Raise up, ye heroes!

[DzM]

Hello fellow Medusiariates -

Your Puppet Masters and Janitor need some guidance.

These fora don't exist as a free-association chaos. At least that's not their intent. The PMs and I make an effort to enforce this, but sometimes the enforcement is a little more haphazard than we'd like. Some things are allowed to persist that shouldn't (abundant discussions of politics, the never-ending discussion of football, etc) because of their popularity and interest to people. Other threads that generate popular interest are snipped (ref. MissWalshy's recent thread on infidelity). The PMs and Janitor will sometimes remove posts and/or threads that in our opinions seem to have no real value AND are off topic (or are just particularly vapid).

Our snipping of threads and messages sometimes gets us called fascists (or more recently: "facists"). It gets us called censors and worse. We're fine with this - not all decisions will be popular. We recognize that we're not always going to be seen as impartial or everyone's friends.

We make an honest effort to be fair, but some people have quite publicly voiced their dissatisfaction with the state of things. There are several people who have left due to what they've privately described as the "avalanche of irrelevant crap." There is a general perception that the overall quality of discussion has deteriorated over the last year. There is a camp that holds that the PMs and Janitor are too controlling, too arbitrary in our enforcement of the poorly advertised guidelines, and of course another camp that holds that we maintain a light touch that has allowed the fora to thrive.

So what help from you, The Heroes, do we seek? We want you to tell us if we are still running things in a way that best serves the community's needs. How do you want us to handle things?

I see that we have a few options:

o We continue to run things the way we have. The PMs and Janitor use our best judgment. It's sometimes a bit arbitrary, and people sometimes feel singled out or abused. Generally this system has worked, but can also easily be seen as capricious and unballanced.

o We let the Misc forum become the chaotic realm some people have advocated it should be, but we reduce the message retention to thirty days (or less). Any thread with more than thirty days since the last activity gets reaped automatically. We would also continue to eliminate harassing messages and spam, but would vastly broaden what we consider "worthwhile" subject matter.

o We remove the PM/Janitor "personal choice filter" and strictly enforce "on subject" guidelines for all the fora. If the thread has nothing to do with The Pogues, the thread gets nixed. No Football thread; no politics rumbling; no good food. Things would clamped down much more tightly, but at least people would know what to expect.

What kind of fora do you want to see here? What would you find too draconian? What would you find too liberal? We understand that a fora that follows extremely strict rules will atrophy and die, but a forum where any subject or message is acceptable will drown in its own effluence. Let us know where you think the line should be. MacRua, Zuzana and I would very much like to know your thoughts.

Please note: We're looking for an honest conversation here. If you like the way things have been handled the last three years, don't be afraid to say so. If you're not happy, don't be afraid to say so. We're not looking for stroking of our egos, nor are we looking to only hear from people that are unhappy. We want an honest and accurate gauge of what people as a whole want to see.

[Johan From Sweden]

DzM
I´ll go for this:
o We continue to run things the way we have. We apply our best judgment. It's sometimes a bit arbitrary, and people sometimes feel singled out or abused. Generally though this system has worked.

Think your doing a great job. It´s fun to see the ativity off the day and i must say i learn things all the day about music and other things.

I´m just a new "registred membe"r but i´w been reading this forum for the past 2 years.

Thanks to all who contributes to this Forum, keep up the god work.

Over and out.
Have a good nights sleep everyone. (or a nice day in other parts off the world)
Johan

[Johan From Sweden]

Jesus what a spelling......... Sorry.

I´ll try better next time. maybe not...

[rumsodomyandthelash]

I like it the way it is , its a fact of life that not everyone will be happy with everything all the time but i have to say in my short time here i have found this forum to be a friendly and interesting place and for me, my main reason for being here is to discuss and learn about my favourite band which i am free to do pretty much as i like, i appreciate anything else may or may not be relevant and i have started threads that have gone missing but i except there has to be some kind of order here so i am fine with it as it is
Thanks for asking

[left]

[ok, sorry for my spaghetti-english.]

I must admit that I'm a pretty new user of this forum, but as an Internet Addict ( ) I've frequented and I still frequent several forums, with really differents ground-topics and differents kind of users.
Now, there's one thing that soon or later I've seen in ALL this forums, and it's exactly what we're talking about here:
Supposed arbitrary moderation / Worse quality of discussions since "the Great Old Times" / Too many (off topic) posts by some users
It's nothing new, or unbelievable, or whatever.. it's just a stage of a forum's life..
I think that, first of all, it's necessary renounce to try to satisfy everyone, the "let-the-people-write-whatever-they-want" philosophy doesn't work.
But neither works the zero-tolerance system, people need to do other things than talking about the Pogues sometimes.
Then there's just one solution, continue in the same way as before, someone judge what can and what can't be posted.
No, it's not really democratic, but usually those who write about 'internet democracy' are the first "facists"

[Christine]

Don't fret, you're doing just fine. And much appreciated as usual.

It's only to be expected that you run into the above difficulties. Any board can become a victim of its own popularity. The more we post, the better we get to know each other and hence want to chat about mundane unPoguesish, more private things. Not to worry, the more puritanically-minded can just ignore those threads. It's fair enough that you want to stick those into a particular space, such as Misc. As long as it's clearly labelled nobody forces anyone to read it, and general banter helps (me at least) through many a boring working day. I don't know if volume becomes a technical problem but would be happy to go with your judgment there. Thirty days seems fair enough - anyone taking longer holidays than that makes me break out in green spots of envy anyway.

