Jamie_Lambo wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 5:26 pm my point was mainly aimed at the posters who resort to continuously throwing insults at posters they dont like, discussions are fine, questioning peoples posts is fine, personal insults is unnecessary, just put them on ignore and dont have to worry about them anymore

Username Taken wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:44 pm
Part of the problem is that some non-native English speakers don't always 'get' the joke, and take offense.

Username Taken wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 3:16 pm

General Mackevili wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 2:56 pm Fuck, I hate to bump this since it's been dormant a day, but.....

First of all, I'd like to thank each and every one of you for making this a successful discussion forum. Really, no sarcasm.

Over the past 7 days, we currently have about 240 ACTIVE topics. Those are topics that have had at least one new post added to it, thus the word 'active.' Out of those 240 topics/discussions, a VERY small percent of them have required us on the Mod Team to have to jump in and actually moderate. First, thanks for that, as it does require time and brain power to try and make the most reasonable and fair action. And second, that says a whole lot about all of us. I think it's great that most discussions can have back and forths without some dickhead crossing the line and requiring one of us to do something. Again, we are glad to moderate when needed, but it's an obvious blessing when the community just uses common sense and doesn't cross lines.

I'm also aware that it's impossible to always make mod decisions that EVERYONE can agree on, so thanks to all who realize we are human and might drop the ball now and again. However, we have been running for almost 5 years now, and I hope that everyone can really see that we have no agenda on here other than to allow EVERYONE to voice their thoughts and opinions on all sorts of matters, and we also work very hard to make sure your voices on here reach as many interested readers as possible. I think some have no idea just how much of an effort we have made over the years to make sure your voices around the world by as many as possible and are protected from censorship, etc. The more I know about the internet as a whole and websites the more I realize that a website like CEO that's only goal is to give everyone a voice is extremely rare to find.

And a certain group of people I have a lot of respect for are the ones who have made it clear to me/us that they didn't agree with certain moderating actions, but are still willing to continue to be a part of CEO. It's easy to get in a huff and puff and storm off saying 'fuck this place' but the ones who can disagree sometimes, but also realize we are always trying to be fair with how we run things, I give them a lot of respect. And of course we have members who are just generally easy-going, and that is as good as it gets too, naturally.

Again, we have an anonymous report function, and I think most people have no idea how much we appreciate it when people use it to give us feedback. Language is complex, and a lot of thought goes into deciding of something should be on here or not, and when we get feedback from our valued members and they let us know when they think something is uncool, it goes a VERY long in helping us decide which direction to steer this forum. One man's death threat is another man's banter. As the saying goes, "two heads are better than one,' and with a big community like CEO, it is even that much more important we get feedback from even more than two.

We also don't want the lynch mob mentality where a group of 5 prolific members can gang up on someone and put pressure on the Mod Team to ban them, but at the same time, it's important to realize we don't need some opinionated and overbearing newbie to come along and do everything they can to rub everyone the wrong way and disrupt otherwise civil discussions/debates/disagreements. Also, I like that all of us on the Mod Team are fucking clones of one another and we often debate ourselves on actions to take behind the scenes. Do I always get what I want? Fuck no. I have full faith in our team, and my opinion is worth no more than the opinion of anyone else who wants this forum to continue to succeed, so we take things on a case-by-case approach. Everyone's input is important, but it would also be nonsensical if every member had a Moderation account and could mod as they see fit, but that's just unrealistic. But you should be 100% certain that each and every one of you's input has gotten us where were are today.

Oh, where were we.... Oh yeah, 'petty squabbling and bickering...'

I love that we don't all agree on shit. I love hearing opposing opinions, but it's important that we at the very least respect the other person's right to have those opinions, even if they base it on what we consider to be complete bullshit. Again, trolling is different, but even that requires a human (or humans) to make a judgment call if it's trolling or not. When we get reports we have to decide if we should do nothing, make a slight edit (which everyone seems to prefer we make a note of), send a warning, or on the extreme end, ban or put on mod preview. There's no computer program for making those calls, so we have to do it.

In general, when one member is always going around arguing with a certain other member and negging them with karma, it looks like they are going out of their way to cause trouble. We might send the offender a PM and go from there. Sometimes we get a very nice reply and they knock it off. Haha, a common one is something like, 'yeah, sorry, started drinking a bit too early last night...' and that's the end of it. Hey, it happens, lol. Or it could turn into a back and forth with us, which is less than ideal, but we are approachable and give everyone the right to take it up with us. Or we get the 'fuck you,' and that usually goes to show it's probably for the greater good of the community to get rid of them. And believe it or not, a lot of reports are not even from the one being targeted! Those reports are kickass. That's someone who sees some bullshit that doesn't even involve them and has taken the time to bring it to our attention. Thank you, guys.

