hey no problem.....
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Forum rules stricter?
- Thread starter pandybear
- Start Date
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2001
- Messages
- 34,872
- Purraise
- 77
Although this post appears next to my name, the words here are a product of the thoughts of our entire moderating team. I'd like to thank Heidi first for taking the time to summarize much of the conversation. It was a real life-saver- so thank you Heidi! Again these are not my words, but the mod team, Deb25 and myself.
Now on to the concerns of some of the membership:
There have indeed been changes made to some policies and procedures here at TCS. A look around the boards will tell you that this is a large and active forum, with over 12,000 members registered and (getting close to) almost 100,000 threads. There are hundreds of posts per day. Now, counter this with 16 moderators (almost doubled recently) to keep an eye on this place to ensure that it remains a family friendly, member oriented (i.e. small community feel) site that remains focused on our primary goal of cat welfare and education. No small feat, I can tell you! Especially since most of us moderators do have jobs and families and most definitely cats to keep up with, as well as watching the forums officially and trying to remain active members as well.
When I first joined there were around 200 members and we basically lived in each otherâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s pockets on a daily basis. But this website is now something different. More than just a fun place for people to come and post. It is a thriving community which is attracting advertisers and merchants.
As our site grows and becomes larger, more and more situations present themselves that cause us to rethink our positions on policies. This site and its forums started as a labor of love, but have grown to the point where it is now a viable source of income for Anne, our owner. Just in the same way that at one time eBay was a fun little site where you got to bid on things and is now a major online corporation, TCS continues to grow in its own way and attract attention in the cat world. We find more and more that we have to address concerns more with the eye of a business owner than that of a family member.
Because of that, because of the popularity of the website, and the increase in traffic the situation changes from a small community to a substantially larger one that has its problems from time to time. There are reasons for every policy change.
I feel I can speak for the entire team of moderators and admins when I say we dislike having to change rules, policies, or procedures. This board has changed enormously since its inception 5 years ago. As we grow larger, become more popular in the search engines, we attract not only decent people, but the other elements. The cyber-stalkers; the silent lurkers looking for easy targets.
It is our job to try and protect this community to the best of our ability, both from personal and legal threats. In order to do this effectively, we recently added a large number of moderators which we have never done before. With these newcomers to the Mod Squad, came new blood and new ideas to old problems that were shelved because of lack of participation and so policies were changed, discussions held, and these were serious discussions. This was in addition to the day -to -day stream of complaints that the mods and admins see from all direction.
Sometimes the complaints are petty or of a personal issue, sometimes the complaints are a result of cultural differences, we treat every complaint the same way. The complaint (if valid) is taken to the mod team, put out for discussion without revealing who initially sent the complaint.
The changes in policy and procedure have been done in order for us to keep a handle on this ever-growing forum. We want to keep it community oriented, and remain a friendly place. We have kids here that post or lurk and we are a family rated site. Our website is rarely blocked by internet filters at jobs and schools. We will be 5 years old tomorrow and I am PROUD of this community, of the mod team, and of all we have weathered together.
It is sometimes difficult to be able to see both sides of an issue. The mod and admin team do try to see things from the membersâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] perspective, but sometimes the good of the site has to outweigh the desire of an individual. It is the policy of the moderators to not speak of why changes are made when it involves members, except to the members that it involves. If you were the reason for a rule change, would you want this entire community to know it? But we do not change rules, policy or procedures because we are all bored individuals on power trips and we want to see how far we can push everyone.
We do want to thank all of you for your concern for our community, our internet home - it wouldn't be Home without all of you! All of us sincerely enjoy being here and interacting with you, and we wish we could do more of it. We have to skim every post made in our assigned forums and that takes time. So if we run into speed bumps- problem posts, flames, insults, people pushing the envelope we have to interrupt our day and figure out the best course possible. Feedback is always welcomed by our site admins: Deb25 [email protected] Hissy [email protected]; and the site owner Anne [email protected]
I think all of our mod team is doing the best they can under the circumstances. They are upholding Anne's rules and sometimes taking fire for doing so. Please remember that next time you see something you don't agree with. As this site becomes a viable source of income for her, we have to be concerned about legal ramifications for things we allow to occur on our boards. Since the majority of you still see the site as a fun and free place to hang out, it's sometimes tough to wrap your mind around the line of thinking that has to occur to keep our site going, both legally and financially.
