I know what you were saying He didn't say *he* owned the forum, but that we *all* did. At very least, we're all stakeholders in it, in that we have a vested interest, financial or otherwise, in its success or failure (Semantically different from shareholders, before someone came flying at me )
thank you for actually understanding what i was saying, ash. i'm surprised at how it was so easily misunderstood when i specifically used the words "we" and "us" instead of "I".
No, Master Windu did indeed understand you correctly. The "we" and "us" includes "you", meaning that everyone, you too, should be able to answer the question Master Windu asked.
Paradox gave the answer that applies for all, including you. Without members, there is no community.
ummm, i think the reason that most of us are very ready to take a swing at an NL is because most of the NLs are very willing to use their powers in favor of themselves and their opinions over those who don't have moderator powers.
i think the closing of the religion topic is a good example; yeah you said you discussed it but it was done without warning. and honestly, what do you expect out of a topic that deals with religion? most of it is going to be nonsensical bickering because that's mostly what religion and the lack thereof is. to close it based up on that is ridiculous - you might as well ask Prime not to flame or ask a cat not to sleep.
this is a public forum frequented by many people of many different backgrounds, and that is why it is such a great place to express and develop our thoughts on religion, even if that comes out nosensical bickering. i back up Ash all the way in his NL bashing because i do think that it is deserved for a lot of the actions taken, especially the closing of topics, deleting of posts that "you" don't like, and editing posts that you feel aren't appropriate. this isn't just your forum, this is all of our forum, but i feel that you forget this most of time from the actions you take towards moderating this forum according to the way that you feel it should be.
Personally, I doubt this board is frequented by many people of many different backgrounds. At least not as many as you seem to think. The answer to the religion topic is yes (Is this mostly an athiest board?) When looking at those that post in that topic anyway.
Anyway, on to answering:
Like said before, a closing message would have been nice, but the lock was certainly a good choice. Rules need to be upheld and the lock did the job in this situation.
Let's imagine there was a sudden influx of muslim fanatics, many extreme muslims fanatics, lets say they equal our current number of members. They start to applaud and encourage terroristic suicide acts... Now what? Should we allow them to continue? They
are half our community now...
Naturally, this example is quite unlikely ever to happen, but it does a good job at showing there are rules which need to be upheld. If you don't agree with them, fine, but they
are the rules, and the forum moderators
will uphold them to their best judgement. Whether you like it or not.
Of course, if you disagree with a moderator decision, you are free to complain, like Paradox did. If you do, we'll look into the matter, like we did this time.
Ah, and I don't know much about Prime, but I do know he was eventually banned for breaking the rules repeatedly.
Solinx