Why we administrate as we do.

[Jerry]

Sometimes the printed word can be very harsh. You don't see a smile or a twinkle in the eye as you would face to face.
One member wondered why we try to stop threads that seem to be getting out of hand.
Sure, we are not always right.

I think Sean put it well when he said... harsh banter leads to "Flame Wars"!
We strive to nip those things in the bud.   Sites have been wrecked when these things go on.

We have a great membership and plan to keep it that way.

[livetogarden]

Bless you both for handling things the way you do. I have always appreciated what you 2 do to keep this forum 'clean and kind'. If anyone wants to bash someone else there are plenty of sites they can go to for that. This forum has always been a safe place for learning about ponds and for supporting our fellow ponders when they have something great to share or when they have a crisis in their lives. Most of us have never met in person, but we have found some special friends on this forum.
Keep up the good work Jerry and Sean!!
Cath

[Bullfrog]

This is the most user friendly place that I visit. You are doing a great job, stay the course.

[Esther]

Yessssss Totally agree with your attitudes about this forum and seeing evidence of it in the past. I hate fighting, putdowns, etc. Maybe that comes from being an only child. I never had to fight. I will state my opinion firmly but then that is all that is necessary. If I feel I am being attacked, I refuse to respond in like manner and if the other person doesn't stop, then I walk away. So I see this forum as offering the freedom of our being able to state our opinions but not get mean to each other with name calling and put downs.

Jerry, I remember when we first were talking about starting this forum, that is one of the things we knew we needed terribly, freedom within boundaries. And when Sean came on board, he supported that opinion. Thanks both of you, for giving us a place with exactly that. 

[Jerry]

Thanks!  Yes things fell into place.  I think I once said Sean dropped out of the sky for us

I made the post because some wonder why we are so quick to nip attacks promptly.
Maybe a few can post a horror story about bad vibes on other forums?

[Kittyzee]

Thank you both for the sacrifices that you make for us.  I hope you get as much from this forum and we all do.  It is a "safe haven" for a lot of us and for many different reasons.  I am grateful to have found AP, have learned much from the people here; and have even made some friends along the way.  What more can anyone ask for?  

[mascot]

Maybe a few can post a horror story about bad vibes on other forums?

I can definitely share one.  I was on a parrot forum for a few years, and being that I have been owned by a parrot for nearly two decades, a disabled one at that, I feel that I could be of some benefit to others.  I even thought I had made friends with many there, including the hosts/admin.  One day a woman who is adamant about PETA (yet she owns small cage birds -  ano-no with PETA) made some rude comments about others.  I emailed privately and questioned her motive and she came unglued.  Seeing as how I *thought* she was okay, I was shocked to get the reply I did.  I ignored her and that was the only time I emailed her after that.

The next time she posted, lashing out at another person, I questioned her again, this time publicly.  Her response was slightly unhinged, and she went crazy with it, posting that she doesn't like me sitting in wait for every post of hers so I could pounce on her, and then accused me of stalking her on the internet!  Holy crap!  It was one post!  I asked the admins to remove it and explained the situation, they all agreed that she was over-reacting, but chose to leave the posts up for all to see.

I haven't visited that forum in over two years and have severed all friendships with anyone associated with that forum.  I thought it was irresponsible to leave slanderous remarks like that posted, and although the admins wished she would go away, they showed poor judgement because even though the regulars knew the girl was one taco short of a combination platter, newcomers wondered who I was and why I was [allegedly] harassing her. 

So now I post about Rocky on a pond forum.  Makes no sense, but when you have a pet for (potentially) 40+ years he is a big part of your life...no matter what you do.

[Esther]

There was once a forum that had silent moderators, so no fences or discipline exhisted. As things went from bad to worse, and often led to flaming, putdowns, cliques, name calling, and mean spirited posts, some felt less and less at ease there. When members began to question the way the forum was being run, other members told them if they didn't like it, to leave. Imagine people wanting to stay where they were on edge all the time wondering if they were going to be the next person to have ill spirited words flung at them. I do understand that at times a misunderstanding can occur but that is not what was happening there. So as you no doubt have suspected, I closed out my membership and crept off into the sunset.

I was on another forum about 4 years where the owner misunderstood something someone said and was the one to cut loose with all kinds of nastiness. Seeing he was the only moderator, there was noone to delete the thread. We tried to get him to understand what this member meant but the mod just wouldn't listen and his language became even bluer. I didn't wait long there either. I wasn't going to stay there and wait to be the next person he tied into unfairly. So I sent an email thanking him for the use of his forum, and asked that my membership be deleted and never looked back.

[Desertponder]

Thank you for not allowing the flame wars here. It makes for a peaceful community.

I've found that many of the pet animal forums are some of the worst to try to belong to. People get very over the top on those forums and it seems like very little is done to harness the attitudes.
I recently left a pit bull forum over a thread that turned ugly concerning Best Friends Animal Society. Some of these people had wrong, wrong, wrong information about the sanctuary and I tried to give them correct information and got pounced on. Even though I volunteer for them, I've been there, I work closely with a number of employees there, yet these people insisted they were right. Yet, they themselves have no contact with anyone with the sanctuary, have never been there, etc. It was unreal!  One particular member kept pouncing on me via PM and administration would not do anything about it so I asked them to pull me from the membership. My volunteer position with Best Friends requires me to gather resources to help people with their animals and so I must peruse many of the pet related forums as a resource but it certainly gets challenging at times.

I think AP should be proud of the environment we have here.

[Jerry]

We do appreciate your appreciating!!  Some dumb sentence  but it's true!