Quote - If out-of-line individual members are the problem, how is deleting whole threads a solution? All you are doing is wiping the slate clean for those members every time, and the forum suffers because whole discussions disappear. Most people never see what comments lead to a thread getting deleted, one minute it is interesting, next minute it is gone, with no indication of what happened in between or who ruined it for everyone else.

The current pattern of moderators sweeping all the dirt under the rug (or chopping dirty patches out of the rug) isn't working, the forum is poorer for it. Sure, there's less visible conflict, but there's no life either. It's no wonder contributors like Joe Public are looking elsewhere.

Name and shame the troublemakers, leaving the offending posts as evidence, and let the forum return to being a place where people can discuss stuff.

My job is to keep the forums clean and friendly to ALL users. That means removing derogatory posts, off-topic threads (such as why you think yahoo or facebook or DAZ or this/that movie sucks), arguments, etc. If the majority of a thread consists of that then the whole thread gets removed. If there's any real useful information in it then I try to keep the thread intact. 

For some reason, many people seem to think this is the place they can come to get on their soap boxes and air their dirty laundry over the business practices of other companies. It's not. 

I've stated repeatedly that this is not the customer service complaint department for Smith Micro, or DAZ, or any other business. Your ill will towards other companies for whatever reasons do not belong here. This forum is intended to discuss the functionality of the Poser software itself and the content that functions in it. Smith Micro's official Poser forum is at RuntimeDNA. If you have complaints about Smith Micro, you can take those complaints to that site, where they have a far greater chance of being seen by somebody that can actually do something about it. No one here can do anything about your billing issues or invalid serial numbers or your feelings of getting shafted over upgrade prices, or any of that. That's between you and Smith Micro. Renderosity has nothing to do with it.  

These are the real reasons why many people leave the forum, because they're sick of reading all the mudslinging that goes on about other companies and other users. It's not allowed at any other forum, so what would justify it being allowed here? There is no justification for it. 

I've also stated repeatedly that I'm not your personal editor. It's not my problem if you're incapable of following Renderosity's ToS. If I see a post that contains derogatory, inflamatory or argumentative wording, I'm deleting the whole post. I'm not going to spend hours of my time editing your temper tantrums because you haven't learned how to discuss an issue like a mature adult and keep your posts on topic and within the ToS. I don't get paid for this, it's mostly volunteer with a few perks. I offered to take over the job because BasicWiz was leaving and no one else seemed to be interested in it, which I understand now why that is. I've tried to be fair to everyone and make it clear what is and is not acceptable, but that doesn't seem to work either. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.  

I haven't removed that many threads to be honest, and most of the ones I have removed, I posted a warning in the thread first, but as usual it was ignored and the arguing continues. So the whole thread gets axed. 

It's abundantly clear to me now why BasicWiz left and I have to wonder why he stayed as long as he did. I'm seriously considering doing the same since no one seems to respect a moderator's position and instead seem to have delusions that we're out to censor them. 

Thanks for making me derail another thread. So get back to the original discussion please. 

 

~Shane