Forum Moderators: “There goes the neighborhood.”

[davidd]

[quote=”DavidCMurray”]davidd, you promised . . . “being that David Murray is now forum moderator I must bid you all farewell . . .”
[/quote]

David Murray

your right. I was going to leave but costaricabill informed me he would be bringing his level headed moderation skills into the mix

which would balance the weakness on the other side.:D:D:D

let me end this buy saying

Merry Chr.. oopss sorry david

Happy Christmas

[sprite]

I am pretty sure David Murray does not like to see or read or my posts but so far, I have not given him a reason to “moderate” me according to the rules as I understand them……and it gives me pleasure to know that since he is a moderator, he must read my posts whether he likes them or not.
The fact that he responds to some of them I attribute to my ability to irritate him.

I hope that forum rules remain broad regarding subject matter. We are going through extraordinary times and as I see no conflict of forum purpose in discussing extraordinary events among ourselves as North Americans.

[DavidCMurray]

sprite, it is not the case that I “must” read what you write. In fact, in the main I do not which I’m sure you can understand.

Today is a rare exception.

[sstarkey]

[quote=”aguirrewar”]I second that motion[/quote]

I third the motion.

Motion carried, please….???

The average attention span of the average person has gone down to nearly ZERO since the dawn of the Internet.

If I have to re-type a response I carefully crafted just because of some arbitrarily short ‘time out’ rule on a web site, I get more than a little irritated.

PLEASE, Scott, could you make an adjustment here? Thanks!

Sarah

[sprite]

[quote=”DavidCMurray”]sprite, it is not the case that I “must” read what you write. In fact, in the main I do not which I’m sure you can understand.

Today is a rare exception.
[/quote]

Of course, today is an exception.;)
Just as all the other responses have been.

[costaricabill]

[quote=”sprite”][quote=”DavidCMurray”]sprite, it is not the case that I “must” read what you write. In fact, in the main I do not which I’m sure you can understand.

Today is a rare exception.
[/quote]

Of course, today is an exception.;)
Just as all the other responses have been.[/quote]

Actually Sprite, YOU are the exception, and I say that with equal degrees of levity and seriousness!

How else can you explain that both David and I, being at seemingly opposite ends of the political spectrum, each find most of your epistles and diatribes to be meaningless drivel that drone on and on about what seem to many (most) of us to be the same repetitiously mundane issues.

Obviously those issues are very important to you and you host a passionate interest in them, but I’m pretty sure that you are in the minority on this forum as well as in life.

Rather than get into it all over again and end up talking about the political implications of gated communities – here is what I believe:

I honestly believe that if someone (or anyone else that is as intelligent as you obviously are) really, really despises (hates) his/her political system and government as much as you obviously do, then I believe that person could (would) find some way to get out of that country and go live elsewhere. I respect your right to feel like you do and the passion of your belief – but I, and others, have an equal right to disagree with you without the vitriol that is found in many (most) of your entries on this forum which I understand was originated to be about the pros and cons of visiting and living in Costa Rica, not about how much someone hates living elsewhere.

You know where you want to go – so do it, make your break, let it happen! It can’t be that you are hanging around where ever you are hanging around trying to make more money, because you believe that money is worthless and is printed by a government that has no right to tax you and all of it – the government, the money, the taxes, etc. are illegal and immoral. That government and the money they print can’t possibly be the vehicle you plan on using to make your escape – I know you have a better plan that doesn’t involve having money, or its equivalent. The time is now, get out of there – you want to do it, so do it! And then, like many of us, at least you will be in a happier place and will probably find yourself enjoying life more and worrying about things like that far less often.

“Just Do it!”

[sprite]

[quote=”costaricabill”][quote=”sprite”][quote=”DavidCMurray”]sprite, it is not the case that I “must” read what you write. In fact, in the main I do not which I’m sure you can understand.

Today is a rare exception.
[/quote]

Of course, today is an exception.;)
Just as all the other responses have been.[/quote]

Actually Sprite, YOU are the exception, and I say that with equal degrees of levity and seriousness!

How else can you explain that both David and I, being at seemingly opposite ends of the political spectrum, each find most of your epistles and diatribes to be meaningless drivel that drone on and on about what seem to many (most) of us to be the same repetitiously mundane issues.

Obviously those issues are very important to you and you host a passionate interest in them, but I’m pretty sure that you are in the minority on this forum as well as in life.

Rather than get into it all over again and end up talking about the political implications of gated communities – here is what I believe:

I honestly believe that if someone (or anyone else that is as intelligent as you obviously are) really, really despises (hates) his/her political system and government as much as you obviously do, then I believe that person could (would) find some way to get out of that country and go live elsewhere. I respect your right to feel like you do and the passion of your belief – but I, and others, have an equal right to disagree with you without the vitriol that is found in many (most) of your entries on this forum which I understand was originated to be about the pros and cons of visiting and living in Costa Rica, not about how much someone hates living elsewhere.

You know where you want to go – so do it, make your break, let it happen! It can’t be that you are hanging around where ever you are hanging around trying to make more money, because you believe that money is worthless and is printed by a government that has no right to tax you and all of it – the government, the money, the taxes, etc. are illegal and immoral. That government and the money they print can’t possibly be the vehicle you plan on using to make your escape – I know you have a better plan that doesn’t involve having money, or its equivalent. The time is now, get out of there – you want to do it, so do it! And then, like many of us, at least you will be in a happier place and will probably find yourself enjoying life more and worrying about things like that far less often.

“Just Do it!”
[/quote]

Good advice, Costaricabill, but you don’t know my circumstances.