I like that we don't have commandments carved in stone here. I've been checking out a bunch of other forums lately (not Cambodia related, just discussion forums that are usually centered around a certain interest of whatever the forum is about) and they have a list of rules so long that they rigidly enforce that you feel you have to check your post 5 times before hitting submit to make sure you don't break one of the rules, lol. Many have 'bumping' rules, lol. Sure, we could have that, as we've had a few outliers who go and bump 10 random topics from 2014-2016 for no apparent reason, but that's few and far between, so why have a rule about it? We just tell them to knock it off, and they normally do. But a lot of those forums look like online knitting clubs where everyone just agrees on everything. How boring. Or, some are just flame wars between a handful of mega-posters, and it's clear that others who might have thoughts on it decide to just stay the fuck out of it. So I feel are guidelines are just about perfect. If you find yourself following another member around to talk shit, you're probably in the wrong. If you tell someone to eat a dick and die, you are probably crossing the line, lol. If you tell another member you usually get along with to fuck off because they're being an idiot, well, maybe it's banter or maybe it's Maybelline, BUT either way, it's probably a bad look for the forum, and surely you are articulate enough to come up with something a bit more witty as a response, so do that instead, and definitely don't get too bent out of shape if we decide to delete it. Come on.

And we have to remember banter is a funny thing, especially among an international community like CEO. You call a newbie on CEO a cunt, they might reply back with a time and place to meet up. You call Mr. Bingham a cunt, it probably means you thought his post was funny.

It's also the reason we want everyone to be a bit nicer to new members, for at 20 posts, while they get their feet wet and find their way around. It's basic common sense, really. That's true online and off. Imagine being in a bar and Lambo walks in, and we are all friends. Someone might yell out, 'who invited this cunt?,' and it's all good. Now imagine some newbie walks in and someone yells, 'who invited this cunt?' One of those sounds more welcoming than the other, right? Forums that allow as much crazy shit to be said as we do here can be a bit intimidating when you first sign up, and it's probably not too hard for them to get rubbed the wrong way and bounce. So remember that every new CEO member might be one of our most interesting members a bit later down the road once they know what we are about and feel welcomed, and it would be a great disservice to our community to scare them off before they get the chance to know us a bit better, and vice versa.

So, there is really no need for pointless bickering on here. Again, glad to see opposing opinions being exchanged all the time, and certain topics always seem to get more heated than others, but we really don't need fellow members attacking each other. There are about 239 other topics you can discuss from the past 7 days, so don't waste your time and effort going out of your way to start shit with fellow members. Discussions should be encouraged, and one major way we can do that is to make sure nobody feels like they will be attacked simply for their opinions.

And as stated previously on this topic, feedback to us on the Mod Team is welcome, good or bad. And yes, sometimes we have locked certain discussions, but it's just so that it doesn't derail the rest of the forum. In every case I can remember, both/all sides were allowed to be shared before it gets locked, so it's not like we feel we should be immune to criticism from time to time, but no forum benefits from allowing topics to go on and on with nothing but complaints. It just brings things to a grinding halt most of the time, and that's the opposite of what a discussion forum should be about.

At the end of the day, I'm just thankful to all who have contributed to this forum in various ways and glad we can all get along as well as we do, considering what diverse opinions we have on countless topics here. For me, CEO is my #1 entertainment online, and I've learned a lot too. Hell, have even canceled my Hulu, Audible, Kindle Unlimited, and even Netflix, as I really don't need all that paid entertainment with all the wild and crazy shit going on here for free, lol. Ok, I kept Deezer. And when you start a topic or make a post, that's a clear way to make a huge contribution, but we also owe thanks to those that simply read CEO and share links, as that also helps our community grow. So thank you all!

Is there an abridged version of the above?

GMJS-CEO wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 10:41 pm Never understood why people get so emotionally wrapped up in things of this nature. Too many heightened sensitivities.

Is it that difficult to relax and read the forums/post for entertainment? Do a few shite posts really have that much impact on the overall experience?

I suppose less sensitive types would result in less potential wind-up victims so please carry on.