lol  

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

i dont even know why you would keep trying to post in a forum with a bad mod

plenty of fish in the sea

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
the cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebration of a maiden's choral.
Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrement of praise.

('Peter Quince at the Clavier' by Wallace Stevens)

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

well, in the past I've been accused of being too overbearing with the board, but then again, we were going through...how should i put this....growing pains....?

The problem is that you have to walk a line between allowing "free speech" and having a place where people feel welcome and WANT to come. One or two members of a small board (like this one) can have a major affect on people wanting to post and feeling potentially threatened.

Jordan .

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it, just let it happen. Could be a new shirt at the men's store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot, black coffee. Like this."  -Dale Cooper

The thing you have to remember about mods on boards is that...you're on their turf, not vice versa. While I don't condone censoring anyone, if they've laid ground rules that you've agreed to by joining their board, then it's up to you to moderate your behavior according to their forum rules. If you fail in doing so, then you're the tool, not the moderators. So the lesson learned here is, stay away from places where the ground rules don't fit with your idea of how you'd like to conduct yourself online. If someplace seems like it's under a Nazi regime, then by all means, walk away. It does no good to hang around and pissing on their walls because you feel like the internet is your sandbox.

That being said, we're lucky with the amount of room that Jordan affords us here. In the past people whined that folks were being too horrid and begged for their behavior to be moderated more. So we did, and we...well mostly Jordan...were accused of being too uptight and full of rules. So we loosened up again, and shit went sideways. Tightened up again, people complained. Finally Jordan told everyone that they were going to be the keepers of their own destiny here and if they couldn't deal with that, they could suckit. (I'm paraphrasing... :) And that's how the Gazette has come to be in its current state.

Yes it's not as busy as it used to be, but I think the atmosphere is far more welcoming to newcomers and comfortable for old-timers. We don't have to worry about constant drama (and oh my god was there ever drama...). And us moderators will still step in once in a while when things go sideways, as they can. But I have to honestly say...I haven't had to outright flex my mod muscle in quite some time, and it's refreshing.

And on a side note...I run the Festival board a bit differently. I will give people the room that they have here...but I freely reserve the right to delete/hide posts or edit them (we leave a note behind if we do this) and inform the author if they've completely crossed a line. I do this because I can't have random assholes on the internet scaring off potential festgoers. And yes...over the past six years, we have had people say they didn't want to come because of the behavior of people on the fest forum/board...because they didn't want to encounter those kind of people at the fest. Frankly I can't say I blame them. It's a lot of money to spend to travel across the state/country/ocean to risk ending up with a bunch of douchebags...

In the end...I really have no sympathy for people who want to show up on a message board and shit all over the place. Free speech rocks, but use it wisely.

~ Amanda

"Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave..."

  Huh?

Beauty is momentary in the mind -
The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.
The body dies; the body's beauty lives.
So evenings die, in their green going,
A wave, interminably flowing.
So gardens die, their meek breath scenting
the cowl of winter, done repenting.
So maidens die, to the auroral
Celebration of a maiden's choral.
Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings
Of those white elders; but, escaping,
Left only Death's ironic scraping.
Now in its immortality, it plays
On the clear viol of her memory,
And makes a constant sacrement of praise.

('Peter Quince at the Clavier' by Wallace Stevens)

I was not aware there were other Internet Forums.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin