What is happening to the forum . . .

[angry_geek]

I want to preface this by saying I am not a moderator, admin, or forum police. I don't know the whole story about what is going on or what has happened. Now on to my post . . .

I joined this forum in April with the understanding it was a place for tech business owners or techs in training. I had been reading the forum for over a year before that. What I have seen in the last several months is a flood of new members with little to no training or experience in the tech field asking questions like "how to reset IE". Some responses to these posters have been out of line and harsh, however I completely understand and share the frustrations of the veteran members and good techs who have lost their cool. I have read the posts from supposed professional techs who, quite frankly, I wouldn't let anywhere near one of my keyboards. I have kept my cool for the most part, but, once in a while, I have vented my opinions and frustrations.

Over the last little while, good contributing members have been called to task over their comments with strikes and other admonishments. I thought this would be a good method of cooling the temperature around here a little. I now think this may be wrong.

Over the last 24 hours, it seems things have gotten completely out of hand. I don't know who is to blame, and I am trying desperately to keep my personal feelings out of this mess. I don't know exactly why a couple of members were banned last night (I heard it may have been for personal attacks). However, now I see that several other members have been banned, and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Maybe for deleting their posts?

The point I'm trying to make is the whole world has gone crazy with being politically correct and not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings. Now this forum appears to be going completely overboard with this mentality. It stifles original and intelligent discourse, makes people afraid to say anything at all, and makes for a rather unpleasant atmosphere. Censorship and muting good members is going to bring down the quality of this once great site. Good techs and members, including me, are quickly becoming afraid to say anything at all because it might be taken out of context or misconstrued as an insult resulting in a strike or ban. If this continues, the forum will be filled with nothing more than - yes, I'm about to say the dreaded phrase - Pizza Techs, people looking for free advice on how to fix pop-ups in IE, and $20/hour "techs" installing pirated software and wanting to know how to fix something they screwed up on a client's machine.

I have no desire or plans to leave Technibble (I hope this doesn't get deleted or get me banned), but I feel I have to speak up on this. I'm going to be laying even lower than I have been for a while. Anyone I think may be unqualified to work for me as a tech, or at least an apprentice, is going on my ignore list. I truly hope the quality of this place improves, and the people banned are reinstated.

Bryce, I'm not trying to tell you how to run this forum. It is your place, after all. However, I think the post deletions and banning has to be addressed for the sake of the community on here.

What feelings do the rest of you have on this?

 

[Jura]

Dealing with end users, painfully new techs, and pizza techs is one thing. Having members creating conflict, getting other members to join in, mass deleting posts, and constant insults is another. Keeping users who cause problems also turns away smart experienced and normally helpful members from posting and joining.

It's not what they thought or what they said, but what they did.

 

[Daifne]

What is happening to the forum Pt. 2

I noticed that this topic by angry_geek was locked within minutes of it being posted and I wanted to reply to it. I expect this to be locked or deleted as well, things being as they are here right now. Oh well.

There is a problem here with over moderation and moderators overstepping their bounds. There is nothing in the rules stating that people can't delete their own posts and yet they are getting banned for doing so. I am a moderator at a very busy forum, much larger and much more public than this one. If I were to do as has been done here over the past few days, I would no longer be a moderator there.

To Bryce, please look into what's going on here. This is not good for these forums and you are losing good members because of it. I have not left yet, but it is becoming very uncomfortable to be here.

To the moderator who's doing this, I suggest that you step back and look closely at what you are doing. In the opinion of this not so active member of these forums, you have gone too far. I am not suggesting that you step down, just think about what you are doing and what effect those actions are having on this forum.

Today, 05:03 PM

Unhappy What is happening to the forum . . .
I want to preface this by saying I am not a moderator, admin, or forum police. I don't know the whole story about what is going on or what has happened. Now on to my post . . .

I joined this forum in April with the understanding it was a place for tech business owners or techs in training. I had been reading the forum for over a year before that. What I have seen in the last several months is a flood of new members with little to no training or experience in the tech field asking questions like "how to reset IE". Some responses to these posters have been out of line and harsh, however I completely understand and share the frustrations of the veteran members and good techs who have lost their cool. I have read the posts from supposed professional techs who, quite frankly, I wouldn't let anywhere near one of my keyboards. I have kept my cool for the most part, but, once in a while, I have vented my opinions and frustrations.

Over the last little while, good contributing members have been called to task over their comments with strikes and other admonishments. I thought this would be a good method of cooling the temperature around here a little. I now think this may be wrong.

Over the last 24 hours, it seems things have gotten completely out of hand. I don't know who is to blame, and I am trying desperately to keep my personal feelings out of this mess. I don't know exactly why a couple of members were banned last night (I heard it may have been for personal attacks). However, now I see that several other members have been banned, and, for the life of me, I can't figure out why. Maybe for deleting their posts?

The point I'm trying to make is the whole world has gone crazy with being politically correct and not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings. Now this forum appears to be going completely overboard with this mentality. It stifles original and intelligent discourse, makes people afraid to say anything at all, and makes for a rather unpleasant atmosphere. Censorship and muting good members is going to bring down the quality of this once great site. Good techs and members, including me, are quickly becoming afraid to say anything at all because it might be taken out of context or misconstrued as an insult resulting in a strike or ban. If this continues, the forum will be filled with nothing more than - yes, I'm about to say the dreaded phrase - Pizza Techs, people looking for free advice on how to fix pop-ups in IE, and $20/hour "techs" installing pirated software and wanting to know how to fix something they screwed up on a client's machine.

I have no desire or plans to leave Technibble (I hope this doesn't get deleted or get me banned), but I feel I have to speak up on this. I'm going to be laying even lower than I have been for a while. Anyone I think may be unqualified to work for me as a tech, or at least an apprentice, is going on my ignore list. I truly hope the quality of this place improves, and the people banned are reinstated.

Bryce, I'm not trying to tell you how to run this forum. It is your place, after all. However, I think the post deletions and banning has to be addressed for the sake of the community on here.

What feelings do the rest of you have on this?

 

[gt183]

If you look at who was banned, it really makes sense. Were those guys great techs, absolutely. An argument could be made that they practically lived on the forum by the sheer amount of posts they made. The problem was with their attitude, I think. These are the guys that fit the "computer guy" persona that has no communication skills what so ever. I'm a little upset about ACG being banned because he was very intelligent, but still he could be obnoxious at times. Michiana was just always obnoxious.

This is a forum for IT guys to help other IT guys, not to boast who is the greatest tech in all the land. That's what it was turning into. Unfortunately it seems that these guys were made examples of to protect the general population of technibble.

And as mentioned, the super techs that were banned would eventually scare away the pizza techs. Everyone was a pizza tech at one time, and by continuing to educate one another on these forums, the more super techs we can create.

 

[NYJimbo]

I really believe the new forum was created purely out of spite, not because it offers anything of value.

I for one will not bother going there.

 

[angry_geek]

I disagree with you on a couple of points. Some of the bannings were done to people for no apparent reason. They were not rude or arrogant. They just got banned.

Not all of us were pizza techs. I certainly never was. I got professional training in an it department and with a shop. I also went to college, and, way back when, did some penetration work.