Stricter Guildelines Enforcement Now In Effect

[Ken Lee]

Members who violate the Forum's Usage Guidelines will be banned for several days.

If they return and continue to violate forum guidelines, they will be banned permanently.

The following guidelines should be noted with particular attention:

"Name calling, personal attacks, character assassination, coarse or inappropriate language, or enticing/baiting others to violate forum guidelines will not be tolerated here."

"Topics and discussions of politics and religion are not allowed, here [the Lounge] or elsewhere on the forum, and the forum's general behavioral standards apply here, too."

"Readers of "For Sale" posts should refrain from intruding on the thread by making negative comments about the item or the price being requested. Doing so is rude, and thus in violation of general forum guidelines."

[Darin Boville]

Ken, what crisis requires all of this? Two threads mildly critical of the moderators? Perhaps the principle behind banning a member--giving them a chance to cool off a bit--might be taken up by the mods themselves?

--Darin

[Ken Lee]

It's very simple: moderators have limited time, and no longer want to spend it policing a small number of high-maintenance forum members.

There's no crisis, it's more a matter of patience having finally run out. There is a consensus among the moderators.

[Nathan Potter]

In a nutshell, this is a photography forum for the exchange ideas, experiences, comments, data and whatever else related to LF photography. No more - no less.

A private message can be used as a medium of encounter for extraneous discourse and an outlet for excess male hormones.

I think the Moderators are on the right track even tho I miss the wisdom of some who have been banned.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[r.e.]

"Readers of "For Sale" posts should refrain from intruding on the thread by making negative comments about the item or the price being requested. Doing so is rude, and thus in violation of general forum guidelines."

Discussion about the quality of items for sale and the price is a regular and valuable occurrence. Making such observations, if they are negative (apparently positive is hunky dory), a ground to ban someone is stunning, especially given that people are expressly told that LF Info has nothing to do with transactions and that transactions are entirely at their own risk.

[Sal Santamaura]

It's very simple: moderators have limited time, and no longer want to spend it policing a small number of high-maintenance forum members.

There's no crisis, it's more a matter of patience having finally run out. There is a consensus among the moderators.

Congratulations. I applaud the decision.

[Sal Santamaura]

...such observations, if they are negative (apparently positive is hunky dory), a ground to ban someone is stunning...

The world is full of things more stun-inducing.

Although I have always been against the very existence of a "For Sale/Wanted" category, since we have one, refraining from "pissing in the well" of a selling poster is just as appropriate as avoiding the other forbidden behaviors. Let decency prevail.

[Bill_1856]

Sorry that you're having problems. Hope that I'm not part of it.

[Darin Boville]

It's very simple: moderators have limited time, and no longer want to spend it policing a small number of high-maintenance forum members.

There's no crisis, it's more a matter of patience having finally run out. There is a consensus among the moderators.

Ken, as another post here pointed out, the LFF has more active members than ever before. Yet I believe there are the same number of moderators as when I first joined in 2004. Is it possible the root cause of all this stress is not so much bad behavior on the part of members as over-work on the part of the mods? After all, if the *rate* of posts needing moderating stays the same, as the forum grows you will nevertheless eventually be overwhelmed with more and more work. Maybe you need one or two more mods?

--Darin

[Tim Meisburger]

Good!