Hi!
If I haven't said so recently, this is a great community and I want to thank all of you for making it so.
Please indulge me and take a minute to reread the
Posting Guidelines. It will only take a minute or so, and it won't hurt too much. Plus, I think there's free pie and hot chocolate when you are all done.
I make mistakes. Lots of them. We all do.
This moderating stuff isn't entirely straightforward; sometimes it's difficult discerning the most appropriate course. I get email. Club members point out things that they think I should be aware of, and sometimes they ask me to take action. I encourage people to email me in such cases; and I am grateful that members care enough about our community to do so.
But I do make mistakes. And I do know that not everyone is always going to agree with my attempts at moderating. But as clumsy as they may at times appear, they are well intentioned. I like all of you, and I want to do what I can to make this club a place that all of you find comfortable and enjoyable.
A month and a half ago, I edited a post that, within the context of the thread it was posted to, I and others thought was entirely inappropriate. The member was upset with my editing. That outcome was, to me, unfortunate because I consider him to be a valued member of our community. It was not my intention to anger him or to hurt him in any way. I probably could have tried to address the problem with his post in some other fashion that might have resulted in a better outcome. I don't know. I like all of you and have no desire to anger or hurt any of you. In that particular case, I failed. It isn't easy to discern the best course; we make mistakes. (And no, I'm not going to tell you which thread it was; that's not the point here.)
This moderating is tricky stuff.
I read all the posts. (Ok, I skim the motorcycle threads, but even then I at least glance at the posts.) One thing that I see seemingly every day is new members. Mica and I believe that new members should be made to feel welcome. And indeed, depending on context, depending on the particular thread, our members here do indeed make new posters feel welcome. However, sometimes new posters may be, inadvertently, ignored. It's rare but it happens. For instance someone may post a question on a subject that most of us may have little knowledge of, and we skip over the thread and hope someone else will post a response. It happens, I do it. The question will be about something I know nothing about, and I'm in one of those modes where I'm trying to get through all the posts so I can turn the computer off and go to bed, and I skip over the thread hoping someone else will post an answer to the question.
And indeed, there are a lot of people here who seem to go out of their way to respond to and welcome new members; and I just want to let you know that I greatly appreciate it.
Many of us have been here a good while now, and we've come to know each other to some degree. And we know that others have come to know us, have come to know how we post. We can be brief and to the point because we know that others can fill in the lines.
But new members will not be able to fill in the lines. [note: I have no idea what fill in the lines means; I think I made that up] Thus it seems important that when responding to a post that we glance at the member's post number shown directly under the username. If that number is 1 or some similarly small number, it seems reasonable and desireable that care should be taken when responding to the post, and that the member should be welcomed.
Again, I make mistakes. I tend to make lots of short and to the point posts when responding to questions. Often I know (or perhaps guess might be a better word) that the member I'm responding to has come to know me over time, and I just post a quick and direct answer and move on. However, it would be my guess that sometimes my posts are a little too direct and quick, and I imagine that includes posts I've made answering questions from new members.
Again, I see posts from new members all the time, and I've noticed how we respond to new members in different contexts; and it did seem to me that addressing this topic might be a good idea. I hope you agree.
So, the request here is that when responding to posts made my new members, that we take a little extra time and give some consideration to the fact that they are new here. New members should be made to feel welcome; that's how we would wish to be treated if we were venturing in to a community for the first time.
A quick note on a related topic. This is a private forum. You have to be a member to post here. I think most people would agree that when you are in your own home or workplace that there is some expectation that, no matter how strongly you may believe in free speech, that guests can't just do or say anything they want; that there is some expectation of civility or decorum. For instance, you invite me to a party at your house; several of your friends and family members are there; there's a general feeling of warmth and comradery; and I suddenly start talking about how silly your religious beliefs are. In my view, that's not what free speech is about. So, in my view, this is a private forum, and, in my view, you can't just say or do anything you want here. I believe there is some expectation of civility and respect. This is our community.
One last note. The above random thoughts are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views or expectations of Alembic. While I try to act in my role as moderator in a manner that I think would represent the views and expectations of Alembic, it is entirely possible that I will at times be incorrect in my assumptions. So anything that I have written here or elsewhere on the site in my role as moderator is subject to correction or clarification by Alembic. I'm just trying to help out as best I can.
I hope you liked the pie and hot chocolate!
And if for some reason, perhaps in your haste to discover what out of left field thing that davehouck guy was going to say this time, if perchance you did not stop and read the Posting Guidelines when suggested at the top of this post, you can fortunately do so now by clicking on this link
here!
Thanks,
David
