LSAT wrote:DreamStalker wrote:johnnygoodman wrote:Howdy,
I care about CPAPtalk and its mission.
I don't agree with most who have posted to this thread though. I think a moderated forum loses its ability to talk strait at things, which is often what is lacking in other mediums of support. If we moderate we cross a line and are forever changed. From that time forward, someone else will decide for each individual what may be said and what may not be. Most have called for this change, and there have been abuses, but I'd consider we'd have lost something special if we did it.
So then, what values does this forum stand for? My personal values, the values of the majority or whatever dictated values result in the greatest number of newbies helped with the most effective information?
You could argue I'm already dictating values, just with a light enforcement touch. I am the only one with a ban button and its use or lack of use doesn't make that less true.
You could also argue this forum has been successful exactly because it has worked on its mission in a way which is outside of the majority opinion and that changing that is bad.
What I do know is that emotions are high and that's never a good time to make a good long term decision.
I will continue to read this thread and think on this.
Johnny
As a 11-year+ forum member, I applaud your decision to maintain the forum as it has always been.
The recent mainstream "politically correct" subculture would rather lose their freedom of expression than be offended .... and in the end, everybody will be offended by something until there is nothing left for anyone to do except keep our thoughts and ideas to ourselves and listen/watch the dark silence all around.
Thanks for what you have done for me and for what you do for everyone else.
+1 Nice speech Roberto...does this apply to Guests too?
I think that the majority of guest posts are either spammers marketing their krap or sleep lab techs bored with their job responsibilities looking to stir up forum entertainment for themselves.
As far as people who come here just to stir up divisiveness chaos in general ... I don't think it makes much of a difference between guest and registered members (who are anonymous anyway).
Having said that, I've never liked the forum's guest policy and think that everyone should be required to register ... as I think it would at least cut down on the forum spam attacks we've seen on occasion. Additionally, registered users cannot place guests on their foe list (a list that blocks only the view of posts from people on their custom "foe" list) ... although I don't use the Foe button on anyone because all you have to do is ignore the people you would have put on the foe list anyway.
When it comes to moderators, I feel Johnny is correct that having appointed individual(s) in charge of censoring (or banning) others is a very bad idea.
Johnny seems genuinely concerned in having the greatest number of newbies helped with the most effective information. I recall that when I joined the forum many years ago as a CPAP newbie, there was (and always has been) bickering and yes, even name calling too, between various members. Yet, I managed to easily wade through the forum threads to learn the needed information that I was interested in and ignored any bickering that did not interest me (the forum search tool works really well people and Google works great too when adding cpaptalk key word).
Johnny also expressed that he would "continue to read this thread and think on this". If he decides that censoring and/or banning of members is necessary, I would hope that he develop a democratic approach rather than appointing individual forum moderators.
If Johnny required all forum users to register (Guests could still be allowed to read and just not post), that would allow the registered members to democratically censor/ban trouble makers themselves. Perhaps adding a "block post" and/or "ban member" buttons ... where any member who gets more than 10 "block post" clicks in any single 24-hour period has their post removed and any member who gets more than 100 "ban member" clicks within a 24-hour period gets banned from the forum. Again, I would prefer not to go this route but if censoring/banning is the only option for Johnny ... I hope it is a democratic approach rather than individual appointed forum moderators.
President-pretender, J. Biden, said "the DNC has built the largest voter fraud organization in US history". Too bad they didn’t build the smartest voter fraud organization and got caught.
