2735 Closing the circolo

Hello Ronald,

Hmmm not sure if I'd go that far. Though the continuous ranting of some members is annoying, I wouldn't like to shut it down altogether. I think there should be a place where members can form some sort of online friendship (yup, some seem to spend their whole lives on here...) and chat about other stuff.

But I agree with your suggestion of deleting older posts on that thread, perhaps every 2 weeks, as they're not of great value.

If those who keep on ranting wouldn't be able to use that space, they'd try & do it on the main forum - which is what we're hoping to avoid.

It's a shame that there is a very small number of members who keep digging again & again just because they didn't get what they want.

Maybe we should become a bit more open about those who had warnings and tell other people why if they come to their rescue without knowing facts?

What do the others think?

S

the problem is that people seem to jump to conclusions. i had a perfectly good reason to ban wishful thinker (swearing twice) but I didn't.

as i said I wansn't even near a computer. The result however was that everyone got on a high hourse. The problem is that some people seem to have turned "annoy the moderators" in a nice little game for them and I really don't have the time for that.

Hi Ronald,

I think the Circolo, if used correctly, is a great resource for the good members of this forum.

I agree that the sniping and arguing and general negativity of some members is getting tedious at this stage. I would favour strong action to end this as the softly softly approach has obviously not worked. I do not know if shutting the Circolo down would be the right action though, as this would impact on more than just the few guilty persons on the site.

The one thing I would stress though is that the Forum is not there to serve the needs of a few people who seem hellbent on staying in control, nevermind how badly they treat other forum members in the process.

It should also be pointed out that the Forum is not a democracy, except insomuch as all members agree to play along. If unilateral action is required by the site administrator to restore order, so be it.

Maybe I am too hardline, but I honestly feel that the Forum as it is now is not a particularly pleasant place to be, and we are losing good threads amongst all the rubbish that is being posted, and good threads are also being hijacked by the same people time and time again.

Sano I agree with you. I think we are loosing interesting members and threads because they can't put up with all the noise.

I think the only way to put things under control (especially now that we have a clean set of rules) is to close the circolo - and deal with the noise in a clear manner. Hopefully this will either lead people to leave the forums in peace or behave like more normal members.

Another option would be to ban people but that really does not work because people can always assume a different username and cause more trouble.

Ronald.

[QUOTE=ronald]....
Another option would be to ban people but that really does not work because people can always assume a different username and cause more trouble.

Ronald.[/QUOTE]

Very true. I think this happened yesterday when WT thought he was banned... at least it's what I suspect.

It could get very tricky when those who are being warned then let off steam on the main forum, though. As you said above, they can always return in another disguise...

If we clamp down more stringently on anyone, I think we should give other member the reasons, though. Otherwise the ranting will never stop...

Agree with Sano that at the moment it's not very nice on here and new members might be put off straight away! The continuing self-righteousness is getting very tiresome indeed...

Cheers,
Stephanie

[QUOTE=Iona]Very true. I think this happened yesterday when WT thought he was banned... at least it's what I suspect.

It could get very tricky when those who are being warned then let off steam on the main forum, though. As you said above, they can always return in another disguise...

If we clamp down more stringently on anyone, I think we should give other member the reasons, though. Otherwise the ranting will never stop...

Agree with Sano that at the moment it's not very nice on here and new members might be put off straight away! The continuing self-righteousness is getting very tiresome indeed...

Cheers,
Stephanie[/QUOTE]

On another forum I used to frequent, they set up a separate 'Banned Members' area - banned members could only see this part of the forum, and it was a place where the administrator could announce who had been banned and why. The administrator also invited banned members to state if they felt their being barred was unfair and why - sometimes people were reinstated.

Ronald - given what you have said above - I second your motion to remove the Circolo.

Just logged on,
I feel that banning of individual members will cause uproar, closing the Circolo will cause uproar, and arguments will break out all over the forum whatever is done, so, take the bull by the horns and close it, BUT, be certain why this is being done, and PLEASE make it plain and very simply explain why this is being done, then react to any negativity, we can save this forum, but there will be a few members who will have to either leave or be removed.

I just wonder if closing the section would lead to people carrying on the same conversations in other areas of the Forum. I know they do that anyway to some extent, but perhaps its useful to keep it as a sort of 'lightening conductor'. I guess newbies probably don't go there much, so it may be a useful place to covertly quarantine the more extreme posts.