In My Humble Opinion (open letter to dl65)

[Zylstra]

This forum has suffered many religion posts, and luckily, there have been moderators to remove them.
Everyone here is trying to stop people like "Mac" and all of his aliases already.
I do not believe that the post should have been removed myself, but obviously, DL65 thought that it was in his best interest to remove it.

DL65 is a moderator, and has done what he feels is making the boards better.

Is this abuse of power? That's not for any of us to say. That's up to the admin...

[GX1_Man]

I don't see any mods fighting.  

[johnchain]

If I were to take my BESTEST guess, I think the Computer Hope mods settle it the manly way, which fairly settles arguments and leaves no room for complaining.......................










Rock-Paper-Scissors  

[Hopester Doofus]

This forum has suffered many religion posts, and luckily, there have been moderators to remove them.  Everyone here is trying to stop people like "Mac" and all of his aliases already.  

Big difference. None of the people discussing the topic were raving lunatics, and Mac had no respect or tolerance for the opinions of others.

I do not believe that the post should have been removed myself, but obviously, DL65 thought that it was in his best interest to remove it.  
 
DL65 is a moderator, and has done what he feels is making the boards better.

Based on his personal opinion, and without inviting the input of the parties involved prior. The half dozen or so people participating in the thread would beg to differ that the thread was inappropriate, but apparently those opinions didn't merit serious consideration. It was a heavy-handed approach which could have, and should have, been handled differently.  
 

Is this abuse of power? That's not for any of us to say. That's up to the admin...

Then it should be left up to the admin. Even with privileges, I would never even consider the notion of wiping out an entire thread without first bouncing it off Nathan, regardless of my motivations. It's just a little too easy.

Is it just religion? How about the occasional political reference that doesn't have direct relevance to IT? Or a comment on world affairs? Or the weather? It's a big forum, and the occasional dalliance won't bring it to its knees. Is there anything in the ComputerHope rules that prohibits particular topics of discussion? I can't find it.

[dl65]

Hopester Doofus.....  For some reason unknown to me you appear to want to create a mountain out of a mole hill.

Is it just religion? How about the occasional political reference that doesn't have direct relevance to IT? Or a comment on world affairs? Or the weather? It's a big forum, and the occasional dalliance won't bring it to its knees. Is there anything in the ComputerHope rules that prohibits particular topics of discussion? I can't find it.

  ......
I will say this again , the reason for closing and locking the post was nothing other than it was completely Off -Topic . Please note I did not remove it , just closed it .
I made a decision based on what I believe to be in the best interest of the forum. You choose to disagree with me and I can can certainly respect your opinion.

dl65  

[johnchain]

The forum states Other "Discussions and help with everything else."

Everything else

Other defined as (thank you webster) "Different from that or those implied or specified"

I believe that the topic was appropriate for this forum.

If the intention of closing the forum was because it went off-topic from the original subject "Is this appropriate" then I completely agree, it was absolutely the correct action to put forth.

I will say this again , the reason for closing and locking the post was nothing other than it was completely Off -Topic

Isn't the name of the forum implying "Off Topic"?

Say for example that we started a forum topic in Other called "Religious connections to science" (maybe computer science if it makes Computer Hope happy), and if nothing was offensive (well, of course it will be offensive......but rather nothing for malicious intent).....would you make the same decision?

[dl65]

 johnchain......

Say for example that we started a forum topic in Other called "Religious connections to science"

The Term "Other" as used on the Computer Hope forum refers to  "Other" computer related issues not specificaly defined in the headers of the rest of the board.
For Example ...if the issue was  related to the use of say Internet Explorer ........ the post would go in the "Internet Explorer"  section ...... If it was a driver issue ...then post it in "Drivers"   ..... and so on .........
Lets say the issue was say a dust build up on the monitor screen , it would be appropriate to post in the "Other" section.    I trust that explains things


dl65  

[2k_dummy]

I think the key word is "help".

#  To give assistance to; aid.
# To contribute to the furtherance of; promote.

[johnchain]

I agree then dl65. I believe the solution to this is to modify the Other Forum description from

"Discussions and help with everything else."

to....

"Discussions and help with any other computer related issues"

[squirrel]

then we'd need a new board for stuff like this. :-/

[homer]

we all just need to relax and have a nice cold beer. [smiley=beer.gif]

[Zylstra]

Well, email the admin then and ask that the board description be revised, and that an off-topic board be added.

[johnchain]

I'm underage for beer............but I still agree  

[SilentAssasin64]

Alright, just my 2 cents but here goes...

Even without even reading the thread in question I feel that dl65 did the correct thing.  He is a moderator correct?  Why do you think he is one?  There's got to be a good reason right?  dl65 did what he thought was right for the forum (even though many people may not agree) and everyone should respect that.  

If a mod closes a topic or deletes a post it is for a reason.  That reason may be unclear to you but they know why they did it and people should respect their decision, just like you would want people to respect yours.

If you don't agree with the decision of a mod then contact them...ask them why they did whatever they did to see if you can understand the reasoning behind it.  

Just my $0.02 though...