Suggestion What about...

[The Chairman]

moderators?

clubs?

forums?

What do you have to say about the rest? the bannings thread is starting to slow down a tad.

 

[MikeS]

It was ok.. I saw the same 3 fish I saw last year though, so that wasn't terribly interesting. Hard to argue with 82 degree water at 120' though..

You should try Aruba, it's only next door and has quite a few wrecks.

 

[O-ring]

You should try Aruba, it's only next door and has quite a few wrecks.

You know, I heard the same from a Captain down there about Curacao. I think I may give Coz, Roatan, or Turks a try for next year's Caribbean jaunt. Right now it's too close to NC time to think about any more lousy Caribbean diving!

 

[dutchfin]

In response to ppl going over to Deco Stop, that is their personal choice. I joined that board for certain purposes and this one for others. As far as I'm concerned, I feel this board and it's moderaters have done a fine job controlling such a large and diverse bunch of ppl on a "family orientated," board. Pete, I think you guys are going to have a hard time improving what you have here but "kudos" for putting it out there for suggestions.

 

[Steve_S]

IMHO, this is the problem. You guys ban somebody that you decided was more a negative force on the board than a positive one and then you set yourselves up to listen to all the banned person's buddies whine and complain about it. Then you get the first amendment activists, the rec.scuba free speech ******, and the democracy ******* in the thread and it all goes to hell in a handbasket. It was the same thing with the singles forum and look what an abomination that turned into.

Take a page from Machiavelli and hit hard and don't make excuses. If you need to do "evil", do it quickly and return to all the useful stuff you guys have to do behind the scenes. When you guys decide to do something, it has to be swift, certain, and you have to stand behind it. Tell people "this is the way it is, the decision was made, deal with it or leave". When people start calling you guys into question (esp. in public) and whining to high hell about it, ban them too.

I'm not qualified to post any thoughts nor do I wish to take sides. I do however understand and respect your thoughts and others that I have read. You care, you are passionate, and are willing to spend the time to post your views on the Community which YOU created. Outstanding.

However, if you carefully read the mission statement of this forum at: http://www.scubaboard.com/t45831.html

It contains: "Here it is kiddies... a limited time offer to let us know...."

Although we could discuss weather this statement is clear enough for everyone and I'm sure the powers to be will step in to clarify, it's obvious to me that this is a one time only opportinuty for all of us to speak and voice in a public thread. It will have a "kill date" and then that will conclude the issue and conclude our collective opportunity to help the folks who run this place in a public thread.

Dive safe

 

[The Chairman]

Dang Steve, there is someone who actually read the "fine print".

BTW, after consulting with legal counsel this morning, I have been strengthened in my resolve to never divulge any information to third parties. My heart and conscience agree for totally different reasons but the outcome is the same. You can keep asking for it and say we are not listening, but it's really the other way around. You are not "listening" to me when I tell you that this is a line I will not cross. Now we can continue to address this issue, and anyone can speculate what the "real reason" is for it and that's your own prerogative. Spitting in the wind will get you more results than asking me to blab.

I have yet to pull any punches with what I feel and have kept (to my knowledge) any and all promises that I have made here. So once more let me state my position lest someone might actually read this and understand; I feel it is a serious breach of privacy and confidence to divulge any information on why someone has been banned or disciplined to a third party. In addition, my attorney says that I would be culpable for a host of issues raised by any such indiscretion. He feels that a court subpoena would be the ONLY reason to publicize the process, including revealing any moderators involved and/or their reasoning for instating such. Fortunately, as agents for SB I can discuss any details with my management team, as long as they remain my management team.

I am open to changing HOW things are done, but the administration of this board will remain an enigma to most. As my attorney put it, the only rights anyone has on the board are those that I extend to them. He was fairly aghast at how open I have already made the inner workings of the mod squad thus far, but was impressed that I actually had the guts to do it. I will endeavor to communicate as much as is appropriate to the board.

The proof is in the pudding… at 20,000 registered users and growing quite rapidly, we must be doing something “right”. This whole forum is to enable us to do it better. Not every suggestion can or will be implemented. Heck some are counter to each other!

