Banning a friend and valuable forum asset.

This would be an issue with having a forum, period. If this were a serious concern, then you wouldn't create a forum at all. No scheme of rules will get you around this issue.

Not only would this be a problem with running a forum, but you couldn't run any site with user generated content. For example, Facebook couldn't operate from the Philippines.

I have to admit I'm totally clueless on this libel thing. I'm assuming that the state of the laws allows that if you run a forum and do a reasonable job at moderating it then you won't have to worry about getting mob attacked by lawyers.

I mentioned that. Make a boilerplate template that you use to create a post for subjects which are covered in the Barrio and put that in the public section of the forum.

Inside the Barrio, that you don't discuss this subject in the public forum would be clearly in the rules. You shouldn't need to make a second post for this in the Barrio for each subject.

Right, no matter what you do, you can't stop people from breaking the rules. You can only make the rules clear so that people aren't confused by them. If people are clear on the rules and still want to break them, then you can only ban these people. Setting clear expectations up-front makes for a smoother running forum.

All the things I mentioned wouldn't have stopped Roger from breaking rule #1.

My focus was more on what I thought was some serious wobbling of #2 while under the stress test.

 

The Barrio was fine until it actually got a bit of a stress test.

I barely remembered about the Barrio until it got hit with two highly active threads nearly at the same time. At that point, everyone wanted to pile in and shoot it out.

Things don't break in the calm, they break when the sh*t starts flying.

 

Just my thoughts

Privacy and secrecy are only concepts, not realities in most cases of life. This varies by culture but even more so in the culture we live in presently than some of the one we previously lived in. As was discovered the barrio was not private and there was no secrecy involved.

I feel that that personal criticism should be delivered in person, not a public broadcast forum, and even the Barrio was a public forum. Sound like a gang or "click" mentality which the barrio started to enable, got out of hand. The first attack will be met by a defensive statement that sounds a lot like another attack and so on. It just builds from there. We should all be strong enough to sit down face to face and discuss issues, and resolve issue peaceably, not throwing rocks from behind made up names. The situation that developed did not surprise me, as I anticipated it coming when I started reading the early posts on the barrio and decide not to sign up for a second tour of duty.

I agree with Shadow's ban of a member, the rules should be applied equally to all. However I also know the character of Broadside and am sorry he was one of the first public victims. I admire Broadside for his charity work and general diplomacy in most cases. I was not part of the Barrio when this controversy started so I am not totally familiar with what happen and do not care to find out more details.

Actually the whole "Aliens" controversy started outside the forum; maybe it should have stayed that way, in the newspaper that nurtured it. There were two articles this weekend, one my Kojak, and one by a "Don Crotty", which I think was a paid placement response. The newspaper was probably the best forum for these views. It is almost funny that as the Barrio imploded, the paper that published the original controversial commentary was going along as usual probably almost gaining reader as “aliens” pick up copies to see what was evolving. The original "aliens" article asked for city comments, but has anyone investigated if the City took a stand upon aliens. It seems like a better use of energy to keep politically connected to the firestorm that was started than attacking each other in the forum.

Personally I took Shadow's advice, "if you do not like it, do not read it' (or something close to that) and never signed up with the second pass word for the Barrio so I was lucky to miss the implosion. My life I think has had more peace because of that decision on my part. I came here because the Philippines was supposed to be a simpler life, with less of the cultural liabilities of the US, I am not sure that is totally the case, particularly when I open my suitcases and find they are full of what I was trying to leave behind.

"Forgive and forget" is something I am trying to incorporate into my life here, but I forgot to bring the suit case with either of these characteristic with me..... So I am still trying to adjust in a culture that says sorry freely but does not seem to either forgive or forget. How many articles have you read where the reason for a murder was a "long standing grudge', usually between neighbors or friends?

So I guess isolation is another alternative, this is my first post in weeks. These are solely my thoughts, as Imp is asleep as usual.

I have being reading the posts on this topic, and feel the forum is getting back to a friendly place where someone can go for advice, or direction rather than just a complaint area. I hope this trend can continue.

These are solely my views, as Imp is asleep as usual.

 

I never joined the barrio and maybe that was a wise choice. like others I have no knowledge of what cause the banning of Broadside, who has been a great contributer to the forum. I personally hope he will wish to rejoin, given the opportunity to do so.

"A secret is something told to one person at a time"
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