DITTOES!
The board is more important than any one of us because of the stated purpose and the encouragement to form friendships and interaction.
That being said - - the board doesn't work without quality people managing it, and it most certainly cannot exist if good people won't participate ... and, all it takes for a good board to go sideways is for good people to go away, or leave all the managing up to a few people.
Could it be that when I saw something wrong, I said nothing?
Is it even my place to say something to the person I think is out of line?
Or, does the problem enlarge because I tell someone I think they are off base, and then go tell fifteen other persons that I think so and so is out of line?
OR!
AM I just asking too many questions too late?
At any rate... I have advertised this site in real time because I have gained so much more understanding and knowledge of quilting and the general atmosphere has been pretty void of pettiness ... (politics, if you will <g>)
In the end, I will always find on this site what I am looking for ... people tend to see what they want to see.

I just found this thread......and haven't got the time to read all 15 pages (!) of responses...BUT, I'm more than willing to give my point of view. :mrgreen:
I am a member of a forum that is a completely different topic. The mods on that forum in the last 4 yrs have changed from allowing most anything except bad language, lamblasting other people, political arguments and religion arguments. Prayer requests were allowed as were jokes. If you didn't want to read a thread, you could ignore it. If you didn't want to read threads by a certain poster, you could block that poster. Then in the last 2 yrs they have become what we refer to as the "gestapo" (spelling?) They are heavy handed with the delete button and in many cases play favorites. As a result, they have lost a ton of fun participants (myself included). The forum is boring and gives no incentive to return to it. I'd hate like heck for that to happen here.

If I see a post for prayers, I go in and read what the problem is. I may or may not offer prayers -- that's MY choice.

If I see a joke, I may or may not go in to read it....if it's one I've read before, so what -- I've had friends tell me jokes I've heard before.

I understand the moderators may be overwhelmed....I'm sorry for that, but I surely do hate the thought that this forum may change!!!! :cry:

Best of luck on the decisionmaking!

If it's a problem with the board getting too big, would it help to delete everything in the general chat area after a set time such as 48 hrs. or 72 hrs. ? Most people here check in at least once every 24 hrs so they would have the oppertunity to respond to any general chat posts before they are deleted.

Yes it do! lol (sorry - couldn't resist)

I don't envy you, oh gentle silver-back. You have your hands full with this versatile group.

A few members wrote that the board (really any board) must follow the admin's rules. (I paraphrase). Yes, that is true, but if the rules don't work for a majority of the members, then what good is a board without participants. I like the fact that you give the membership a voice. It will be impossible to make everyone happy - that's just a simple fact.

Not having been a fan of the PDA section before, due to the sheer volume of content, I can see that adding important personal data with a page reference can help sift through it all. It will put the responsibility on the authors of what they want the members to know.

I'm still a little puzzled about your <negativity breeds negativity> comment. Yes, it is sad to hear/read about someone's heartache - but from what I have read here, the tone of the answers is generally supportive, inspiring, uplifting, and often times helpful in the "we should make a quilt for that person" way. Isn't that positive? It appears that you come at that topic from a different angle and I respect that.

I had to remind myself yesterday that this is after all a QUILTING Board, and it was the quilting part that first drew me to this site. ....and all the quilting-related sections still work well. I'm sure we can get the personal stuff back on track too - COLLECTIVELY!

That's because there is no way to know which is genuine and which is attention-seeking. While attention-seeking in itself is not bad, the overall number of such topics would quickly push out everything else out of the section if we don't stop it. We've been trying to "throttle" it somewhat, but it's not a good solution. A solid system would be better.

We already discussed it. It's about the volume, or the amount of negativity, which we can't keep in check.

I love the idea allowing us to edit the topic titles in our PDA section :D :D :D What a great solution, thank you!!! 8) 8) 8)

We are talking about two different issues here. Let's first figure out the guidelines of starting a new topic (GCC vs PDA, which are acceptable, etc.), and then we'll figure out what should be considered acceptable as far as threads wandering off topic (intentionally or not) with new posts inside topics.

We'll address the topic of hijacking, because as I've learned from reading some of the replies, it's a real problem.

This has been discussed at length...and it seems to boil down to behave and follow the rules---whatever they shall be. Deletions will address those who don't. The end.

I think the pda section is a great addition to the board if they wer allowed to edit the title of their own post's to anounce something new i think it would further enhance a good thing that has been started there. That would ensure that something new in a person's diary wont go un-noticed.

EDIT****OOPS This is what Admin already said earlier

If we can edit the title of our PDA's, should we place announcements for more sensitive happenings like illnesses and deaths there, where we can discuss them/offer condolences/prayers in a more private setting?

Can happier and more upbeat events be placed in the Chit Chat section, such as births, graduations, and such?