Lets say Zombie Slayer for Jr. Admin

[HealthForum]

I feel he goes out of his way to help any member who needs it and I myself feel he would make a wonderful assset to BT2

all in favor say I

[artist]

Okay then,
I :)

[Bobbi]

I'm good with the idea too :).

[HealthForum]

In MY opinion he has been one member who has been nuetral thru this entire mess. He is loyal to both sides invovled meanig JL and Doc
This is the type of man I would want by my side ;)

[dorry]

ZS is the man for the job. Don't know if he has time though. Lots of irons in the fire. I hope he does though!

[HealthForum]

ZS is the man for the job. Don't know if he has time though. Lots of irons in the fire. I hope he does though!

This again was MY opinion it is not something Doc mentioned again MY OPINION ONLY

If you would help him with his ironing then maybe he would have time to help here:D

[Bobbi]

Uhhh, maybe he could use one of the new machines advertised on TV that does steam releases to "iron out" wrinkles?

:D

[stumps]

I feel he goes out of his way to help any member who needs it and I myself feel he would make a wonderful assset to BT2

all in favor say I

I agree, ZS is so even-handed and downright sensible.plus extermely helpful.

Gillian

[Chemar]

Personally
I would like ZS for President:D

[Chemar]

Quoting Doc John from an earlier post

Just to make this clear, Psych Central is happy and willing to continue sponsorship ad infinitum of BT2 (or whatever it becomes). As long as some folks step up to the plate to help run the forums -- in a far more transparent and open fashion than what you're accustomed to on BT1 -- I think we'll be happy to keep these going indefinitely.



so I think DocJohn has already requested assistance..........
tho ZS may not wanna have the job of dealing with us lot at that level;)

[stevem53]

A wise choice

[Feebs]

Sounds great to Me! :) If he wants to of course and when Doc John decides to assign people to help out.

Loving this forum,
Fee

[snoozie]

He's got my vote...Sue

[ConsiderThis]

I love Zombie Slayer...

I just don't want to see what happened on BT happen here.

I don't think we need more Admin.

More admiration, maybe.

[ConsiderThis]

Quoting Doc John from an earlier post



so I think DocJohn has already requested assistance..........
tho ZS may not wanna have the job of dealing with us lot at that level;)

OH, oops. I missed this.

Thanks for the reminder....

[Kamie]

I Vote Yes! :)

[SallyC]

ZS is Da Man. He can be great help with the tech stuff....he already is! And perhaps Head Moderator?

As this place grows and trolls start invading, we will need Mods but not all-powerful Mods. No Mod should be able to ban anyone without arbitration, unless it's an obvious troll/stalker. No locking of threads and no zapping of threads/posts (unless a duplicate).

We are all adults and usually can and do work out any disagreements. Debate is good, but personal arguments should be taken to PMs, IMHO.

We could have a Mod, or two, for each branch forum, and perhaps chosen by that forum, to keep their forum as clean and running as smoothly as possible.

I love the Z man too.:)

[ConsiderThis]

ZS is Da Man. He can be great help with the tech stuff....he already is! And perhaps Head Moderator?

As this place grows and trolls start invading, we will need Mods but not all-powerful Mods. No Mod should be able to ban anyone without arbitration, unless it's an obvious troll/stalker. No locking of threads and no zapping of threads/posts (unless a duplicate).

We are all adults and usually can and do work out any disagreements. Debate is good, but personal arguments should be taken to PMs, IMHO.

We could have a Mod, or two, for each branch forum, and perhaps chosen by that forum, to keep their forum as clean and running as smoothly as possible.

I love the Z man too.:)

Sounds like way too many Moderators to me.

Today worked really well, with just the deletion of a couple of posts. I'm glad the poster isn't banned.

I really don't want to see a Mod who represents a group in a forum.

Twinges of Time to Leave, are hitting me.

[DocJohn]

In BT2 world, we're going to do things a bit differently than maybe what you experienced on BT1.

Mods = Helpers to remove objectionable postings, spam, etc. Help work with members on posts that violate some community guideline or the like. Not anonymous -- these are just ordinary members who have a little more power to help out in the community.

Admins = The folks who help lead the community and moderation team, providing advice, guidance and action when needed to address member issues. If a member is ever banned (and remember, this is a fairly rare event in my world), it's done with majority agreement amongst the entire moderation team.

And when I say "moderation team," it's just that -- a group of folks who agree to work together as a team to help keep the community running smoothly. We will remove anyone from the team who abuses their position of trust and responsibility. The moderation team will be known and accountable for their actions -- we don't hide beyond any anonymous logins here.

John

[janster]

I totally agree ZS:
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e274/janster46/Miscellaneous/youdaman.gif

Hugs,
Jan

[ConsiderThis]

Here's what I noticed today:

I forget when.

