Management, have you ever considered an election to elect moderators?

[frigidweirdo]

Now THAT would be interesting! I nominate mudwhistle

It gets interesting without elections sometimes.

 

[DudleySmith]

I sorely miss US Politics Online

That was a good forum.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

That was a good forum.

Thanks - Pete and I were the admins for about 4 years till the new owner came along and within a week virtually all the staff quit. It lasted for a few more years with only maybe 50 active members at most after we all left

 

[DudleySmith]

Thanks - Pete and I were the admins for about 4 years till the new owner came along and within a week virtually all the staff quit. It lasted for a few more years with only maybe 50 active members at most after we all left

I got the impression the original guy got sick or something and gave it up, Joe something, a conservative. There was a site called 'Political Crossfire' or something, not the current one, that had a huge membership, but it disappeared suddenly and with no explanation that I can find. It was a long time ago and I might not even remember the name right, but it was larger than any other I knew of at the time. It's History Forum was well moderated, as was the Politics Online's History Forum was, not a lot of conspiracy theory rubbish allowed.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I got the impression the original guy got sick or something and gave it up, Joe something, a conservative. There was a site called 'Political Crossfire' or something, not the current one, that had a huge membership, but it disappeared suddenly and with no explanation that I can find. It was a long time ago and I might not even remember the name right, but it was larger than any other I knew of at the time. It's History Forum was well moderated, as was the Politics Online's History Forum was, not a lot of conspiracy theory rubbish allowed.

Pete and I ran USpoliticsonline around 2005ish - 2010.
In 2010 a different person bought it, I know their name...but don't want to say it.
They ran it into the ground.
When Pete and I ran it it was close to the size of this forum.
We were after quality not quantity, way-way more rules than here... people were not even allowed to call each other names.
The history forum as well as the Formal Debate were highly moderated. We had college professors, linguistic experts, even some state Senators posted there.

 

[Oddball]

Pete and I ran USpoliticsonline around 2005ish - 2010.
In 2010 a different person bought it, I know their name...but don't want to say it.
They ran it into the ground.
When Pete and I ran it it was close to the size of this forum.
We were after quality not quantity, way-way more rules than here... people were not even allowed to call each other names.
The history forum as well as the Formal Debate were highly moderated. We had college professors, linguistic experts, even some state Senators posted there.

There was one years ago called It's Happening....Great forum, with all sorts of topics and an international following...The original owner died, touching off an ensuing internal power struggle, a spinoff, a board war, and ultimate collapse.

It was well moderated, was a great and pretty diverse news feed, and had a great and seriously funny troll posse.

A shame it's gone.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

There was one years ago called It's Happening....Great forum, with all sorts of topics and an international following...The original owner died, touching off an ensuing internal power struggle, a spinoff, a board war, and ultimate collapse.

It was well moderated, was a great and pretty diverse news feed, and had a great and seriously funny troll posse.

A shame it's gone.

The golden era of political discussion boards was in the 2000s.
By 2015 or so, nearly everyone of them died off or, like this one, was bought by a company that is really only interested in page views to get advertising $.
Virtually every forum back then was privately owned and didn't even have advertising, relied on member donations.
I wondered around and found uspoliticsonline around 2000 or so. Became a mod a couple years later, then a super mod and eventually the owner made Pete and I the admins and the owner basically stopped posting and almost never came around. We ran it this way for 5 or 6 years, then one day one of the members who tried to get us to make him a mod, but we wouldn't - he was an asshole... and one day he posted in the admin thread that he bought the site. For a day we thought he might have hacked it, but Pete managed to get a response from the previous owner that he sold it to him.
Too bad... I loved that place.

 

[Stryder50]

this place is so loosely moderated it is ridikilus

Not so much "ridikilus" as refreshing. Especially compared to some I've been involved with which were stringent to point of being run by tin-pot dicktators.

 

[Stryder50]

Good forums where it is not mostly trolls and idiots is sadly apparently just gone. Don't exist anymore.
The golden years of good forums was late 90s - maybe 2010 at the latest.
Now sites are all geared to make $$ off of ads, which GREATLY incentivizes allowed anything goes to get maximum page counts.
Before, most sites were privately owned, now virtually all of them are commercially owned.
I sorely miss US Politics Online, it went under the year I came here. A new owner bought it and changed everything and it died.
I loved that place. Way-way-way more rules than here, but solid discussions.

Unfortunately, that adage about everything on the internet lasting to infinity is a bit inaccurate.
Message boards/forums do have a tendency toward short lifespans in general,with those of narrow and/or exclusive interest ~ focus lasting longer, but having much smaller membership/participation.

One factor is costs of operation; servers, name rights, internet usage fees, etc. Many need either a 'sugardaddy' or several, or are 'pay to play', or the hobby of some person or small group that underwrite costs and often are exclusive to point of snobbish.

The was one I was involved with for several years, and made posts into the 5 digits range, which suddenly, without warning, just "died".

Nominally it was mostly focused on matters of history and military(history) and was linked to a magazine that is no longer published (stopped a few years ago). Sponsored (paid for) and hosted by the magazine publisher, which happens to publish several other magazines focused on history, military, aviation, and similar. This board/forum bore the name of that magazine which focused on military history issues/events, often examining the various decision options of the generals/admirals of those wars/campaigns/battles, and was mostly for the "armchair" copycat interests. (Rules here prohibit my being more specific on actual names, even though that board/forum no longer exists.)

The board/forum lingered on for a couple years after the name sake magazine ceased publication and when it suddenly died I exchanged some emails with the publishers exploring options to revitalize or at lest get access to archive of it's posts. To no avail, and it was a budget trimming matter that lead to the 'death' of that message board/forum.

