A forum would be a truly utopian community if all members subscribed to the spirit of their agreement when they join. Most members do, and our community thrives. A few members decide to push the limit of the letter of their agreement; of those, a number simply disregard their agreement or act in manners that are harmful. The harmful members are dispatched rather quickly, but not until the staff has reached a consensus after a thorough discussion. Those members who wish to set their own rules for participation on their threads are dispatched reluctantly, after much counseling, and only after an unanimous decision of all staff, which now number well over 50 persons of diverse backgrounds. The staff simply will not and cannot discuss individual decisions. The staff believes there are sufficient policies, guidance and, most importantly, demonstrated practice over ten years, so that Trainboard members know what is accepted behavior and what is not. We work with members when behaviors are unacceptable to our community norms, and usually have success. But not always. And then we reluctantly part company. We are a community of well over 15,000 members--perhaps 20,000 now. Someone has to govern this community, and make decisions. Sometimes the decisions are very hard. But the governance here has been pretty successful, I think, as we are growing faster than ever, and thriving. Our mission is to have fun with all aspects of trains! Let's keep that mission in mind.
To Mark and Pete What's up? Is this thread in trouble somehow or perceived as being off course? Guys, guys, guys. We need some better policies. This is where I do my chatting and visiting with other members. I don't blog, I don't twit and I seldom fart...(gas medicine as my other meds make me gasy). Oh the fun of aging gracefully and becoming an old fart. Grin! Smells like a fresh one to me! A thread goes where a thread goes. And why not? Hi-jacking is out...you can't hi-jack a thread...period. It's simply a way and means to communicate. I invite you to relax up a bit and join in the fun here. We don't need no stinking redirect...I said with a big smile and grin. There's nothing abjectly out of line here. Pete, you used to be one who would join in the fun. We used to banter about with the greatest of candor and fun. It would be kind of nice to have you back. Miss the old you. Have a great weekend.
Rick If you read carefully and refer to your earlier two posts. I believe Pete is responding to those two posts. Have a Great Weekend
There I go Stirring The Pot...Again. You are so right! Thanks for the heads up. And, as Pete said, this is all about fun with model railroading. I think I already said that...I think...Did I? Maybe we all missed it. Probably. Sheez. I know I'm not going to get away with leading you on like that. Yep, I said that. You too!
Alright! Now that there is the Pete, I know and I want you all to get acquainted with him. GRIN! wink:
Thanks, Rick. I'd actually written a rather long post extolling some of the sillier threads on this forum, to which I was instigator or eager participant. Unfortunately it was written around 9 PM after arriving in Cincinnati at 3 AM that morning, and putting in a full day at work. So I lost it in the ether, due to a tired mistake. I don't have as much time on the forum as I used to have. That means I'm dealing with problems as a much greater percentage of the threads I can look at--so maybe newer members don't realize how much fun I used to instigate. And I'm much more tired when I do get here, usually at 8 or 9 PM, so I've made a few mistakes. Some threads are just not fun to deal with. I've studied group dynamics for a very long time, and come to the conclusion that a group of leaders will always be challenged by some, and the leaders' actions will always draw criticism from others. You just can't please all the people all of the time. I've been here eight of the ten years of Trainboard's existence, and have seen it grow to about 20,000 members (more or less). I've seen members expand their talents and ability to communicate them to others exponentially: where we once had perhaps three or four stunning images a week, we now have hundreds, and hundreds of articles published. That is what we dream about when we take on our volunteer positions as staff. We are advancing the hobby on many fronts, and advancing the case of real railroading in the same ways. As I explained earlier, this utopian bubble is sometimes popped by members with agendas opposed to the forum's insistence on free exchange as a condition of membership. When restrictions on participation on a thread are imposed, then the fun goes out of participation. If a member imposes the requirement of a special key to view his work on another site or his own site or blog, and does not reveal that key to all, then he is not participating in our forum. A forum means a free exchange of ideas without approbation; special keys on other referenced sites just don't cut it. A number of people have tried this over the years, sometimes blatantly advertising their new, competing forums, sometimes with foolish visions of making money by selling their sites. There are many who would advocate a policy for everything. That is impossible. My own unofficial view is that, unless a policy is really easy to write and is very simple and clear, then it shouldn't be written. Anyone who has raised teenagers (and I raised four) must recognized the endless "What If's" that any policy causes. I'd like to end this debate because I really think it has run its course. Certain events and comments happened on a thread. The staff let the comments run their course, and then decided to close it because it was against our principles and goals. Personal attacks escalated, which is against policy. That's really about it, in my humble opinion. It just wasn't fun, in the end.
