Alright guys, this is really getting frustrating on my end.
Does everyone remember Bill? 2slow4you? He was a prick, he always bashed everyone, always was negative, and was always a jerk on here. I banned him. Why? Common sense, really. If Bill wanted to dispute it, his was extreme enough that I didn't have to give any reason except for look at his own actions.
Now let's look at John Smith. Every day he comes on here and cusses all day long, every single post, 3-6 "f-bombs," etc. I'd ban him. He'll complain and ask why. "Well, you're a negative member on the site and you swear way too much for the site's atmosphere." And he'll say "But I never read any rule saying I couldn't swear!" ...Darn, you got me there. There wasn't any rule. I couldn't dispute it. What do I do? Be a prick and leave him banned or be mature and say "Well, you're right, but now you know... i'll unban you." It'll be the 2nd case, and he'll take advantage of it and do something else. I'll ban him, and same thing. No one wins, and the site gets fed up seeing him on here.
Over the past week, the staff and I created a set of rules. It was my initiative and I take full negativity directed at the rules.
Last night, we enabled the rules and pushed it out to everyone with a little explanation at the top of the rules.
I thought that was enough until I heard of the discussion between members and mods last night. I'm here to address these things.
First and foremost, the rules are not being put up to make changes. Nothing changes, at all. The site runs as normal, with something to fall back on if someone gets drastically out of hand. The rules are being put up so if there's a person who continuously is a prick on here I have the ability to fall back and say "Hey, go read the rules... specifically #_ and #_." If they continue to to be a prick, I then can take further action with them in full confidence that they had the chance to read the rules of the site, they were asked to review the rules to refresh their memory, and continued to abuse them.
Are we going to monitor every bit of conversation on here MORE now that we have rules? No. We're not trigger happy.
Are we going to use the rules as an excuse all the time? No. We're a family.. I don't want to remove someone from this site unless they truely are a negative member -- like Bill.
Will I temp ban people who are consistantly being a prick? Sure. Have I? Yes. Has it worked? I'd like to think so. Of the few people I've temporarilly banned, I can say that all of them came back on the site and I never had a problem with them again... except for Bill, and he got banned permanently.
Guys, I try to give everyone here the utmost respect and dignity. I try to give everyone second chances, and I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. While I am not perfect, I'd like to think I do a good job of this most of the time. Recently, I had a handful of members come to me with an issue, I then discussed the issue with the staff, and then I discussed the issue with that member. I could have just taken action, but I didn't. I went to him in private and asked him his stance on the subject. His response was all that was needed, which was then conveyed back to the members who brought it up, and the staff as well.
This site is my baby. It's my pride and it's my joy. I've let my responsibilities on this site ruin my personal friendships, I've let my responsibilities on this site almost ruin my relationship with Angie. I can't count on my hands and feet how many times I've gotten a call or text message in the middle of the night and MiFbody being mentioned and getting right up out of bed and checking on the site to see what's going on. You can't total the number of hours I've spent on here trying to keep it running, trying to keep the site up, and trying to bring the latest coolest modifications to the forum to keep everyone entertained or make posting more fun. Likewise, I put a lot of money into this site. The site's YEARLY "Gold" sponsor package doesn't even pay for 1 month of hosting. Why do I do it? Because I love being able to provide everyone a great site for them to enjoy. It absolutely makes me beam with pride when I hear about people meeting up after chatting on the site, or about the yearly MiFbody meetup and how much everyone looks forward to something that I was blessed to create. Do you ever see me openly asking for money? I can only think of one situation, when we went from being $15 per month to $95 per month. The donations were overwhelming, and I honestly shed tears out of being completely humbled by the fact that people were willing to donate. I try my best not to ask anything in return. But tonight, I do have to ask one thing.
That said, I was really hurt seeing the conversations taking place in the shoutbox last night. Some members were outright bashing the rules, something I put in place to try and BETTER the site. In some cases, comparing MiFbody to LS1Tech. Names won't be mentioned, whoever knows who said what just knows, 'nuff said. Numerous times, it was mentioned to PM me or talk to me about it. But did I receive ONE private message about the rules? No. None. It's almost getting to the point that it's a chore to come on here and try to moderate the fighting, the bickering, the drama. You guys, you know who you are, are the ones ruining the fun.
Here is my one and only request: If you have a problem with the site, with an individual, with a group of people, with something I've done, with something that is being said in another thread, or with something that is being done to you, PLEASE send me a private message, talk to me on AIM, or call me. I post my phone number on my signature for a reason: To be available to everyone. I do everything for the better of the community here, not to pick on someone and be a jerk. I just ask that you guys give me the respect to send me a PM and talk to me before passing judgement on whatever it is that is bothering you.