__________________
Now on to the concerns of some of the membership:
There have indeed been changes made to some policies and procedures here at TCS. A look around the boards will tell you that this is a large and active forum, with over 12,000 members registered and (getting close to) almost 100,000 threads. There are hundreds of posts per day. Now, counter this with 16 moderators (almost doubled recently) to keep an eye on this place to ensure that it remains a family friendly, member oriented (i.e. small community feel) site that remains focused on our primary goal of cat welfare and education. No small feat, I can tell you! Especially since most of us moderators do have jobs and families and most definitely cats to keep up with, as well as watching the forums officially and trying to remain active members as well.
When I first joined there were around 200 members and we basically lived in each otherâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s pockets on a daily basis. But this website is now something different. More than just a fun place for people to come and post. It is a thriving community which is attracting advertisers and merchants.
As our site grows and becomes larger, more and more situations present themselves that cause us to rethink our positions on policies. This site and its forums started as a labor of love, but have grown to the point where it is now a viable source of income for Anne, our owner. Just in the same way that at one time eBay was a fun little site where you got to bid on things and is now a major online corporation, TCS continues to grow in its own way and attract attention in the cat world. We find more and more that we have to address concerns more with the eye of a business owner than that of a family member.
Because of that, because of the popularity of the website, and the increase in traffic the situation changes from a small community to a substantially larger one that has its problems from time to time. There are reasons for every policy change.
I feel I can speak for the entire team of moderators and admins when I say we dislike having to change rules, policies, or procedures. This board has changed enormously since its inception 5 years ago. As we grow larger, become more popular in the search engines, we attract not only decent people, but the other elements. The cyber-stalkers; the silent lurkers looking for easy targets.
It is our job to try and protect this community to the best of our ability, both from personal and legal threats. In order to do this effectively, we recently added a large number of moderators which we have never done before. With these newcomers to the Mod Squad, came new blood and new ideas to old problems that were shelved because of lack of participation and so policies were changed, discussions held, and these were serious discussions. This was in addition to the day -to -day stream of complaints that the mods and admins see from all direction.
Sometimes the complaints are petty or of a personal issue, sometimes the complaints are a result of cultural differences, we treat every complaint the same way. The complaint (if valid) is taken to the mod team, put out for discussion without revealing who initially sent the complaint.
The changes in policy and procedure have been done in order for us to keep a handle on this ever-growing forum. We want to keep it community oriented, and remain a friendly place. We have kids here that post or lurk and we are a family rated site. Our website is rarely blocked by internet filters at jobs and schools. We will be 5 years old tomorrow and I am PROUD of this community, of the mod team, and of all we have weathered together.
It is sometimes difficult to be able to see both sides of an issue. The mod and admin team do try to see things from the membersâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji] perspective, but sometimes the good of the site has to outweigh the desire of an individual. It is the policy of the moderators to not speak of why changes are made when it involves members, except to the members that it involves. If you were the reason for a rule change, would you want this entire community to know it? But we do not change rules, policy or procedures because we are all bored individuals on power trips and we want to see how far we can push everyone.
We do want to thank all of you for your concern for our community, our internet home - it wouldn't be Home without all of you! All of us sincerely enjoy being here and interacting with you, and we wish we could do more of it. We have to skim every post made in our assigned forums and that takes time. So if we run into speed bumps- problem posts, flames, insults, people pushing the envelope we have to interrupt our day and figure out the best course possible. Feedback is always welcomed by our site admins: Deb25 [email protected] Hissy [email protected]; and the site owner Anne [email protected]
I think all of our mod team is doing the best they can under the circumstances. They are upholding Anne's rules and sometimes taking fire for doing so. Please remember that next time you see something you don't agree with. As this site becomes a viable source of income for her, we have to be concerned about legal ramifications for things we allow to occur on our boards. Since the majority of you still see the site as a fun and free place to hang out, it's sometimes tough to wrap your mind around the line of thinking that has to occur to keep our site going, both legally and financially.