Personally, I would only censor direct insults and complete inanities and let the rest embarass their writers. I would have let Miss Walshy's threat stand but then I did miss the juicy bits and can't judge how offensive they were, but as she's a regular I'd give her the benefit of the doubt.

I also think that much of The Pogues' appeal is in their willingness to tackle politics, religion, and everyday fun, and that includes good food... I wouldn't want a too anorakish restriction on debates. Fascinating as second Japanese imprint of faulty-pink-sticker-limited-edition thingee may be...

In sum: run things as before. Great job, all three of you, and I'd still buy any of you "facists" a drink and a Yorkshire pudding should our paths ever cross.

[Eric V]

I love it the way it is.

[territa]

Yes, the fora is suffering from "growing pains".

The first time I logged onto this site there were, maybe, three thread categories! All of the threads were started by DzM or MacRua. I was much too intimidated to post anything, much less ask something relevant.

Most of the current members are mature, entertaining, interesting, friendly and intelligent folk, whatever the thread topic. We are, after all, fans of The Pogues. We just happen to span generations, and the globe.

I think it is important to continue to maintain the decorum that has set Medusa apart from the rest of the net. It has evolved, and will continue to grow, but it doesn't have to stray.

Keep up the good work.

[LittleCupcakes]

Steady as she goes, janitorial crew.

[soulfinger]

I think the gaffer and the mods do a difficult job very well. Most of us get riled up about stuff from time to time but usually treat each other with sufficient respect for the management not to have to intervene. Occasionally we are invaded by an eejit like gogofishypower or inmyliverpoolhome and they are dealt with appropriately after (I think) quite a bit of soul searching by DZM. I don't think this would be such a happy place if anarchy reigned. I, too, say steady as she goes.

[firehazard]

o We continue to run things the way we have. The PMs and Janitor use our best judgment. It's sometimes a bit arbitrary, and people sometimes feel singled out or abused. Generally this system has worked, but can also easily be seen as capricious and unballanced.

As you're asking, DzM, then this is the best way forward as far as I'm concerned. I reckon the three of you do a great job. And on the whole I've always been impressed by the way you deal with problems when they arise. Sometimes threads or postings, fun though they may seem at the time, just don't merit a long shelf-life; and in these cases, "best judgment" is probably the best way forward. And we need to remember that you do it all for love, of course. Keep up the good work.

And don't worry about being called fascists from time to time. It happens to the best of us. And when you're called "facists", then to be honest you don't need to worry too much about it.

[Irish Rover]

o We continue to run things the way we have. The PMs and Janitor use our best judgment. It's sometimes a bit arbitrary, and people sometimes feel singled out or abused. Generally this system has worked, but can also easily be seen as capricious and unballanced.

I think the way it is at the moment is fine.

As the saying goes; You can't please all of the people, all of the time but i think the janitors have been doing quite a difficult job very well.

[CraigBatty]

Yarrr, play on, yez are grand. Splice the mainbrace, haul anchor and heave away me hearties! She's a grand old raft, this Medusa of our'n, avast!

[MissWalshy]

DzM

You put it in such a lovely way who could not agree and say "keep it the way it is" in fear that their lovely forum will go to pot.

The way you run every other section of this forum is brilliant topics get merged as it makes it easier for the reader, where the problem lies is at the misc section,.. you have never been a fan of it.. and you make that quite clearly known. If that is the case then as it is YOUR forum why not delete the whole section rather then offending people when singling out their posts? Why is it so bad that there should be a topic about cheating or a topic about a cocaine drink? I mean what really is the problem? You say it's off topic.. but off topic to what exactly? I know you wish their not to be streams of personal conversations through threads and that's understandable.. but deleting a whole thread because of this.. is simply not on. People as I understand were enjoying the light relief off that topic. Sometimes, just sometimes.. people can't talk about what song they're listening to all day long. It gets boring.

Now, I joined Medusa in August last year. And since joining.. I've met some great friends etc. I like most firstly joined this site to find out more information on our favourite band and informative it was. But why should it stop there? Why not make it into a bigger and better community? Surely that is what you are trying to do? Make this web page the best available for the pogues? Which undoubtedly it is.. but why not better? Why not more Medusans? Why not more posters? Why should it be one post an hour? Why not one every couple of minutes? I would like to use the misc section to talk about day to day things and not see the last 8 out of my last 10 threads thrown into threads for no threads. as you probably know that hardly gets a look in. Why not delete misc threads after thirty days if no one has replied? it's only general? Why not delete the last 6000 songs on what song are you listening to? Who honestly is going to sit through and read the last SIX thousand.. and who really cares?

I am sure that this post and rant won't really matter. .. as you will do as you choose in the end undoubtedly.

Perhaps DzM/PM's when walking into the misc section you should take off your hat and your shoes and relax a bit and take it for what it is.

Walshy

Ps. If you really hate me then blame Territa it's her fault.. she found me moaning on both FOS and BB site about the lack of a Pogues forum and showed me the light to here. Her fault, blame her!

Love you Terry

pps. I am quite happy to quite happy to cut out the insults to Niall et al even though I enjoy it!

[Mick Molloy]

I like the way the forum works now so no need to change for me