Make this site a social network - Page 4

Rik, The remark you made about the guy from Texas is too funny! But it's also too true. I entered many a homes to simulate burglaries (unoccupied) or home invasions (occupied) to show how most dogs would react. Sounds like the guy from Texas learned it the hard way!

Ruger you said " Kitkat~ I always support posters having the freedom to communicate as they see fit even if that means allowing the ill mannered to speak freely ," So you basically want us to ignore these types even when we are receiving complaints?

You also said, " And I think you have it backwards, I believe many people left because they could not speak freely.

NO, many left because of the ill mannered you speak of in your first sentence!! And yes some left or were banned for speaking freely which usually meant personal attacks, nasty rudeness. Members can speak as freely as the TOS permit. There's only so much " FREE SPEECH" one can allow without taking action as per the TOS Ruger...and you know that.

Kitkat, admin took a lot. You have no clue what went on behind the scenes. Who was tried as an admin and who once they became an admin totally changed and went after members they didn't like. The first set of admin, didn't know who the other admin were and we had no way of communication among ourselves. Trying running this place and not knowing who all the admin are or being able to talk with each other on the decisions being made. So, as you can imagine we had problems. 8ish members all with their own agenda, doing what they wanted and no one telling them to stop or keep it up. So, you had disarray in the beginning of moderation. Which IMO was a disaster and led to members leaving and becoming more disenfranchised. No checks and balances. Then you had the hard liners who would rather ban on the spot and did banned on the spot. So, while members kept coming at us relentlessly, we also had admin who were so ban happy that they tried to ban anyone who disagreed with them. I have been doing this for 8 years now and had to finally take a break from it because I was totally burnt out, consumed, abused and used up. I never asked to become an admin. But my fight to get the board back from the racists and trolls thrust me into this position. Plus our good buddy and her friends set me up to be banned and it blew up in their faces once Oli found out exactly what happened. That was the straw that broke Oli's back. To be made to look like a fool in front of you all to only learn that he was lied to. We didn't bring this on, it was more or less the same members that some of you are pinning for that helped tip the balance to moderation. I think some members just miss the drama that this place used to be so good at cranking out. IMHO, the years between 2002 and 2006 were the best years of the forums here as far as knowledge goes. The years after that up until moderation were a cesspool of varying degrees. Most members on here commenting weren't even around for the great discussions, instead they appeared while a lot of the drama was ongoing and have somehow equated that drama to knowledge. You had to skip lots of troll comments to weed out the few nuggets. We have a TOS, you break it repeatedly and somehow it is moderation that kicked you off. Wrong. You kicked yourself off because you couldn't control yourself, lets be honest here - you folks really miss the drama the most, knowledge is only a part of the big picture.

GSD

Gsdadmin: Joan, Lordy, couldn't you have found a better way to say what you said? Or better yet, have said nothing at all?


Me: I agree with heritage. Even google will bring up old pdb topics for research reference. When the topic was exhausted the first time around, why beat it to death with members you already deem as not as smart as the ones in those old archives?

Ruger: Joanro and heritage ~ Did either of you even read my last post? 🧐
***I have a personal pet peeve with those who comment without actually reading what a person has posted.*** 🙄


My response to her always critisizing ( not debating, but on personal level critisizm)  every post I make may caused everyone to become gobsmacked, but it gets old always being ridiculed for posting my opinion...guess I'm supposed to just SIDOWN AND SHADDAP!!

Bringing up all this crap about the problems all the admins had and all nastiness from members past and how great the forums are now that they have been thoroughly policed (they are better, less intrusion from certain admins who have a personal dislike towards some members and allowing people to speak is a reprieve)
is doing nothing except rehashing and opening old scabs.
Google brings up any topic on here that a person is looking for answers. Again, I don't see any old members coming back...why would they when they have Facebook and can communicate directly with their friends and not get bashed by people who don't like them.

I don't know about all of that but I can tell you my side of it. Personal dislike, not so much, maybe a dislike of how you come off is a better way to put it. I don't know any of you so it can never for me become a PERSONAL dislike. You honestly sound like you are projecting your PERSONAL thoughts of what you perceive onto others. I don't personally dislike many people and I have almost always been on the side of light handed admin decisions, now am I one to back down from a challenge... that answer should be apparent to anyone who reads my posts. Your opinion is one thing, personally attacking other members because of your PERSONAL dislike for them is another matter entirely and I think you have somehow confused the two. You dislike her and that is fine but were it isn't fine is the attack to bait her into something more.