__________________
I don't know how anyone else felt about this post.....but i myself appreciated it..
You're right...non paying member or paying.....it is hard to realize that legal issues come into play......
I was just talking to john about how when we were in lower grades of school...a mere 10 years ago, things like cyber "bully", "stalkers" "solicitors" didnt exsist... many people my age (24) didnt even get thier first computer till they were in thier mid teens.....nowadays kids are given thier first computer before they even start school........
Everyone has internet....good and bad............
I appreciate the job the MODS too....and excuse my past ignorance of how extensive the MODS jobs are...I for one never connected legal matters with TCS...
Congratulations on your 5 year anniversary.......I hope you have many many more, and I hope that I can be apart of all of them.......
thanx again for looking out for us....
You're right...non paying member or paying.....it is hard to realize that legal issues come into play......
I was just talking to john about how when we were in lower grades of school...a mere 10 years ago, things like cyber "bully", "stalkers" "solicitors" didnt exsist... many people my age (24) didnt even get thier first computer till they were in thier mid teens.....nowadays kids are given thier first computer before they even start school........
Everyone has internet....good and bad............
I appreciate the job the MODS too....and excuse my past ignorance of how extensive the MODS jobs are...I for one never connected legal matters with TCS...
Congratulations on your 5 year anniversary.......I hope you have many many more, and I hope that I can be apart of all of them.......
thanx again for looking out for us....
Ok I've thought about this - and since we are such an enormous community of thousands of users, what if everybody that was a member posted? that would just be as catastrophic as if all the members posted a thank you thread to each other. This can't be really used as an example because I'm sure the Moq Sqaud would be in a bit of strife if ALL the members decided to post! LOL!
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #26
Firstly, thankyou hissy for your explanation of the forum changes, it makes the situation a lot clearer and easier to understand, i do understand that a community as large as this one would be hard to run and i think you and all the mods are doing a fantastic job
.
, anyone who read my post should have known i wasn't knocking anyone here, just that i was curious about what was happening and was stating how i feel in a polite straight forward way. i talk to a few members on msn, many who have also expressed frustration about the situation but who were too worried about what would happen if they said anything, so i wasn't just doing this for my self but for the peace of mind of members who didn't know what was happening, there was no explanation, just sudden changes out of nowhere and i felt someone had to enquire about the changes.
.
thanks
felicia
Thankyou for the support nebOriginally Posted by Nebula11
I can imagine that all people are frustrated on both sides of this issue.......... and that is understandable........
I personally hope this all gets resolved, so that TCS can have a peaceful and fully celebretory 5th year anniversary.... Because TCS is awsome....I love it love it love it...........
But I can't speak for everyone....but too the defense of Pandybear...(I don't want people to be mad at her...cause shes a sweet girl) I just want to point out that she was not saying anything bad about the site....actually i can count nearly a dozen times where she proclaimed her admiration towards TCS....and its MODS...........
I simply believe that some members are confused about certain changes on here, and I am also sure that an explanation will clear the air, and get things back to normal......Which the MODS plan on doing......Go Mods....
This post isnt directed towards the MODS obviously....they seem to want to handle this quickly and efficiently....and i suspect many others do too.
I just thought that i should step in and give my interpretation of events....because i know a lot of us are very protective of TCS.....and i didnt want discussions to get heated or have members feel like they didn't have a say..........
Thats about it though....hope i didnt put my nose where it doesnt belong....
thanx
When i first lurked here, the public thankyou's were one of the main things that attracted me, i thought 'they are all so friendly to each other and i can't wait to be a part of that', that being said, i do understand because some people might feel left out but in a community everyone should make an effort so this doesn't happen
thanks
felicia
