately discuss things with the people contributing to the problems. Banning is an absolute last resort, after repeated warnings have failed. And banning for personal reasons is completely unacceptable.

Basically, if the GWW community collapses and everyone moves to another board, it will be because of the actions or lack thereof of the admins, not because there is any conspiracy or desire to take GWW down.

I think it's *possible* the community could still be salvaged, but only if there is a direct, open, honest "mea culpa", removal of all the banned words, attempts to right the wrongs that have been perpetrated, and long-term change in behavior by the management of the forum.

Otherwise, I think that people *will* vote with their feet and move to a forum where they don't have to worry about the politics of the owners of the forum.
05-12-2005, 04:09 PM
BDBionic

Actually, JustMe and Lee and anyone else who might care, I can honestly tell you that James had no idea he was even banned from here. I even remember (our offices are right next door to eachother) James asking Morgan "Wait... was I not supposed to go to that site?"

James is a new employee of Cybers*ocket, hired after the CS bans back in the day. James isn't very active on the boards. Not even on the*gayboard.com. So unless someone he's talked to over the phone was gonna fill him in, how's he supposed to know. You see, they're collectively so NOT obsessing about GWW over at Cyber*socket that no one even bothered to tell the new guy he was banned from here.

I think what people, especially Lee, needs to realize is that Cy*bersocket isn't out to get GWW. Cy*bersocket doesn't obsess over GWW or how to get at Lee. In fact, the very fact that James registered for this board is proof of just how little time and energy Cyb*ersocket, as a company, spends on thinking about Lee and GWW.

Whereas Lee is convinced they're over there in the Cyber*socket office obsessing over ways to get at him, in actuality they're over there just doing their jobs and working and when Jake got banned the other day it was the first time GWW ever came up in months. James registered on this board because he'd heard it mentioned after Jake got banned so came to check it out.

There is no plot to create drama at Cy*bersocket. Quite the opposite, in fact. James' having registered here was a direct result of how they don't talk about GWW in their office, don't obsess over GWW, aren't out to get GWW, don't obsess over all these shenanigans, and aren't engaged in any kind of active conspiracy as Lee would suggest. They're going about their day, and I think Lee would be amazed at how little a part of their day he is.
05-12-2005, 05:08 PM
basschick

regardless of how nice they may be, when that original announcement email went out, i emailed lee and said "i see you have sent your party announcement". i was sure it was his, as were other people i talked to.

i had always thought very highly of the two companies involved in that stunt (without knowing them personally) and before i heard any details about that letter - i KNOW they know that the gay webmaster bash was lee's - i lost a lot of respect for them.

i don't know them, and even if i did, friendship ties do not influence me very much in business. i've had good friends do a couple things in their webmastering that i thought was unscrupulous, and i didn't hesitate to tell them, or to NOT support them when it came out. doing something underhanded is STILL underhanded, whether i hang out with a person or not.

and that is regardless of the outcome. the intention is what i refer to.

no matter how much we write in these angry threads, no one has changed anyone's opinion - we're just hurting each others feelings or pissing each other off. no meeting of the minds is happening here for most of us - and i guess that's what makes it drama.
05-12-2005, 05:30 PM
djdez

Quote:

Originally Posted by basschick

regardless of how nice they may be, when that original announcement email went out, i emailed lee and said "i see you have sent your party announcement". i was sure it was his, as were other people i talked to.

i had always thought very highly of the two companies involved in that stunt (without knowing them personally) and before i heard any details about that letter - i KNOW they know that the gay webmaster bash was lee's - i lost a lot of respect for them.

i don't know them, and even if i did, friendship ties do not influence me very much in business. i've had good friends do a couple things in their webmastering that i thought was unscrupulous, and i didn't hesitate to tell them, or to NOT support them when it came out. doing something underhanded is STILL underhanded, whether i hang out with a person or not.

and that is regardless of the outcome. the intention is what i refer to.

no matter how much we write in these angry threads, no one has changed anyone's opinion - we're just hurting each others feelings or pissing each other off. no meeting of the minds is happening here for most of us - and i guess that's what makes it drama.

Patti it's quite clear that they called it GayWebmasterCash as a fuck you to Lee but only after being banned from GWW. They each said Fuck You *publicly* in a different way.

In all actuality it was PrideBucks that used Gay Webmaster Bash first before anyone else. January Internext 2004 we Hosted the Gay Webmaster Kick-Off Bash which was our first photoshoot party. This past Internext we changed the name to Q-Fest after GWW's announcement of Gay Webmaster Bash parties. Because we came up with a better name - Q-Fest - it wasn't a big deal.

So with the mutual fuck you's and who actually used the name first.... let's not go pointing fingers over that particular topic please.

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