There's been a lot of criticism of the rules and staff here recently and I thought I’d take few minutes and try to post a “View from the other side”. I freely admit things can go smoother here but I wanted to share a viewpoint of things from another point of view for your consideration.
As Mods here our primary job is to try to keep the site as peaceful and drama free as possible. Unfortunately sometimes that involves moving or locking threads, deleting posts and trying to redirect discussions back in line. None of us like doing any of these things and only do it when we feel we have to. At the core, all of us mods are just saddle hunting gear fanatics at heart who’ve enjoyed and appreciated the content on this forum for years. Because of that we’ve agreed to volunteer our time to try help @redsquirrel out as a way of giving back to this site and the community that has helped us out so much. I’m sure I speak for all of these guys when I say I come here primarily for the camaraderie with fellow saddle hunters, not to have to police the behavior of fellow members and (dare I say) friends, even though I recognize that is part of the role I have accepted.
The rules established here are intended entirely to keep the forum a peaceful, enjoyable experience for the users. When I started here there were only a few basic rules, among them, No discussion of Religion or Politics. Why those particular subjects? Well it’s pretty obvious that these are potentially polarizing topics which can elicit emotional responses and conflict as well as having nothing to do with the intent of the forum base topic. The evolution of those basic rules to those we have now have occurred in direct response to the evolution of this site and things that have cropped up and created disturbances here.
When the site was formed there were no commercial options for saddle hunting and the focus of the site was simply a bunch of guys sharing ideas and debating the merits and possible issues associated with them. As time has passed and interest in saddle hunting has increased, more and more commercial options have been developed. I think we all agree that is good thing.
As saddle hunting has grown the forum is continually attempting to evolve its rules as well to best serve its members while still trying to best maintain the congenial nature of this forum. Are we perfect? Admittedly no, but unfortunately the world does not exist in a black/white, right/wrong environment. Most of the issues fall into the grey areas between intent of the rules and absolute compliance. None of us mods are professional mediators or psychologists. All we can do is try our best to interpret the grey area between rule intent and the black/white rule enforcement and attempt to do the best we can to head off confrontations before they start. We are not trying silence any vendors nor are we condoning any members taking unwarranted or unfair shots at any vendor.
In the way of explanation, the rule banning vendor interaction about their own products in the general discussion areas is intended to provide areas where the general membership can provide honest feedback about products without the fear of getting flamed by a vendor who perceives the feedback as unfair or as a potential threat to revenue. At the same time we would expect the membership feedback about products in these areas to be of the nature where they are not directly seeking vendor input or inflammatory enough in nature to try to goad a vendor into response. To be clear, we are not banning vendors from posting in the non-vendor areas. We recognize and value the opinions of these veteran saddle hunters to help members move in a positive direction in their saddle hunting journey. I believe all of us mods would thank these veteran saddle hunters for their help in our personal saddle hunting journey’s.
The vendor area was created as a place where members could go seek out vendors input on their products and get the first hand, inside knowledge only a product insider can provide. At this point it has been decided access to vendors in this area is a service that the forum is providing similar to the classifieds. Hence the membership requirement to post here. Remember, even if you choose not to register you can still follow any of the conversations here and maybe find the answers to your questions.
In my personal opinion, if you’re a saddle hunter vendor, $15 a year is a small price to pay to be able to interact directly with your customer base. If you’re a general member it’s a perk of membership to be able to seek direct input from a saddle vendor pro.
Is the system perfect? . . . No. Are we trying to fix things? . . .Yes. Please remember though that all of us (including Redsquirrel) have real jobs and real lives outside of this forum and any changes takes time. Every change has a risk of adversely affecting something else and we need to try to take those possible ramifications into consideration before just blindly pressing forward. We realize we will never be able to make everyone happy but we are trying our best to make the majority happy. Please bear with as we continue on with this difficult task.
Thanks for taking the time to read these lengthy ramblings of a mildly frustrated mod.
As Mods here our primary job is to try to keep the site as peaceful and drama free as possible. Unfortunately sometimes that involves moving or locking threads, deleting posts and trying to redirect discussions back in line. None of us like doing any of these things and only do it when we feel we have to. At the core, all of us mods are just saddle hunting gear fanatics at heart who’ve enjoyed and appreciated the content on this forum for years. Because of that we’ve agreed to volunteer our time to try help @redsquirrel out as a way of giving back to this site and the community that has helped us out so much. I’m sure I speak for all of these guys when I say I come here primarily for the camaraderie with fellow saddle hunters, not to have to police the behavior of fellow members and (dare I say) friends, even though I recognize that is part of the role I have accepted.
The rules established here are intended entirely to keep the forum a peaceful, enjoyable experience for the users. When I started here there were only a few basic rules, among them, No discussion of Religion or Politics. Why those particular subjects? Well it’s pretty obvious that these are potentially polarizing topics which can elicit emotional responses and conflict as well as having nothing to do with the intent of the forum base topic. The evolution of those basic rules to those we have now have occurred in direct response to the evolution of this site and things that have cropped up and created disturbances here.
When the site was formed there were no commercial options for saddle hunting and the focus of the site was simply a bunch of guys sharing ideas and debating the merits and possible issues associated with them. As time has passed and interest in saddle hunting has increased, more and more commercial options have been developed. I think we all agree that is good thing.
As saddle hunting has grown the forum is continually attempting to evolve its rules as well to best serve its members while still trying to best maintain the congenial nature of this forum. Are we perfect? Admittedly no, but unfortunately the world does not exist in a black/white, right/wrong environment. Most of the issues fall into the grey areas between intent of the rules and absolute compliance. None of us mods are professional mediators or psychologists. All we can do is try our best to interpret the grey area between rule intent and the black/white rule enforcement and attempt to do the best we can to head off confrontations before they start. We are not trying silence any vendors nor are we condoning any members taking unwarranted or unfair shots at any vendor.
In the way of explanation, the rule banning vendor interaction about their own products in the general discussion areas is intended to provide areas where the general membership can provide honest feedback about products without the fear of getting flamed by a vendor who perceives the feedback as unfair or as a potential threat to revenue. At the same time we would expect the membership feedback about products in these areas to be of the nature where they are not directly seeking vendor input or inflammatory enough in nature to try to goad a vendor into response. To be clear, we are not banning vendors from posting in the non-vendor areas. We recognize and value the opinions of these veteran saddle hunters to help members move in a positive direction in their saddle hunting journey. I believe all of us mods would thank these veteran saddle hunters for their help in our personal saddle hunting journey’s.
The vendor area was created as a place where members could go seek out vendors input on their products and get the first hand, inside knowledge only a product insider can provide. At this point it has been decided access to vendors in this area is a service that the forum is providing similar to the classifieds. Hence the membership requirement to post here. Remember, even if you choose not to register you can still follow any of the conversations here and maybe find the answers to your questions.
In my personal opinion, if you’re a saddle hunter vendor, $15 a year is a small price to pay to be able to interact directly with your customer base. If you’re a general member it’s a perk of membership to be able to seek direct input from a saddle vendor pro.
Is the system perfect? . . . No. Are we trying to fix things? . . .Yes. Please remember though that all of us (including Redsquirrel) have real jobs and real lives outside of this forum and any changes takes time. Every change has a risk of adversely affecting something else and we need to try to take those possible ramifications into consideration before just blindly pressing forward. We realize we will never be able to make everyone happy but we are trying our best to make the majority happy. Please bear with as we continue on with this difficult task.
Thanks for taking the time to read these lengthy ramblings of a mildly frustrated mod.