And that there is the Pete, I worry about! Grin! Pete, I won't take it up here as I just might disagree. I've offered to help both privately and publicly here on TBoard. If you guys and gals feel that what you have is sufficient...well...that be your liability issue and not mine. Less work for me for sure. Took two years to write a departmental policy and procedure manual...in my spare time. Three years when sitting on a personal committee to update the employee and supervisory manuals. Not to mention legal clinic's and seminar's attended. Here's a what if for you. So, what if someone decides to sue you, are you prepared with the proper documentation to defend yourself? One of the areas I can help with. So, with that last offering of help...I'm done discussing it here. Mistake #204 Now back to having fun. So, Pete when do we get to hear about mistake number 204 or have we passed that magic marker by now? Here we go. This should get the ball rolling. How to blow out a decoder! I did a royal job a week or so back. Best know something about electronics before testing one of these babies. For a second or two...I thought I'd bought a decoder with a built in smoke unit. Not good. .
No but it went off when I tried to burn some pizza. It just wasn't my day for smoke. I have a sign in my front room and out in the train shed that says: "No smoking unless you are" and there is a picture of a steam engine. My smoke detector is in the mobile home and I smoked the decoder out in the train shed. I tried hooking up some leads to the decoder, in an attempt to program it. Poof! I guess I won't be doing that again.
I'll say it again, I've participated on forums across the internet on a wide range of topics. I've been a moderator and a site admin for vB based forums. I think the trainboard staff are doing a wonderful job. I don't see any major holes in policy. I'd like to see the TOS be more accessible and more explicit rather than implied in the FAQ as it currently is, but I don't see that as anything more than a copy/paste/update link job. I viewed the remaining posts in one thread that precipitated a banned user and it looked like a blatant disregard for forum etiquette. Being a forum moderator is not a job that I wish on anyone. I've been in the middle of situations where I was expected to choose one user of another, impose the "rule of law." far more strictly than I would like to have. And I've observed that every board I've been at or participated in will have a thread or threads where the regular users question that moderators and their actions. It is a function of life on the internet as far as I'm concerned.
And I thought we were through discussing this. YoHo, I share your positive views of this website. This was never about the member who got dispatched permanently. It was about fair play...for all of us. There are major issues here that I won't discuss further and will only discuss with Pete, Okane and or Charlie. These guys I consider to be friends and should the need arise they can feel free to discuss departmental policies and procedures, legal and documentation issues with me. Privately. I defer you back to my original posting. My personal thanks to the administration for allowing this to stay open. We've put some serious stuff on the table...looked at it...decided the course of action and had fun doing it. So YoHo, (I've been dieing to say that) have you blown up a decoder? Smokin! To Continue: Why do you post here and what do you hope to get out of it?cute: .
I developed a smoke collector to retrieve escaped "magic smoke" so I can re inject it back into my decoders. The problem is, the smoke dissipates too fast to be able to deploy the collector effectively. Oh well, I guess it is my duty to help keep the decoder manufacturers in business.
Russell, If you can perfect this I know a certain model railroad club in Portland, Oregon, that would likely buy one. :tb-wink:
"So YoHo," Is that what one says to a pirate when one wants him to mend his uniform? Or is that "Sew, YoHo"? Or if he is stranded on a deserted island with a sack of seeds? "Sow, YoHo"?
Someone like me who posts in other forums on other topics.. I always find it really hard to just start posting there.. To ask questions.. It takes awhile. On here.. I was welcomed very early on. Most if not all of my questions were answered in a true and mature fashion. To which I really appreciate. I love posting on here.
We post here because of the activity! Right? I know of no other site that has the responses and interaction that is here. Don't stay away to long or you will never catch up! Now back to NEW POSTS. WOW - two whole pages since 4 o'clock. see what I told you!
