Suggestion - MODERATOR

Or: Free Speech vs Controlled Content Yep, this is a tricky issue. Yep, messages boards are like TV. Internet message boards and chat rooms are a relatively new and bizarre social event. I equate it to going to a shopping mall, stepping into a crowd of people, and just start yacking away. The difference here is that you are heavily insulated from anyone being able to see or touch you. Sometimes I find the resulting behavior (even my own) to be an interesting social study. Sometimes it bores me to tears. For this message board, since it is what interests me most, what I'd like to see is a forum for Swimming Technique (as they do for Workouts, Coaching, and OW Swimming). I can certainly understand the issue of more work for volunteers vs less work, so I can see why there would be a lack of enthusiasm for new forums. I like the "Gutter Chat" forum idea, which I think is pretty clever. I've been involved in some message board management, and one experience shocked me into realizing that any moderator involvement can lead to ignition of major censorship issues which can quickly landslide into a major quarry (vs can) of worms. Being a message board moderator can be a very un-fun, thankless job. On the other hand, as a user, it is a bummer to have to wade through a lot of muck and mire when you want to be fed just quality (on topic) content. But this IS the "General Discussions" forum, which is defined as "Any swimming-related topics not covered in one of the other top level topics". Um, well, how do you determine what is swimming related then? Trying to answer that one will almost certainly heat up some censorship issues. I think this is a fun board too... sometimes. There are some very sharp, witty folks here and I've gotten quite a few good laughs from those seemingly OT posts for the threads they are attached to. But it is a casual place, and even if you created new forum topics the threads would inevitably become littered with chaff. I think it is just the nature of the beast. I'd still like to see a forum dedicated to Swimming Technique though.

Or: Free Speech vs Controlled Content Yep, this is a tricky issue. Yep, messages boards are like TV. Internet message boards and chat rooms are a relatively new and bizarre social event. I equate it to going to a shopping mall, stepping into a crowd of people, and just start yacking away. The difference here is that you are heavily insulated from anyone being able to see or touch you. Sometimes I find the resulting behavior (even my own) to be an interesting social study. Sometimes it bores me to tears. For this message board, since it is what interests me most, what I'd like to see is a forum for Swimming Technique (as they do for Workouts, Coaching, and OW Swimming). I can certainly understand the issue of more work for volunteers vs less work, so I can see why there would be a lack of enthusiasm for new forums. I like the "Gutter Chat" forum idea, which I think is pretty clever. I've been involved in some message board management, and one experience shocked me into realizing that any moderator involvement can lead to ignition of major censorship issues which can quickly landslide into a major quarry (vs can) of worms. Being a message board moderator can be a very un-fun, thankless job. On the other hand, as a user, it is a bummer to have to wade through a lot of muck and mire when you want to be fed just quality (on topic) content. But this IS the "General Discussions" forum, which is defined as "Any swimming-related topics not covered in one of the other top level topics". Um, well, how do you determine what is swimming related then? Trying to answer that one will almost certainly heat up some censorship issues. I think this is a fun board too... sometimes. There are some very sharp, witty folks here and I've gotten quite a few good laughs from those seemingly OT posts for the threads they are attached to. But it is a casual place, and even if you created new forum topics the threads would inevitably become littered with chaff. I think it is just the nature of the beast. I'd still like to see a forum dedicated to Swimming Technique though.