It did have some rather strict rules of participation and rather heavy-handed(ham-fisted) moderation. Major issues usually about addressing the poster and not the post and use of too personal of postings, especially if any hint of ad-hominem being used. The mods often seemed a bit trigger happy to apply bans, some short term of weeks to months, and others permanent.

Those complications aside, one benefit was that many of the authors for that magazines publisher participated as well as many other experts (& former members) of military and history occupations.

My main regret was not archive myself of some of those posts I made which had source materials/references that I'd like to access now.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Now THAT would be interesting! I nominate mudwhistle

I wouldn't want the job I would have to be fair and equal with moderation. It would suck flagging some conservatives when in the wrong.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Unfortunately, that adage about everything on the internet lasting to infinity is a bit inaccurate.
Message boards/forums do have a tendency toward short lifespans in general,with those of narrow and/or exclusive interest ~ focus lasting longer, but having much smaller membership/participation.

One factor is costs of operation; servers, name rights, internet usage fees, etc. Many need either a 'sugardaddy' or several, or are 'pay to play', or the hobby of some person or small group that underwrite costs and often are exclusive to point of snobbish.

The was one I was involved with for several years, and made posts into the 5 digits range, which suddenly, without warning, just "died".

Nominally it was mostly focused on matters of history and military(history) and was linked to a magazine that is no longer published (stopped a few years ago). Sponsored (paid for) and hosted by the magazine publisher, which happens to publish several other magazines focused on history, military, aviation, and similar. This board/forum bore the name of that magazine which focused on military history issues/events, often examining the various decision options of the generals/admirals of those wars/campaigns/battles, and was mostly for the "armchair" copycat interests. (Rules here prohibit my being more specific on actual names, even though that board/forum no longer exists.)

The board/forum lingered on for a couple years after the name sake magazine ceased publication and when it suddenly died I exchanged some emails with the publishers exploring options to revitalize or at lest get access to archive of it's posts. To no avail, and it was a budget trimming matter that lead to the 'death' of that message board/forum.

It did have some rather strict rules of participation and rather heavy-handed(ham-fisted) moderation. Major issues usually about addressing the poster and not the post and use of too personal of postings, especially if any hint of ad-hominem being used. The mods often seemed a bit trigger happy to apply bans, some short term of weeks to months, and others permanent.

Those complications aside, one benefit was that many of the authors for that magazines publisher participated as well as many other experts (& former members) of military and history occupations.

My main regret was not archive myself of some of those posts I made which had source materials/references that I'd like to access now.

You and me both, especially in the Formal Debate areas.
For that area, every post had to be at least a certain length, every claim had to contain sources.
That area in particular was 100% about quality of posts. There were post in there that were worth publication.

 

[Stryder50]

You and me both, especially in the Formal Debate areas.
For that area, every post had to be at least a certain length, every claim had to contain sources.
That area in particular was 100% about quality of posts. There were post in there that were worth publication.

If we are talking about the same message board, which I think we are, many of those whom published articles in the magazine 'host' also posted on that BBS.

I've chores and errands to do, so back much later and my PM you.
In meantime, these initials: "A.G." and tag "Arm. Gen." are clues that should work here and hint if we are talking about the same place.

Later ....

 

[DudleySmith]

Unfortunately, that adage about everything on the internet lasting to infinity is a bit inaccurate.
Message boards/forums do have a tendency toward short lifespans in general,with those of narrow and/or exclusive interest ~ focus lasting longer, but having much smaller membership/participation.

One factor is costs of operation; servers, name rights, internet usage fees, etc. Many need either a 'sugardaddy' or several, or are 'pay to play', or the hobby of some person or small group that underwrite costs and often are exclusive to point of snobbish.

The was one I was involved with for several years, and made posts into the 5 digits range, which suddenly, without warning, just "died".

Nominally it was mostly focused on matters of history and military(history) and was linked to a magazine that is no longer published (stopped a few years ago). Sponsored (paid for) and hosted by the magazine publisher, which happens to publish several other magazines focused on history, military, aviation, and similar. This board/forum bore the name of that magazine which focused on military history issues/events, often examining the various decision options of the generals/admirals of those wars/campaigns/battles, and was mostly for the "armchair" copycat interests. (Rules here prohibit my being more specific on actual names, even though that board/forum no longer exists.)

The board/forum lingered on for a couple years after the name sake magazine ceased publication and when it suddenly died I exchanged some emails with the publishers exploring options to revitalize or at lest get access to archive of it's posts. To no avail, and it was a budget trimming matter that lead to the 'death' of that message board/forum.

It did have some rather strict rules of participation and rather heavy-handed(ham-fisted) moderation. Major issues usually about addressing the poster and not the post and use of too personal of postings, especially if any hint of ad-hominem being used. The mods often seemed a bit trigger happy to apply bans, some short term of weeks to months, and others permanent.

Those complications aside, one benefit was that many of the authors for that magazines publisher participated as well as many other experts (& former members) of military and history occupations.

My main regret was not archive myself of some of those posts I made which had source materials/references that I'd like to access now.

Have you tried the Wayback Machine at archive.org? I've had a few forum pages from the past pop up on occasion there.

 

[Hang on Sloopy]

Not so much "ridikilus" as refreshing. Especially compared to some I've been involved with which were stringent to point of being run by tin-pot dicktators.

lol.....even i admit i should be banned more..................it has been like 3 or 4 months since my last all expenses paid usmb vacation....sumptins up....i need the time off

 

[dblack]

Now THAT would be interesting! I nominate mudwhistle

Would that be a shitshow or what?

 

[Zebra]

I nominate Mortimer

did he accpept?