To admin/moderators: Is it possible to 'normalize' (ie. turn ON) the seach paramaters AND PMing on this BB, I understand privacy being important but knowing who other members are would be a good thing especially when they are trying to tell you how to run your life in public. And Personal Messaging would allow this to done in a civilized and private manner. ad.
Edit: including the ignore button. ad
I don’t believe anyone would suggest that would be a good thing. What members do , or have done in their professional lives, has nothing to do with them voicing an opinion on anything. Certainly not on bird topics. To suggest weather you can or can’t make your ideas known , doesn’t depend on : who you are, where you come from, or what colour of skin you have, what kind of education you had, or how old you are, has no place in this forum, or anywhere else in life. (At least not in mine) To me it is only important what people do and say. I don’t even want to know anything about other members. And if I wanted to, I could ask them, and if they felt that I should know, it would be up to them to voluntarily share that information with me. Should there be a change regarding the privacy on this forum, I would be the first person to quit .
M-L
WOW!!! if only I'd know you were a moderator before. ad
Sorry, I hate to tell you this, but as this is a very important topic, everybody should have a say in it. Just what I pointed out before, everyone is equal. I would like to get to know everyone's view on this.
End of discussion for me.
M-L
Firstly, I'm not a moderator, but am interested in understanding your question, aussiedavid.
I understand the request about PMs, but I'm not sure what you mean about search parameters. Do you simply mean turning on the ability to search the forums?
Personally, I don't see any privacy issues arising from the ability to send PMs. There would be no more detail or info provided to other users about me, simply the possibility for someone to send me a direct message, which I can choose to answer or ignore.
The only privacy issue is if people feel being sent PMs is an invasion of privacy, and I' d love to hear other thoughts on this.
As for finding out who others are, from what I understand, you're simply proposing to ask them via PM, rather than requesting this information in-thread, which derails the thread a bit, and could be seen as provocative/aggressive.
My feeling is that what you're requesting seems fair, but why you're requesting it seems a little bit backhanded and perhaps unnecessary. This forum feels like a relatively small community, and does not seem to require substantial moderation. I guess the benefit of comments in-thread is that they are visible to everyone and allows the community to kind of self-moderate, though it can detract from the thread. Personally, I think it is best just to accept that others have differing (and strong) opinions on some topics, and you may not be able to agree on some issues. Similarly, I think it is beholden on those who have strong opinions to be mindful of not forcing them on others. We want a community of like-minded individuals interested in native birds, not an orthodoxy where differing opinions may not be expressed.
Clearly, bird-feeding, cats and native vegetation are amongst the issues that seem to generate the most heated debate around here, but a sensible debate around these is good (IMHO), as long as it remains civil and not simply a "shouting match".
Just my 2c (or 10).
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Personally, don't want anyone to know any more than I make public. The PM, is there, although it took me some time to figure it out. Some of the heated discussions I find interesting to observe from a safe distance, and there are those who seem to be upset by some others opinions. This, I believe, is a democratic forum, and as such should allow all to make their own personal choices. It is each individuals right to express their opinion, suggesting other areas for members to reference info, and make their own informed choice?
I guess we see the same issues raised over and over, as new members join, and ask for advice or information on topics already well covered. Not sure how to avoid this, just a side affect of an ever evolving forum.
I do worry when some of the comments appear to be personal attacks on particular individuals. It is disappointing to see issues become personal attacks on others ideals and beliefs.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
Not trying to put oil on the fire, but I agree with everything Dale said.
( the way he expresses it , reflects exactly how I see it. Just can’t put it as eloquently as he does, after all, English is only my third language, and I might not be as perfect as I whish
, so please excuse me)
M-L
There is no change asked for or intended. On the average BB (forum) one can click on the NAME of a person & be shown a list of posts by this individual without having to leave the post being viewed. Just asking to turn on a feature that should be part of the normal functions. Likewise with the ability to send a PM again from the point one is at NOT SOME CONVOLUTED route as was pointed out to me by a kind member, again a feature that should be available with the click of the mouse.
Why do I want these features available? 1. That are the norm on every forum I know of. 2. This board is so slow it becomes too time consuming. 3. I would rather Araminta downgraded me in private. ad
aussiedavid said: I would rather Araminta downgraded me in private
What can I say to a vicious personal attack like that?
Why don’t you tell me what the problem is in a “private message”? That way you don’t have to drag everyone else into it. I will then make my own decision to answer or not. This is going way too far.
M-L
We've kept it public so far...so let's continue in public...after all I am a happily married man & want to keep it that way.
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M-L
Hi guys
Firstly apologies for not seeing this till today - I have been at school conferences for the last 2 days and so have not been at my computer.
There are a few issues at play here it seems so I will try to deal with them all. The forum set up that is used here is a little different to most that are out there so it means that some features do not display in quite the same way and in some cases may not be available. In other cases there are some features that we can install and I will look into the option to select the name to make private messaging easier (I am also limited by budgets as well and need to look at all work that needs to be done on the site as a whole and the hours of tech support I have available if it is something that I cannot do myself). We have been looking at an 'ignore user' function but have had some issues with getting it to work correctly.
Yes there is private messaging available (as you have now found out) - it is still not something that I want to see absued though - any personal attacks through that system, as on the forum in general, can be reported to me. I will look into whether a button to make it more obvious can be installed.
I expect that there are going to be differences of opinion and there are some issues that have been contentious before and will be again. You are all adults (and remember children can also see this forum) so I hope that you can respectfully have differences of opinion without having to get personal. This site is an educational one, it is not the place to berate others for their views, their actions or their beliefs.
There are forum rules and I will inforce them. Report incidents to me (use the report spam button, email me or send me a private message).
I am calling a time out on this thread now so I suggest all involved take a breather. I will look at the forum for where any issues have arisen and delete offending posts.
edit - I will just add too that there is a search function for the site as a whole, not sure that there is one possible only for the forum but i will do some investigating.