But I noticed that the 5 stars that had been by the How can we get new members thread that I started, had changed to 3. I was sad, of course. I had been surprised to find the 5 stars, and they'd made me happy. So I went around and put 5 stars on a lot of other people's threads, so they'd feel happy to. I was going to put them on all the threads... but then I got confused about whether that would be good or bad.

I also went back to my thread and thought I'd up it to 4 stars by voting myself, for 4 stars. I thought that would tip it back. But it didn't, so then I knew that quite a few people had voted to lower the rating.

Who would want to lower the rating... people in favor of BT2? It didn't seem very likely. People who were mad about the existence of BT2 and how much I said about my experience there. That seemed more likely.

So, when the Attention Whore post came up... well, I chose to laugh about it and I tried to engage people I trusted in laughing about it with me.

I don't know how many people are aware that "Attention Whore" is used on at least one forum the way that the word "member" is used here:
http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/cgi-bin/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=26080&forum=DCForumID6&omm=0

When I first went there I found it very confusing. I didn't realize it was a part of the forum.

So from that point of view the post didn't bother me. I didn't' mind the young woman in it. She looked happy. She looked healthy.

I think if I could have posted something more like this when I found it, that it would have been better than what I did. Because I could hear in the responses I got that people were more shocked by the words than I was.

What shocked me, was that the number of stars had been changed on the thread about how to get more people here.

But of course that's harder to talk about because it's like me saying, Hey, I really liked the praise and darn it, I want it back!

Now, there are mods.

I don't feel comfortable with mods because of what happened at Brain Talk 1, and because of what happened when I belonged to that Reality forum... and others.

The best way to describe how I feel, is to liken this to the War on Terror. The reduction in my personal liberties does not make me feel safer. Bombing a lot of innocent Iraqis doesn't make me feel safer. In fact, it reminds me of when I used to kill earwigs because they scared me... the way they look. And when I sat outside in the evening, earwigs were always crawling up on my feet and biting my ankles.

Then, a snake, a small grass snake, moved into my yard, or else it had been there and it suddenly let me see it... and I decided I shouldn't kill things that it might want to eat. I've never killed an earwig since, nor have I been bitten by one since.

Okay. So I feel threatened by the mods. I feel that if one wants to ban me, that one will convince the others in the mod group.

Not just me, but anyone whom one of them decided to single out, or feels has singled themselves out in an objectionable manner.

I liked this board. I tried to help get it going. I tried to be supportive. I really appreciated all the support I experienced. I won't hug you all here, but I want you to know that if I did I would increase the length of this post by a lot.

I feel that without mods I am much safer because ordinary people like me tend to like me. I like people.

When a lot of people are all involved then I feel safer than when the power of all the people is delegated to a few.

I remember on BT1 getting these lovely emails from people. But then when I was banned and someone gave me the way to get back on to watch, some code thing, I forget, I saw those people who had seemed to like me, who had written me things that made it clear they respected me, kowtowing to the people who had banned me.

I could see why they did it, they wanted and needed the community and they had to protect themselves by making-nice/ingratiating themselves to the strong arms. It made me sad, not just because they appeared to jettison me, but because they demeaned themselves. It's hard to explain. I can explain, but it would take time and be revealing.

So, all in all, I think I'm better off going back to what I was doing before I found this forum and began to like it. I don't want get involved and then be ostracized. It's not fun.

I'm pretty into fun.

To me, the person who posted the Attention Whore things, was trying to get mods. If they were familiar with forums, they would know that would be a good trigger.

Love you guys.

[kimmydawn]

((((((((((((((((((((((( ct )))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I'm sorry for what has happened in the past. Give it a chance? Sometimes things really do change and work for good. :)

You said: "I feel that without mods I am much safer because ordinary people like me tend to like me. I like people."

The mods ARE ordinary people just like you. :) They're/we're members. :)

KD

[ConsiderThis]

((((((((((((((((((((((( ct )))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I'm sorry for what has happened in the past. Give it a chance? Sometimes things really do change and work for good. :)

You said: "I feel that without mods I am much safer because ordinary people like me tend to like me. I like people."

The mods ARE ordinary people just like you. :) They're/we're members. :)

KD
No, not any more than the army in Iraq is just like the Iraqis because everyone wants freedom.

[DocJohn]

Comparing people who volunteer to help out keeping the community a safe place to the "war on terror" is a stretch and really undermines keeping an open mind about these things, don't ya think?

If you have your mind set, then nothing anyone can say is going to convince you, so I wish you well in your online journeys if indeed you choose not to stay.

John

[TC44]

I feel he goes out of his way to help any member who needs it and I myself feel he would make a wonderful assset to BT2


Here are the Top ten reasons that Zombie Slayer shouldn't be an admin.

