The Tourist
Banned
I'd like to rant a bit today. Sorry, no jokes. However, the issue is probably one that has happened to you, or around you. In a real sense, it deals with 'sweat equity.'
I have a love/hate relationship with forums, I got burned early. I was a member of a self-defense forum for almost two years before I found out that the owner was a fraud. He was investigated by another forum that sought out shills, and exposed him.
This condition is so prevalent that a one knife forum member flew up from Florida to Wisconsin just to see if I really was a professional tinker and Harley rider. Part of me was ticked, but an inner part just shrugged.
Forums are no longer the venue of geeks. There are advertising dollars to be made. Some newspapers are now folding up because an ever increasing number of people get their info from the 'net.
For the second time within two months I've seen a disappointing trend. It is the idea that forum members are either a valuable commodity to a forum, or they are treated like "employees."
In the first case, I simply chalked off the experience to a clumsy or egocentric moderator. In other words, an errand boy sent by the forum owner who ultimately acted beyond his pay-grade. Within days he ticked off so many forum regulars that I wrote him a PM and told him to ban me. Other hobbyists informed me that the place went so dead that this moderator had to post a stickie begging people to come back.
A few days ago I received another PM from a mod. Obviously this clueless errand boy doesn't check the wind much.
A (successful) forum is built in the manner that the Amish build a new barn. The good craftsmen come because they care. They use their talents to contribute to a job or ideal in which they believe.
Most dissatisfied hobbyists don't pitch a fit and stomp out as they are often depicted. That's one guy in ten thousand. The forum owners seem to be blinded to the issue that "www" means 'world wide.' Tens of thousands of people lurk in their forum and buy their products.
Most simply quit coming by. They quit posting for a day, then two days, and finally a month has passed. They forget the sign-on address, or their password, or they just don't care anymore. Every few months I clean out my 'favorites' sections. I have enties there I don't even remember adding.
(To dramatize this point, I just scanned my favorites list and deleted seven addresses. Four of them were entires on places I never visit, three of them were 'forgotten' pages I zeroed just to make room.)
So I did what most of you do when introduced to an overzealous mod. I ignored him. To be fair, I ignore most authority figures. Most are 'figures' with no authority--and you can even buy FBI credentials on the 'net. If a guy really has power, he doesn't need a trumpet.
But the old buggaboo came back when I realized something about this new mod. I don't work for him or anyone, not in over seven years. My continued involvement with any forum builds the value of that entity. In a very real sense I am a consumer with a disposable income that shops in his store.
More to the point, in most of these cases I am twice the age of the mod. There's an old Sicilian adage that "you don't have to teach your Grandma how to suck eggs." And it applies here.
I want to be treated better. In fact, I insist on it.
I have a love/hate relationship with forums, I got burned early. I was a member of a self-defense forum for almost two years before I found out that the owner was a fraud. He was investigated by another forum that sought out shills, and exposed him.
This condition is so prevalent that a one knife forum member flew up from Florida to Wisconsin just to see if I really was a professional tinker and Harley rider. Part of me was ticked, but an inner part just shrugged.
Forums are no longer the venue of geeks. There are advertising dollars to be made. Some newspapers are now folding up because an ever increasing number of people get their info from the 'net.
For the second time within two months I've seen a disappointing trend. It is the idea that forum members are either a valuable commodity to a forum, or they are treated like "employees."
In the first case, I simply chalked off the experience to a clumsy or egocentric moderator. In other words, an errand boy sent by the forum owner who ultimately acted beyond his pay-grade. Within days he ticked off so many forum regulars that I wrote him a PM and told him to ban me. Other hobbyists informed me that the place went so dead that this moderator had to post a stickie begging people to come back.
A few days ago I received another PM from a mod. Obviously this clueless errand boy doesn't check the wind much.
A (successful) forum is built in the manner that the Amish build a new barn. The good craftsmen come because they care. They use their talents to contribute to a job or ideal in which they believe.
Most dissatisfied hobbyists don't pitch a fit and stomp out as they are often depicted. That's one guy in ten thousand. The forum owners seem to be blinded to the issue that "www" means 'world wide.' Tens of thousands of people lurk in their forum and buy their products.
Most simply quit coming by. They quit posting for a day, then two days, and finally a month has passed. They forget the sign-on address, or their password, or they just don't care anymore. Every few months I clean out my 'favorites' sections. I have enties there I don't even remember adding.
(To dramatize this point, I just scanned my favorites list and deleted seven addresses. Four of them were entires on places I never visit, three of them were 'forgotten' pages I zeroed just to make room.)
So I did what most of you do when introduced to an overzealous mod. I ignored him. To be fair, I ignore most authority figures. Most are 'figures' with no authority--and you can even buy FBI credentials on the 'net. If a guy really has power, he doesn't need a trumpet.
But the old buggaboo came back when I realized something about this new mod. I don't work for him or anyone, not in over seven years. My continued involvement with any forum builds the value of that entity. In a very real sense I am a consumer with a disposable income that shops in his store.
More to the point, in most of these cases I am twice the age of the mod. There's an old Sicilian adage that "you don't have to teach your Grandma how to suck eggs." And it applies here.
I want to be treated better. In fact, I insist on it.
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