www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Why Leave The Forum

A word from your friendly Townhall Moderator:

At last count, there were over 1300 registered memebers on the Byzantine Forum. Putting this into perspective, there are more members on this forum than there are in the largest of any Eastern Church parish. This does not take into consideration those who visit the Forum without registering. Out of those 1300 there have been a handful of posters (less than 10 by my count)who cross the line of proper etiquette. This is far less percentage than those who cross the line in society at large. To those who feel it necessary to publicly post that they are leaving because of a certain poster, I am sorry that we moderators have not lived up to your expectations. I will repeat what I have said before: posts are not monitored or censored before they are posted on the forum. We rely upon the poster to follow Forum etiquette. When that fails, the forum relies upon the common sense of fellow posters to "blow the whistle" and alert the forum moderators. Posting within the topic thread to have a moderator or the administator "moderate" is not the quickest manner to inform us. Please use the "Report Post" function in the footer of the offending post to bring this to our quickest attention.

Now you are certainly free to choose to quit posting for any reason. However, I think it uncharitable to most posters (and my fellow moderators) for you to paint broadly and proclaim this forum used to be a great place to learn. There have been over 7500 topics and 107,304 posts(107,305 including mine ) the overwhelming majority of which have been positive. To narrow the focus upon a few aberrant posts/posters is misplaced in my humble opinion.

I'll get off the soapbox now.

Sorry - I was unaware of the "Report Post" function. But then, I've never been expert with technology.
Incognitus

Incognitus,

you've mastered the art of reporting the post. I received your report and the offendeing poster will be dealt with accordingly... oh,I see, you reported yourself. :p

Let some narrow minded, short sighted, rude & arrogant people keep me from this charitable forum ? Never !


But when the sun sets I do pray for them .


james

I think this forum is still a great place to learn. Yes, there have been a few - very few - rude, obnoxious people. There have also been a few - very few - who seem to live for the purpose of being offended. I don't want to see the forum degenerate into general nastiness, but I also don't want it to become an exclusive little club where a few members meet to tell each other how wonderful they are. The forum has an educational purpose, and I think it also serves as a good tool for evangelization.

107,000+ posts! You moderators and the administrator must be exhausted!!

Thank You for your hard work and loving service to the Forum.

Paul

ByzanTN, Thanks for this good reminder. As a former teacher and student-- I am here - to learn and that is why I am staying. In the process I hope to offer something to others as well. Of course, there is a difference between 'taking offense' and 'leaving or threatening to leave' and just plain not liking the language, focus, or attitude of some of the posters. As pointed out to us as a reminder recently>>there is the whistle to blow if something seems offensive and inappropriate. But, you are right, the good things far out weigh what negative discussions there are. I do remember some years ago that another Byzantine website closed their forum because of uncharitable exchange. Yes, I think this is a great place to learn and should always be the kind of place where questions can be asked. And it should be okay to make mistakes in the answering or the asking because we learn from that also. Hopefully we can continue to learn from one another as we exchange and journey here imperfect as we all are.

Mary Jo aka Porter>prayerfully and gratefully.

If you've ever noticed there are A LOT of people reading these posts - which is something we should all remember whenever posting a reply. Everyone is listening and visitors who are not Byzantine are getting a distinct impression of us by what we write.

Right now in the middle of the day, there are 14 posters on-line here (mostly the "regulars") and FORTY-FIVE Guests.

Posted by Deacon John Montalvo:

"When that fails, the forum relies upon the common sense of fellow posters to "blow the whistle" and alert the forum moderators. Posting within the topic thread to have a moderator or the administator "moderate" is not the quickest manner to inform us. Please use the "Report Post" function in the footer of the offending post to bring this to our quickest attention."


Dear Fr. Deacon John,

My low level of technological acumen is matched by only by my low level of typing and editing skills. :rolleyes:

Thank you for pointing out the existence and location of the "whistle" and the proper netiquette for its use.

Hopefully, its use will be infrequent!

Thanks again,

Steve

While I have had plenty of experience of being personally attacked here and also of having overly sensitive people take offense at my attempts at humor, I would only leave if the moderators were consistently unfair, rude and arrogant. The forum freely admits all comers, and it is only with time that the obnoxious reveal themselves. They usually don't last long, though we should have realized that someone who chooses as an online name some kind of nut might just turn out to be one!

Perhaps the chief problem with humor on the Internet, even in personal correspondence, is that one's "interlocutor" is unable to see one's facial expression, hear one's tone of voice, and so forth. The unfortunate result can be that what would be no more than good fun in person can be misread as mortally offensive over the wire.
Incognitus

incognitus,

Facial expressions or the lack of facial expressions works both ways. I find that little notes to my wife seem to carry a more pure form of affection than words said face to face.

There is an art to effective e-mail writing (I'm trying to learn). At my work we are discouraged from using upper case except in certain circumstances. Upper case can look offensive to the reader. Smiley faces, if not overdone, can add a light tone. or ;}.

Readers need to be forgiving too. We (especially me) make mistakes. It almost goes without saying that some people are rude. Let's pray for them.

Paul

Paul,

perhaps you should change your name to "paramour".

Father Deacon,

Tisk! Tisk!

A Deacon writing such things . . .

Keep up the good work!

Alex

HAHAHAHAHAHA ROFL!!!