Item - 1
He calls himself 'Zombie Slayer'. Now zombies are people to. They may be dead and like to munch on live human flesh, but really we all have our faults certainly no reason to go around slaying them.

Item - 2
He doesn't even use his real name. For those of you who don't know it here it is : Mortimer G. Slomilfinken. For five bucks I'll send you his address.

Item - 3
Take a look at that avatar. Has his head shaped like the Earth. What more do you need to see that he's bent on total world domination?

Item- 4

Thank you so much for your help Zombie slayer!

No problem. It was easy.

That's 'easy' as in as easy as stealing candy from a baby. Now do you want to put your trust in a man like that?

Item - 5
He's always telling you to go to 'live chat'. Well if you play that backwards it's 'tahc evil'. Tach is just slang for talk, but evil we all know what that is.

Item - 6
Have you seen his site "Da Garden? Well I have and I'm convinced there's some Mary Jauna in their. Maybe her sister Duya too!

Item - 7
And I have it from a good source (Pof. Harry Hill himself) that Da Garden starts with a 'D' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for Pool! Gee Whizz!

Item - 8
Now your going to say that he thinks everyone should be treated equally and that he thinks people should be able to make their own choices. And he's got a pick up truck, he's thrifty (doesn't even have a cable connection). What you've got here is a liberal, conservative redneck yankee!

Item -9
He never signed the Declaration of Independence, didn't vote for Abraham Linclon or even lift a finger to help the sufferagettes. Then he comes up with the lame excuse that he hadn't even been born yet!

Item - 10
He is David H. He's also John L. And he's Charlie Chaplin, all of the Marx bothers, Kermit the frog and The Easter Bunny.

[Username]

Here are the Top ten reasons that Zombie Slayer shouldn't be an admin.

Item - 1
He calls himself 'Zombie Slayer'. Now zombies are people to. They may be dead and like to munch on live human flesh, but really we all have our faults certainly no reason to go around slaying them.

Item - 2
He doesn't even use his real name. For those of you who don't know it here it is : Mortimer G. Slomilfinken. For five bucks I'll send you his address.

Item - 3
Take a look at that avatar. Has his head shaped like the Earth. What more do you need to see that he's bent on total world domination?

Item- 4

That's 'easy' as in as easy as stealing candy from a baby. Now do you want to put your trust in a man like that?

Item - 5
He's always telling you to go to 'live chat'. Well if you play that backwards it's 'tahc evil'. Tach is just slang for talk, but evil we all know what that is.

Item - 6
Have you seen his site "Da Garden? Well I have and I'm convinced there's some Mary Jauna in their. Maybe her sister Duya too!

Item - 7
And I have it from a good source (Pof. Harry Hill himself) that Da Garden starts with a 'D' and that rhymes with 'P' and that stands for Pool! Gee Whizz!

Item - 8
Now your going to say that he thinks everyone should be treated equally and that he thinks people should be able to make their own choices. And he's got a pick up truck, he's thrifty (doesn't even have a cable connection). What you've got here is a liberal, conservative redneck yankee!

Item -9
He never signed the Declaration of Independence, didn't vote for Abraham Linclon or even lift a finger to help the sufferagettes. Then he comes up with the lame excuse that he hadn't even been born yet!

Item - 10
He is David H. He's also John L. And he's Charlie Chaplin, all of the Marx bothers, Kermit the frog and The Easter Bunny.

Now that's funny stuff!!!!! :)

[Chemar]

TC44 you always make me :D

[stumps]

:) Something has actually made me laugh today thank you TCC

Gillian

[mrsD]

I would like to take this opportunity to thank ZS for all he has done on OBT and
BT2.

Zombieslayer is a "mensch" and has always been there for everyone.
He has helped me personally many times, and I am grateful.

I am sure that any further activities he might take on here would be
keeping in character, and very generous of him, considering his other
time consuming activities!

Love,

[dorry]

considerthis - you cracked me up with the star thingie!! What I like best about you is you are so down to earth and geniune. You're not afraid to say you are human and don't hide behind a screen name. What you see is what you get. I like that...I REALLY do.

The subject of mods was brought up before by DJ (I think) so I don't think it was that rude guy sitsonchairs or whatever his name was. You handled that the way it should have been handled - with humor, concern, etc, but not outrage. You know how to handle yourself on a forum, and by doing so you encourage others to do the same by your example.

Some, no matter how much good influence they get from ppl like you, will never know how to handle themselves. For those ppl, mods are helpful. I think mods also do the mundane tasks like move stuff where it belongs, etc. There is no way DJ can do all that by himself. He'd burn out and we'd be stuck back with nowhere to chat with fellow BTr's.

So I HOPE you don't split. PLEASE don't go. You add so much to the flavor here and you have such a great memory for the good posts that were lost on BT. Don't be afraid of mods.

