One more poll for good measure, probably more coming, Forum Structure?

[Jade]

The problem with this potential structure, which I'm not necessarily opposed to and have thought about, is that 95% of my active job as an admin is deleting spam accounts and double posts. If the forums will be fully democratic, then everyone gets the same "privileges" I have. Which means anyone can delete a thread, anyone can ban another member, anyone could basically wreak havoc on the forums and delete everything that was ever posted. I wish I could say this space, or any space, was evolved enough to handle that kind of power, but let's face it, there will always be people who seek power to abuse it. I'm afraid at the moment the best compromise is to give the power of deletion to a small group.

Anything more nuanced would require a whole new forum code, and as far as I know, I've yet to see anyone code a consensus moderated social media platform. If something like this becomes available and viable, I will be all for supporting it.

We try to be democratic and we always accept feedback. We aren't trying to be overlords who curate this forum for our personal elite agenda, hardly. I think the whole time I've been a moderator we've banned one person from posting? (This number is extremely lenient, IMO) And the amount of posts removed overall is quite minuscule. If you have a problem with moderation in general, you can PM one of us moderators, send an email to Gary, or even just post here publicly. Constructive feedback is always welcome.

We're not monsters. We're not here to control anyone. It's not like Austin, plenum, or I get off on this tiny little modicum of power we have over an internet forum that gets like 40 posts a day. It's not like there's a lot of glamour or gratitude in what we do. We're here to try to keep the community functioning as a service, obviously. The post that was removed of EvolvingPhoenix's was the first post in quite a while that has even been brought up for discussion. If you prefer forums with even less moderation, there are spiritual communities on websites like 4chan and reddit.

To me, I try to keep in mind that these forums were originally Carla's idea, many years ago when this discussion format was still fresh. She wanted to have a spiritual community where wanderers could go to support each other. The first iteration of the forums was scoured from the internet because trolls took it over and Carla got extremely discouraged. It's my opinion that there are still things being posted today that would discourage her from wanting to continue to hold this space. However, she isn't here to make that decision, so the best thing I can do is try to do my best to keep my understanding of her vision alive.