Until we put the foot down. The caustic nature of the forums and IRC channel was costing us reputation and therefore membership, and for those stubborn enough to stick around it made the experience quite miserable. It became a death spiral, and it had to end.Swift wrote:There is nothing that has happened in the last five or six years of ALFA that could hold a candle to the stuff Duck and the other decade+ members of ALFA used to see on an almost daily basisshad0wfax wrote:By the way, if you think this political platform thread is out of line, you haven't been digging very deeply; this thread is cuddles and kittens compared to some we've had. (For example, no one was baselessly accused of multiple federal felonies in this thread.)
Rules were put in place, and monitors enforced them. Offending posts were removed, warnings were followed by temporary bans, and some folks were shown the door. The philosophy was simple:
People come here to have a good time. We all have enough drama in our real personal lives; ALFA is to be our escape from it. The behavior of a few rude people can degrade the experience for the rest, and it shouldn't be tolerated. If you have opinions, concerns, or even disagreements, express them with decorum: no insults, no vulgarity, no profanity. It just doesn't add any value.
A few weeks later, the forums and the IRC channel was a pleasant place to be. It was amazing what making an example of a few did to reform the rest. It's too bad that wasn't sustained.