I left for very long time because there was no constructive discussion about German Shepherd it became a who is in the popular gang and who they picked on and liars picking on people who were defenseless to defend themselves and I was one of those who is being picked on by a major liar who was defending herself so she would not be caught by her lies. And all I wanted to do was enjoy dogs. It was not just because of moderators but moderators did play a small part of it because it was who could get the moderators to support them and believe them and support them and also attacking the others. It literally became a war zone here. Nobody wants to join a war zone just to talk about dogs. You should be able to give your opinion and tell your side of things without having 20 people who just want to be proven above above someone else simply because they do not like that person instead of just saying OK I just don’t agree with you and this is why. I don’t care if someone doesn’t agree with me I can respect that. I don’t have a problem with people not having the same thought process is me or same thoughts as me. I can respect them and all I want in turn is the same respect. I am here because I love my dogs and I want them to be here because they love their dogs. We came here because we love German Shepherd‘s not because we hate people. I stopped coming here because I was tired of being hated on every time I post it just because a couple people wanted to pick at me and told lies about me to other people who’ve never met me or had anything to do with me and just because they liked the people they started following and started doing the same thing to me that they were doing like high school chicks. I am too mature for that kind of behavior. Moderators should not even be involved in that kind of behavior they should be above it and they were not. In my opinion moderators should not even be having their opinions displayed about the dogs and what is going on then discussion there should be a handful of moderators and they should just be moderating the posters not displaying their opinions if they cannot keep your personal feelings about it to a non-personal level. I do not know why people have lost the art of being able to have their own opinion and respecting other people‘s opinions as well. Why do we have to hate on others that do you not think is we think? Communication is sharing your ideas and so that other people can’t see those ideas and reasonings and not be closed off to it so that they can possibly learn from it and not go nope not possible can’t do will not be closed off. But to out right lie to others about people and cause hate and discontent shin and I’m not even a breeder I do not make money off of dogs and I was being attacked and other being people were being attacked because they were being breeders and making money and they were cut throating each other because fighting over customers and making money that was also a problem it was just all too much and I left for several years. I just did not need this in my life. I am above all that and I have way too many health issues going on in my life. I actually had one woman tell me to bring help coming to a show where I was showing my dog like she was actually coming to fight me and she has never even shown a German Shepherd but yet she was on here harassing me and following me around and bullying me and the moderators did not one thing about it even though I showed them the private messages and threats. What good are moderators if they won’t even do anything when someone is threatening someone to meet them at a show with physical threat Where my son would even be who is a minor? That goes way above and beyond just doing badly and problems in moderation. I was terrorized here and nobody did anything about it. You wonder where old posters went they left because of things like this. Better safe than sorry.

Since Admin keep copies of everything and all old posts are easily checked, which I hve just had a quick look at. I have messages from you GSDNewbie and 2 I sent warning YOU and the other member involved to pack in the fighting or go elsewhere. You were not treated any differently than the member you had problems with. You both fought/argued and personally insulted each other...constantly. We would not allow any member here to be threatened by another so I think you may have that wrong. Please PM me if you have any further comments to make, thank you.

Gsdnewby, I remember all that stuff about the threats you were receiving...and am still being blamed for that person picking up her toys and going away...like the admin thinks she is innocent and anyone who dared even ask that person a question about something that was an obvious fabrication, bamm I get slammed for being a meenie.
Just like the person here who called my well thought out, well worded description of a ... of all things! on a dog forum! ...a description of my gsd , was called Jibber Jabber....like there is an echo chamber on this board, she copies pragre the day after he calls my writting ' jibber jabber'. .. well Newbie ( which you are not a newbie) I agree with you, who needs it. This is not even a thread about dogs, and is allowed to remain because of who the op is....an off topic remains on the dog forum. 

Oh well, it was enjoyable for the few months since I came back but I have much work to do.
Lunch time is over, so I'm going to go down to the field and pick Splashes pen out before it rains and take him for a walk with Chekta...she thinks she has to wear him as we go, keeping him in place.. so cute to see Chekta utilize her goat herding experience with Splash, :-)

 

Edit to add: mrdarcy, I was typing while you were posting, so nothing in my post is in response to your above post.

It sounds as though a lot of us missed out on much of that craziness because it was being conducted through the PM system, not the open postings. Apart from agreeing there's no need for being nasty to other posters just because you and they see things about the breed, or dogs in general, differently, I don't know what you do to avoid this. It seems the moderators have tried their best ( I was unaware that any mod was running any vendettas of their own against anyone !) but that has never stopped people being very rude in the public threds on occasion (you surely know who you are, if we speak of those who have done this to me !).

FB Groups have the same problems, you do not escape the moronic behaviour by going on 'real' social media; I have not done much on FB and not for nearly as long as I have been coming here, but I have already seen a great deal more sheer nastiness there and intolerance for others' viewpoints that I ever have here, INCLUDING reading over really old PDB threds from pre 2000 ! FB  also has its racists, I've left one Group I joined (not a dog one) because I could not stand to read the shit people wrote on there.

I usually find posters resort to insults when they run out of real arguments to support whatever position they are taking; t'was ever thus !

For myself, I genuinely believe I have never willingly been nasty to anybody else on here. Some people cannot deal with my being blunt about the stupidity or falsity of some thing(s) they have published here; I think that is different from saying things about posters just to try to make them feel small, when you cannot possibly know if what you have trolled at them is true. Or calling people racist / sexist / rude names. The vast majority of any critical remarks I make are, believe it or not, intended to be helpful in some way. Sometimes I say things that are intended to forstall another poster from starting in on me again; don't always get that right, but I try. I am sure these reasons are the case for a lot of other posters, and so ought to be taken in that spirit.