 

[Genesis]

Pete, again, this isn't about third-party access - at least not from my perspective.

Its about FIRST party access, and the right to face one's accuser and rebut the claims made. This is PARTICULARLY TRUE when someone makes a claim that someone did something in OTHER THAN this public forum.

I realize that there is no legal right to do so here. HOWEVER, the appearance of impropriety is indeed worse, in many cases, than ACTUAL impropriety. Your counsel certainly knows this (and indeed must agree to that in order to get a bar card.)

I'm assuming you've read the remainder of my commentary..... I don't expect a response, as I have no right to expect anything. However, the peanut gallery - all of us on SB - ARE watching for any policy changes - whether formally announced or obvious by execution.

 

[Scott M]

moderators?

clubs?

forums?

What do you have to say about the rest? the bannings thread is starting to slow down a tad.

If I may, Why all the changes and why so fast?

I was taught by ones far smarter than I that change should be made in order of importance and given ample time to take hold to be properly evaluated in order to assess there value.

New format, new owner, new moderators, new policies, bannings etc. Whats the hurry? Where things so bad?

On the subject of the bannings, I trust those banished are not permanently banned. Several of the ones banned have been very helpfull to this board and me in particular. One has gone out of their way to send me PM's with additional info and links to things I asked about on the board and then would follow up with me to be sure I understood the info. Someone like that can not be all that bad. This board will lack with out them.

 

[The Chairman]

Karl,

all those banned should have been told they were banned. The e-mails were sent by a responsible individual, so I believe they went out. The method of addressing them may have caused some confusion to the recipients, but I am certain they went out to the e-mail we had on file for each of them.

Could things have been handled better? Sure. There is always room for improvement, and since there have been so many changes (most of them for the better) we are giving the general populace an opportunity to speak their minds.

 

[Genesis]

Pete, with all due respect, that's a trivial part of what I had inquired about.

Is the rest of what was asked about part of the generalized "it ain't gonna happen" response that was posted here earlier?

(This is in reference to FIRST PERSON inquiries and access - NOT third-party access.)

I hope you understand that some of us - myself included - are frustrated here. Not so much by the "way it was" - I'm well aware of how it was, as someone who has had posts pulled under the KN/LD regime and when I attempted to find out WHY and WHO I was basically told to go pi** off. I found that decidedly unprofessional and unreasonable, but the guy/gal with the gold make the rules.

What I'm asking is, what ARE the rules with regards to first-party issues like this now?

Bluntly: If I am censored in the future, as the person who was censored do I have a right to know who did it, why, and to confront my accuser(s), or is the "old way" of a PM coming from someone who may not even be the person who did the deed (especially if it was done by committee) still how it is/will be done?

 

[The Chairman]

Karl,

Here is the problem. We have 20,000 members and 20 moderators... do the math. There are many times that we simply do not have time to pander to your sense of fairness when it comes to censoring posts. ESPECIALLY if we are dealing with multiple posts in a single thread. If we pull a bunch of posts, we generally try and post some sort of warning within the thread, or at least inform the originator of the thread as to what is happening. Our moderators do an outstanding job of dealing with all of the garbage that gets sent our way... people who report every other post in a thread, people who try to disguise sexually illicit material and the like, trolls and dupe threads. MOST people know that they screwed up, and some just don't care.

So until you start paying these hard working mods, I would expect that you are going to get at least what you paid for and maybe some more but only at their discretion. Please don't expect volunteers to feel motivated to always respond when they see the same people commit the same violations. They have lives and families and want to have fun here as well. I am grateful for the time they spend keeping this place running. The TOS is pretty clear, and the mods use that extensively when they moderate. There are those who want to define the limits of the TOS by continually pushing the boundaries. This only wastes the mod's precious time and is pretty darn mean. Stay well on the side of acceptable limits and you won't have any problems.

As for bans... we try to inform every user that has had their account suspended. It would be nice if everyone made sure that their e-mail addy is correct.