In any case, I am delighted to hear that I have irritated both right and left because that means I have been successful in leaving the right-left paradigm created to distract us. (this is why you find no meaning in what I am saying …because it doesn’t fit the parameters of the false world you have been brainwashed to believe in)

You should try to leave that false paradigm.. It helps focus on what really is happening and what really matters.

[costaricabill]

[quote=”sprite”]
Good advice, Costaricabill, but you don’t know my circumstances.

In any case, I am delighted to hear that I have irritated both right and left because that means I have been successful in leaving the right-left paradigm created to distract us. (this is why you find no meaning in what I am saying …because it doesn’t fit the parameters of the false world you have been brainwashed to believe in)

You should try to leave that false paradigm.. It helps focus on what really is happening and what really matters.[/quote]

“There you go again!”
Ronald Reagan

Actually Sprite, my family and I live a very good, happy life in what you may perceive as my “false world”. And suffice it to say, that is probably the norm for most others on this forum and surrounding you in the “real world” as well.

I truly am sorry that you are so troubled and unhappy and suspicious of anything and everyone out of your “norm”. I hope that 2013 brings you some happiness and cheer, but I doubt that it will.

[Andrew]

[quote=”sstarkey”]If I have to re-type a response I carefully crafted just because of some arbitrarily short ‘time out’ rule on a web site, I get more than a little irritated.

PLEASE, Scott, could you make an adjustment here? Thanks!

Sarah
[/quote]

The [url=https://www.welovecostarica.com/members/cfmbb/messages.cfm?threadid=DA1E7EFE-24E8-5ED2-F1A1E8337391A36C]Discussion Forum guidelines here[/url] do explain that:

“To avoid losing everything when the system “times out”, it’s always best to type up your response in some kind of text editor on your own computer first and then when you are completely finished, simply copy and paste it into the relevant Forum thread.”

This website is based on a paid subscription system (which I have obviously changed) but the timeout feature can not be altered…

Scott

[sprite]

[quote=”costaricabill”][quote=”sprite”]
Good advice, Costaricabill, but you don’t know my circumstances.

In any case, I am delighted to hear that I have irritated both right and left because that means I have been successful in leaving the right-left paradigm created to distract us. (this is why you find no meaning in what I am saying …because it doesn’t fit the parameters of the false world you have been brainwashed to believe in)

You should try to leave that false paradigm.. It helps focus on what really is happening and what really matters.[/quote]

“There you go again!”
Ronald Reagan

Actually Sprite, my family and I live a very good, happy life in what you may perceive as my “false world”. And suffice it to say, that is probably the norm for most others on this forum and surrounding you in the “real world” as well.

I truly am sorry that you are so troubled and unhappy and suspicious of anything and everyone out of your “norm”. I hope that 2013 brings you some happiness and cheer, but I doubt that it will.[/quote]

I am not unhappy. I suspect my life situation is unfairly better than most. And this is why I am a little troubled..as you should be too. This life of relative luxury and cloistered peace is maintained by an unsustainable and unfair system. The difference is that I know this and you do not…yet. Ignorance is bliss as long as it lasts but things are coming to a head soon. I am only pointing this out to anyone who listens.

[guru]

I run a fairly active public (unregistered users) forum on different subject matter. Generally I do not need to moderate very often (we have a good group that likes polite discussion). However, in just the past couple years we have had to add various filters to keep out the riff-raff.

As a “family friendly forum” we have word filters for the worst cases and these include spam words for certain “enhancement” products. The list is not all inclusive but you cannot get away with the f word or common racial slurs.

We also use an anti forum spam service (stopforumspam.com) to check every poster. Known forum spammers (its a business) are sent scooting.

There are other proprietary filters and a banning system (only had to permanently ban ONE person in 15 years)

NOW. . . these systems being cold dumb machine programs have zero flexibility and zero tolerance (except for what little is built in). They do not edit, they just popup a warning on posting that you cannot use that language OR you are not welcome here. The messages are polite but terse. If you give too much information then people (most often spammers) will work around the filter.

SO, you can have moderators who may take your word choices in context (perhaps removing the one word) OR you can have a machine that is VERY strict and tosses your entire post.

LANGUAGE: On a related issue I had a forum operator recently write to me and wanted my opinion on a dirty jokes page that the previous operator had setup. The forum’s sponsoring group’s Board of Directors had voted to remove the page as it was not something they wanted and many felt uncomfortable about. I agreed that it had no place on that particular (metal craft) forum.

A few very vocal users complained saying that “every successful forum” has a page like this. I disagreed with this statement as well (there is none here). I pointed out that there are forums for EVERYTHING on the internet and every point of view. IF people wanted to post dirty jokes then they should go to a forum where that is the theme.

Part of my problem with a dirty jokes page/area is that there is often spillover on other pages. Someone forgets which page they are on OR thinks they are on the “dirty” page and posts something inappropriate. Jokes and stories of this type also tend to become racist (most are sexist to start with), some attack religion, other political labels. THEN someone feels this is a personal attack and you end up with a flame war.

When a flame war breaks out all a moderator can do is trash the entire thread and then nobody is happy. There is always some statement that illicit a response of “you dumb [party name, racial, sexual or ethnic slur]” and everything goes down hill from there.

There is an old saying that in business you should never talk about religion or politics as it will come to no good end. This should also be followed with “If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen (discussion)”.

I have some VERY definite political opinions that many do not agree with so I try to avoid discussing them except with friends of like mind. I can also generally skewer someone’s bad logic thus making it SEEM like a personal attack when in fact it is just an attack on their intelligence. . . Well, there you have it . . you might THINK that is a personal attack. So, it is best to stay out of public political or religious discussions. But its tough to do.

Play nice – no personal attacks.

[Author]

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