Need To Make A Remark About "Community"

[gaybucks_chip]

Squirt,

I'm in ageement with you. It's not that this issue is bothering me; I suspect it's bothering Mark and David far more, becuase they have a lot more at stake. For me, the amount of noise and strife on the board makes it pretty limited in its business utility - at least as long as moderation remains as it is - so being banned for me is pretty much a non-issue. I brought it up only because, as I read it, David seemed to on one hand be apologizing and encouraging me to come back and on the other hand not encouraging banned people to come back, so I was just trying to clarify which "group" I fall into.

The bigger issue is the implosion of what could have been a good community. It's never a great idea to have only one major online community, simply because the boards *are* privately owned and, at some level, subject to the policies or whims of the owners (or in the case of GMS, the inadequately supervised help.)

I know there are several other smaller gay boards, but GWW and GMS have, at least for the past couple of years, been the bigger communities, and my goal in talking about the problem is to perhaps see if there's an opportunity to salvage the situation; whether or not I ever post there again is irrelevant to the community as a whole.

It's because we do have two separate communities that we can at least have some honest communication about the issues of censorship at the other board. That's why I don't think we should have a single gigantic community, and I am appreciative that Lee has given us free reign to talk about (and indirectly raise awareness of) a competing community and its issues.

[Squirt]

Squirt,

I'm in ageement with you. It's not that this issue is bothering me; I suspect it's bothering Mark and David far more, becuase they have a lot more at stake. For me, the amount of noise and strife on the board makes it pretty limited in its business utility - at least as long as moderation remains as it is - so being banned for me is pretty much a non-issue. I brought it up only because, as I read it, David seemed to on one hand be apologizing and encouraging me to come back and on the other hand not encouraging banned people to come back, so I was just trying to clarify which "group" I fall into.

The bigger issue is the implosion of what could have been a good community. It's never a great idea to have only one major online community, simply because the boards *are* privately owned and, at some level, subject to the policies or whims of the owners (or in the case of GMS, the inadequately supervised help.)

I know there are several other smaller gay boards, but GWW and GMS have, at least for the past couple of years, been the bigger communities, and my goal in talking about the problem is to perhaps see if there's an opportunity to salvage the situation; whether or not I ever post there again is irrelevant to the community as a whole.

It's because we do have two separate communities that we can at least have some honest communication about the issues of censorship at the other board. That's why I don't think we should have a single gigantic community, and I am appreciative that Lee has given us free reign to talk about (and indirectly raise awareness of) a competing community and its issues.

I agree with you. You've made some really good points that merit being addressed and worked out.

I do find it odd that 3 solid contributors to the other board, that actually have businesses making great money, have been banned from the other board because of conflict with posters of a much lesser caliber. I would guess there are business relationships behind the scenes we aren't aware of that impact what happens there, or they really do want to be the GFY of Gay boards. $0.02