I had hoped rules wouldn't be needed. I had hoped that, like I said in the Posting Etiquette thread that members would work together to weed out the the unpleasant comments with intelligent rebuttals. The thing is, it's just not worth others time to do so. Because of how stubborn, pigheaded and defiant those comments are ... it's more than daunting to attempt to improve the discussion.

Zero I am sorry to hear this is adding to your stress.
That isn't right.
Take care of yourself and your family first.
If there is time then work with this site.
If you need some kind of help let me know.
I would be glad to do whatever I can.

You've certainly got my respect.
I've spent most of my time on guitar forums, and much like this place there are folks who feel just fine using the relative anonymity of the internet to act, well, awful - rude, confrontational, etc.
It got to a point w/ the site I visited most that one of the members broke off, created his own forum, invited the folks he liked and felt added positively to the conversation, and then closed the place up - it's a private forum, and it takes a majority vote to get anyone new invited.


Obviously, there are all sorts of reasons not to do that with a place like this - I guess what I'm trying to say is that I admire your willingness to go through the hassle of keeping an open board like this going.
I know I'd never have the patience.
So thanks.

Interesting idea, invite only. That would definitely improve this place. I was in the thought process of limiting new memberships to be approved via admin instead of just any willy nilly valid email account. My purpose behind that was to limit the amount of spammers.

Zero,

Just in case you decide to invite only current members, here's some flowers for you big guy.





You look mahvelous today.
:magnifyglass:

lol

I wouldn't wipe the slate clean and start from scratch.


It would be from this point forward, invite only, type of thing.

"wpr"Zero,

Just in case you decide to invite only current members, here's some flowers for you big guy.





You look mahvelous today.
:magnifyglass:

hes allergic

but I can still spam, right?

"Zero2Cool"Interesting idea, invite only. That would definitely improve this place. I was in the thought process of limiting new memberships to be approved via admin instead of just any willy nilly valid email account. My purpose behind that was to limit the amount of spammers.

The downsides are that you risk losing the debate from all sides piece - not to say that everyone on the guitar forum I mentioned agrees all the time, but since everyone knows everyone else so well, we'll tend to not push obvious buttons, etc.
It definitely makes for a more civil atmosphere, but some people are rightfully interested in serving all sides and might see it as detrimental to that.
The other downside is that it can get a bit quiet from time to time.

The guy who runs it LOVES it, though - no trolls, much less worry about having to baby-sit, etc.
He's not interested in running a website at this point, so it works well for him.
We have no mods, and no need for them - we self-police.

+1 LTF.

But that is why I gave him a picture only.