Does everyone remember Bill? 2slow4you? He was a prick, he always bashed everyone, always was negative, and was always a jerk on here. I banned him. Why? Common sense, really. If Bill wanted to dispute it, his was extreme enough that I didn't have to give any reason except for look at his own actions.
Now let's look at John Smith. Every day he comes on here and cusses all day long, every single post, 3-6 "f-bombs," etc. I'd ban him. He'll complain and ask why. "Well, you're a negative member on the site and you swear way too much for the site's atmosphere." And he'll say "But I never read any rule saying I couldn't swear!" ...Darn, you got me there. There wasn't any rule. I couldn't dispute it. What do I do? Be a prick and leave him banned or be mature and say "Well, you're right, but now you know... i'll unban you." It'll be the 2nd case, and he'll take advantage of it and do something else. I'll ban him, and same thing. No one wins, and the site gets fed up seeing him on here.
Over the past week, the staff and I created a set of rules. It was my initiative and I take full negativity directed at the rules.
Last night, we enabled the rules and pushed it out to everyone with a little explanation at the top of the rules.
As Michigan FBody Association continues to grow, it's our responsibility to establish a set of rules for the forum members to adhere to. We can't realistically expect members to adhere to a set of rules that don't exist. As such, you must accept the following set of rules.
First and foremost, the rules are not being put up to make changes. Nothing changes, at all. The site runs as normal, with something to fall back on if someone gets drastically out of hand. The rules are being put up so if there's a person who continuously is a prick on here I have the ability to fall back and say "Hey, go read the rules... specifically #_ and #_." If they continue to to be a prick, I then can take further action with them in full confidence that they had the chance to read the rules of the site, they were asked to review the rules to refresh their memory, and continued to abuse them.
Are we going to monitor every bit of conversation on here MORE now that we have rules? No. We're not trigger happy.
Are we going to use the rules as an excuse all the time? No. We're a family.. I don't want to remove someone from this site unless they truely are a negative member -- like Bill.
Will I temp ban people who are consistantly being a prick? Sure. Have I? Yes. Has it worked? I'd like to think so. Of the few people I've temporarilly banned, I can say that all of them came back on the site and I never had a problem with them again... except for Bill, and he got banned permanently.
Guys, I try to give everyone here the utmost respect and dignity. I try to give everyone second chances, and I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. While I am not perfect, I'd like to think I do a good job of this most of the time. Recently, I had a handful of members come to me with an issue, I then discussed the issue with the staff, and then I discussed the issue with that member. I could have just taken action, but I didn't. I went to him in private and asked him his stance on the subject. His response was all that was needed, which was then conveyed back to the members who brought it up, and the staff as well.
This site is my baby. It's my pride and it's my joy. I've let my responsibilities on this site ruin my personal friendships, I've let my responsibilities on this site almost ruin my relationship with Angie. I can't count on my hands and feet how many times I've gotten a call or text message in the middle of the night and MiFbody being mentioned and getting right up out of bed and checking on the site to see what's going on. You can't total the number of hours I've spent on here trying to keep it running, trying to keep the site up, and trying to bring the latest coolest modifications to the forum to keep everyone entertained or make posting more fun. Likewise, I put a lot of money into this site. The site's YEARLY "Gold" sponsor package doesn't even pay for 1 month of hosting. Why do I do it? Because I love being able to provide everyone a great site for them to enjoy. It absolutely makes me beam with pride when I hear about people meeting up after chatting on the site, or about the yearly MiFbody meetup and how much everyone looks forward to something that I was blessed to create. Do you ever see me openly asking for money? I can only think of one situation, when we went from being $15 per month to $95 per month. The donations were overwhelming, and I honestly shed tears out of being completely humbled by the fact that people were willing to donate. I try my best not to ask anything in return. But tonight, I do have to ask one thing.
That said, I was really hurt seeing the conversations taking place in the shoutbox last night. Some members were outright bashing the rules, something I put in place to try and BETTER the site. In some cases, comparing MiFbody to LS1Tech. Names won't be mentioned, whoever knows who said what just knows, 'nuff said. Numerous times, it was mentioned to PM me or talk to me about it. But did I receive ONE private message about the rules? No. None. It's almost getting to the point that it's a chore to come on here and try to moderate the fighting, the bickering, the drama. You guys, you know who you are, are the ones ruining the fun.
Here is my one and only request: If you have a problem with the site, with an individual, with a group of people, with something I've done, with something that is being said in another thread, or with something that is being done to you, PLEASE send me a private message, talk to me on AIM, or call me. I post my phone number on my signature for a reason: To be available to everyone. I do everything for the better of the community here, not to pick on someone and be a jerk. I just ask that you guys give me the respect to send me a PM and talk to me before passing judgement on whatever it is that is bothering you.









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