Oh...Horrific Thing's..C'mon Spiritbro...send me some links man...lol 

I can only speak for the handful of forums I read here...but the only threads I've seen locked were ones in which someone who seemed to commit his every waking hour to "Rocking The Boat". (who shoulda been bitch-slapped and showed the door long ago IMHO).. Other than that...I've seen recent "heated" threads regarding the recent thumbnail policy go on for over a dozen pages....Again...I only read about a half dozen forums here so there may very well be other threads locked that I'm unaware of. So I can not completely agree, nor disagree with you regard the "Locking of every heated thread" and I've not been privy to any info regarding banning's.

 

    We go way back...you and I...and my post certainly wasn't meant to educate you on what is involved in managing a site of this magnitude...I do apologize if it came across that way...but I assure you that was not my intent....So you and I know there is a significant difference between "Heated, Opinionated Threads", and downright "Trolling and Harassment".

 

 My intent was to illustrate that a site of this size, comes with sizeable cost's. This Site,by it's very nature (An Art Site), is Graphic Intensive, with probably more daily "Image" uploads and downloads than probably any other site I frequent, and probably more than some of them combined. Then there's the store uploads and downloads, not to mention the Testers downloading EVERY Product for testing ranging from at least once, to sometimes several times per product.( And subsequent Re-uploads from the Vendors with each new Release Candidate )...Of course there are the images uploaded and downloaded to the Store Front, various forum threads,...free stuff and tutorials sections, .etc.

 

Add all that up, and that's an ass-load of bandwidth and transfer...that doesn't even include the more cache-able images like Forum headers and the Vendor's banners in rotation.

 

And that's just the bandwidth draw....Then there are the Server,Storage, and Back-Up costs...Programming, Research, Development, Software, Staff Employment, Gas and Travel cost's [Air Fare] to various Conventions like SIGGRAPH,.... Advertising and Promotion,etc...Along with Brick and Mortar cost's such as Leasing, Insurance, Computers (Networked), More Software, Office and Supply costs. and probably several other expenses I've left out like Attorney Retainers and Fees, Accountant's fees, Bookkeeping, Taxes, General Business Licensing cost's, right down the line from the guy who cut's the grass in the Summer...to the guy who plows the snow in the parking lot in the Winter.

 

The above is just the long version of "It's cost's a lot to Have,and Maintain a site of This Size" (Notice how I keep mentioning "Size"?)

 

Cost's that many might not even think about....and no matter how much the Store is bringing in, it's not enough to cover the expenses needed to Keep the site "As A FREE Resource". Those cost's must be off-set by "Other Sources" (Described in my earlier post).

 

So the "Increased Revenue"... IS  the Consolation for the members...it assures that the site perpetuates and is here as a "FREE" resource for Existing Members...as well as the newbie who signs up tomorrow.

 

Gone are the days when there was the "No Holds Barred" atmosphere.( Which is unfortunate... because we did have some fun times back then as well as witnessed horrific train wreck's...lol)

 

OKAY... here is where it all comes together....

 

It's Because of the site's success, that we have the "conditions" we have today.

 

Yeah...I remember Voting for Mods...lol...but I also remember that no one out-side the membership showed any interest in supporting the site.(Other than maybe Curious Labs, and a then  very small content provider known as DAZ )

 

No Software Developers would even return an e-mail or phone call....It wasn't until the numbers started to grow (From hard work and dedication from both Membership and Staff), that Developers would even show an interest at all. Then...We at least had a chance to convince some of them to take a chance on us....At first...it might be providing prizes for a contest...I mean...how much would that cost them?...Not much....But then they saw a significant increase in interest and sales of thier product(s).

 

And as their numbers grew...so did the site's membership.

 

Now we had a foot-hold, a bit of leverage...and learned how to convince other Developers of the potential value in the exposure and promotion of thier product(s) on a large site,in front of thousands of  "Like Minded " member's. Many of which would become their future customer base.

 

And as their numbers grew...so did the site's membership.

 

So...one could say we are victims of our own success...It's because of the relationships established with these other sources, that both the Developers and the Site Membership numbers have grown. The momentum of that growth has resulted in a sort of  "Symbiotic Co-Dependency"  between the Membership, The Site Owners, and the Developers. Without 1, the others suffer. Thus the motivation for each to "accommodate" the others.

 

Part of that "Accommodating" is what results in atmosphere we have today.As I mentioned...Some have the ability to "Self Censor", whether rules governing them are in place or not...and Still manage to have a heated, yet respectful debate. Others, either simply don't have that ability, or just choose not to use it.

 

And as the site's membership grew...so did the number of rules.

 

So...The "Disneyification" could be seen, at least in part, our own fault.

 

8 )

 

BTW..Who's Dillinger?

 

Tom

“The fact that no one understands you…Doesn’t make you an artist.”