I get this question a lot so I thought I would address it as a one time answer. I have not been a part of other Large Fan Forum sites that I stayed to long in. Granted I am still a member of them and every once in a while I do use the Forum as a reference source. But for the most part I don't stay as a *regular* very long.
Why? because somewhere in our global society a break down has occurred. Folks no longer can even distinguish what the words civil, respectful disagreement, or debate even mean any more.
To many the entire purpose of a Forum is they have a place to now vent their discontent with *name your subject* and if you disagree OR heaven forbid ask them to tone down the hostile rhetoric they turn like an immature child who just got told No and they proceed to throw a fit. Then they feign utter astonishment when they get called on the carpet. Could the masses not see how *real* their issue was and if it takes being belligerent to get their point across can't they (the Authority) get over themselves and just get with the program. They are utterly baffled that they aren't viewed as calm conveyors of a sane issue. How can the Forum authority not see that it is they themselves that are the problem. They are the ones stifling the rude, sarcastic, snotty, mean, and/or disparaging opinions of the member who has an apparent exalted sense of self...or as many define it an over-blown sense of entitlement. To this self exalted member they are apparently the only ones with any *real rights* and all of the rest of the folks all around the Forum be damned, they apparently have such a grasp on how to speak to the *real* people and apparently politeness, self-discipline, decency and respect have absolutely no meaning for them...or at least not when someone tells them No you don't get to be this way.
I read Forum after Forum like this and was just disgusted after a while. I never could get to the information I was even looking for or wanted to discuss, because I was wading through post after post that had basically no class or substance. But I sure did get educated on the level of immaturity grown up people can have over any given subject. Needless I kept looking for a Forum that offered decency, civil debate and self discipline at its core.
That was 5 years ago, I found GW Forums and I was so impressed with how things were handled. All opinions were welcome. Regardless of the nature of the opinion as long as it was stated in a respectful manner and did not attack anyone it was allowed.
For some that meant of course being condescending and borderline rude to every opinion they didn't think was good. But for the most part it was still stated in a way that no one person was diparaged, nor any fan group or real person. The opinion itself was just lambasted in a less then steller way. At the time I joined the Mod team of of GW we were already seeing an uptick in this type of posting all across the forum and trying to chat with as many of those we could about watching the fine line they were walking. Then we got hit with an influx of members that was unprecedented and many of the new folks came from Forums where this kind of decency was not the norm but the exception. So they got really PO'ed when we would find them and let them know in no uncertain terms that type of disrespect and hostility would not be tolerated.
The only major obstacle we faced was actually finding the posts since very few would actually use the *report post* feature. Too often folks have this notion that they are being tattle tales if they use that. But as the Forum began reaching the millions in number of posts it became even more imparative that they did. Why? because the moderators can not possibly read every single post. It is up to the community itself to police itself.
Well over time that problem has just worsened rather then gotten better and the Forum was falling prey to more and more of this type of *general nastiness* over all of the forum and folks rather then report things, decided that if so and so could post that way so could they.
So GW was literally beginning to become one of the Forums it prided itself as the opposite of. Many folks still to this day say to me they won't come back to GW until the hostility and nastiness that prevades even the most mundane of conversations is gone or at least seems a LOT less.
So the owner of the Forum created the Community Vision Statement and laid out some standards he wanted for the forum and he hoped that those who called it home would step up to the challenge of making it their responsibilty to bring the forum back to a place that every opinion is welcome and when another is in disagreement they disagree with respect and an open mind.
Its a on-going slow process, because many folks are very emtionally invested in their aspect of fandom and do not see themselves or those who are in authority objectively. No one still wants to report anyone a lot of the time so many posts are still missed. As of today as I write this there are 6,095,458 posts on the forum and more being added every minute. So to expect the 8 moderators to read all of those posts and not get to many reports about all the ones that are rude, disrespectful or rule violations is going to make the whole process take a lot longer..... and it never helps when the reports are being made just because so and so annoyed so and so and all of a sudden it becomes a violation in themembers eyes but not to an objective third party. Then of course, since we didn't delete or reprimand the person we didn't do anything.
So while GW has always held itself to a high standard, not all of the members hold themselves to the same one or even to any standards.... and that is why our forum and probably a few others need a Community Vision Statement
Tame is a sci-fi junkie who loves to read, watch movies, and who has too
many pets. She grew up in the Midwest of the USA and now resides in sunny
Arizona, and drives her 19-year-old twins batty ... and still makes her
husband of 20 years laugh.
