3, Then I see that the entire future of this GREAT forum is in doubt as a direct result of this mornings shenanigans.
The debate about the possible future of this place is totally unrelated to anything that transpired yesterday.
(Ian)...appears to be in the camp of those who believe the forum should end
No, I was playing devil's advocate and spelling out the issues.
5, Ian believes that not enough people are posting, and not enough posts are being registered. Well I have point out that you can't have it both ways, and Ian did directly invite THE BIGGEST EVER poster, one Robert of Birmingham, to go elsewhere.
Actually, I've never said anything about the number of posts, Fester. There are always plenty of posts. That's not the issue at all. Here's what I said:
the number of folk posting is small - minute, even, in relation to the total number of those visiting and even to the total number of members
which is not the same thing.
You're right, however, when you infer I'm not a great one for banter as such, especially when the point of that banter seems contrived to circumvent a perfectly reasonable rule we have about not revealing any personal or private information unless the member concerned expressly agrees. And no matter how anyone might argue the point, that's precisely what was happening.
Members might and do meet outside of the forum, but what happens outside the forum between members must be utterly divorced from information posted inside. Individual members trust each other with private information, and that's how it should be. But a forum like this is open to absolutely anyone in the world with an internet connection, and posting anything in here is the same as broadcasting it on a satellite TV service to the entire planet. We have to remember that many of those who use the internet are looking to cause trouble, or use it for their own nefarious purposes. I would hope that we - as a group - are different, and prepared to consider the feelings of other members in that regard, rather than seeing something as an opportunity to play games.
If all this comes across as slightly starched, then that's possibly because of two reasons: firstly, when something affects
others, then I do become defensive, because although something might not bother me personally, the possible ramifications for those who - through no fault of their own - become embroiled in an ongoing issue can be difficult to appreciate.
Secondly, this is not the only forum on which I'm an admin. I've been running forums and their predecessors in one form or another since 1996, and I've witnessed - first hand - the consequences of the failure to take seriously issues regarding privacy. This is one reason why more and more forums are becoming members only, requiring registration before visitors can even see anything at all. And I do wonder, with the inexorable rise in social networking sites, such as Facebook, how much of a future there is for the traditional forum.
There's another issue, too; we've lost some exceptional posters in the past few months. One, in particular, was provocative, spikey - even, but I thought had great promise. They were eventually 'helped' out, by a plethora of comments from those who really ought to have been more welcoming. And let's not forget the contribution made when PC Mike Smith joined, before he - too - was forced to reconsider his position and then left, precisely because of comments made in here by some members.
There are, however, a lot of members, but
17,528 posts have been made by only five members and the two admins, so it seems clear that either we're not serving the entire community as we would wish or out of 1002 members, just 0.005% are actually posting, which begs the question as to why more aren't. There could be many reasons, of course; some might feel apprehensive, some overly-cautious, aware of the horror stories regarding internet abuse, and some might simply like looking at the pictures. I have brought in a few friends, and their reactions when they've registered and looked around are varied. But they don't post, and the common response from all of them is generally a lack of interest and relevance.
But what all this boils down to is we're running a forum for a handful of posters and an unknown number of watchers.