Over Moderating ?

[Watch_Man]

Originally Posted by geoffretired

Most of the people who post on this forum don't need moderators; they have no intention of upsetting anyone. Real life, however, means there will always be a few who don't play to the same rules.Eventually they have to abide by the rules/guidance set by Dave and the moderators or leave. It's as Marcus so rightly said in his post.
If the forum was being over moderated, it would be losing membership. It is growing, and that speaks for itself.Well managed disagreements bring progress.
I was unable to get onto the forum for over four days(technical reasons). I had a lot of help and support from Dave, even though the problem was probably a local one to me. The point is, I felt cut off from people I wanted to talk to and the support made me feel that it was important to him, too.
It's a very good place to be, in my opinion.

Geoff, I agree with most of what you say. This thread was aimed at a specific thread and the conduct of one member, not AIUK in general. Unfortunately forums are not like real face to face communication where it is possible to pick up body language signals and know when you have pushed it far enough. Sometimes those new to this form of communication step over the mark without realising it and need to be moderated. As I keep saying, I have been moderated several times and have absolutely no issue with that happening if I am out of line.

In the particular case no one posting on that particular thread had actually stepped out of line, it was killed before they could. My point was that I thought it was too proactive and should have been left to run and if they did step out, then mod it.

[geoffretired]

Watch_Man, Thanks for your response.
I agree about the lack of body language getting in the way. Text messages almost need a special "training" to go with their use.
With reference to my earlier post, I was not really responding to the situation you mentioned. My comments were more general than that. So, really I was not disagreeing with anything anyone had said about the recent lock up.
To get on to that lock up situation, I think Dave has said something vitally important already; along the lines that the lock up is not irreversible. I think that puts everything in a different ball park. Those directly involved can still speak further on the matter if they feel something isn't "right".

[Tom]

Originally Posted by TJ Mason

he really WILL go away.

I believe TJ was referring to a comment you made in a (now deleted) post that implied you would be leaving the forum. You are of course entitled to change your mind

Back to the original topic, I closed the thread in question for the reasons I gave at the time (ie an attempt to calm down the forum). It probably was a bit hasty - but I stand by the decision as the correct one. However, it's also worth pointing out that the thread in question was started to ask why another thread had been closed. Those sort of queries should be preferably made via PM to any of the forum admins or moderators, or alternatively by using the "report post" function (ie on a post in the locked thread). As such that is the reason why the thread has since been deleted.