I know what you were saying about 2 faced ppl. Mods or not, by human nature ppl tend to go with the flow. I didn't care for the heavy handedness on BT1 myself, and I wouldn't be here, if I didn't think it was going to be different. DJ is very different from what I've seen. I've actually opened up MORE on this forum than I ever did on BT1, so I know things are different here.

so.....don't go!

TC44 you aint rite :D Thanks for the chuckles and keepem coming.

[Looking4hope]

Oh goodie! Lookie what I found while searching Google yesterday! :) Braintalk isn't dead, after all! Nice to see y'all.

Everyone here has a great sense of humour and are very active participants, I didn't realize how much I missed it.

ZS has my vote, if he is running, that is. ;)

[kimmydawn]

Hi looking4hope, and welcome :)

KD

[Junie]

Ditto what Dorry said CT , Don't go, I too think this will be a good one...and if its not then I am sure a lot will go, but it sure feels different here to me!

[Curious]

docjohn has said moderators....not spelling police.

me thinks we will be just fine.

i for one like the idea of plenty of people to remove spam and such.

[Doody]

And when I say "moderation team," it's just that -- a group of folks who agree to work together as a team to help keep the community running smoothly. We will remove anyone from the team who abuses their position of trust and responsibility. The moderation team will be known and accountable for their actions -- we don't hide beyond any anonymous logins here.

Bigh sigh of relief. I hope.

And I didn't think that one suggestion was all that bad...about having moderators for each of the active forums. I mean, someone who basically lives in that forum and knows it well.

Anyway, thanks Doc John, I feel a little more comfortable. Mods should be accountable too.

Actually, LOL, I happened to watch an animated movie yesterday called Robot. It was really cute. In the movie, the head guy that everyone on the robot planet adored, went into hibernation, leaving another man in charge. It turned out that the person left in charge was secretly getting rid of what he considered unwanted robots left and right. He was accountable to no one! When the robots finally figured it out, they revolted, and everybody ended up happy. The end. :D

[Ellie]

Okay. So I feel threatened by the mods. I feel that if one wants to ban me, that one will convince the others in the mod group.

Not just me, but anyone whom one of them decided to single out, or feels has singled themselves out in an objectionable manner.


You shouldn't base any past experiences on anything you will experience in your future, be it good or bad. It is unfair to judge something you have yet to see play out. A Moderation Team is typically put in place to make you feel comfortable and safe, not the other way around. Regardless of your past experiences, I doubt that is how things will be managed here.

There will be (are?) rules in place for all users (which should include the mods), nothing hidden in tiny print. Everyone will have an awkward feeling when introduced to something new, it is natural. But you should at least give it a chance first, everyone should.

Moderation should never be based off of the point of view from one user. One user who you may expect to not like you could not convince a group of mods to believe otherwise, there are a lot more users here than just one single person. If I were looking in on the situation and see that a user would go out of their way to turn people to their side to 'get rid of you', I would find them to be potentially harrassing you and question their motives.


I feel that without mods I am much safer because ordinary people like me tend to like me. I like people.

Mods are ordinary people, too. Unless he hired aliens!! :eek:


To me, the person who posted the Attention Whore things, was trying to get mods. If they were familiar with forums, they would know that would be a good trigger.


They were probably trying to get underneath the skin of someone. Attention Whore is a tasteless term, probably created by someone who wanted the attention someone else got - who knows? I missed the thread, so I am unsure if it were directed towards you or someone else. If it were towards you, brush it off. You're fun and social, don't worry about what someone else has to say. If it was directed towards someone else, I'm sure the same applies.


--

To sum up my book, give things a shot first and you may be surprised (in a good way). Don't worry about what other's have to say about you (if anyone is saying anything, I feel out of the loop atm). Plenty of websites have problems with shady moderation, I am sure DocJohn will do just fine to make sure that does not happen here.

--

PS: TC44; That was GREAT!

[paula_w]

I must have missed something. Could someone private message me - Consider This would you mind? What was said? As a stakeholder here [not financially of course]. I'd like to know.

Thanks and hope its not too much trouble
Paula

[Thelma]

consider this Considerthis

The message had someone in mind and I am not sure it was even directed at you personally.

Don't even think about it anymore as whoever did it has some problem that they can't seem to find an answer to save to show disrespect to women.

Forget it girl and have a laugh at the expense of who ever did it and get back to what you do best.

Sincerely Thelma

[Chemar]

The mean message/photo that upset CT was directed at her, by name, and I can certainly see why she got upset about it and am MUCH relieved that it was swiftly deleted. (thanks DocJohn!) Still, she handled it with a whole lot more of a better attitude than I maybe woulda!!!

But...........
CT, I do so agree with everyone who is encouraging you not to leave nor to be afraid of mods.
Hey....I am one on another forum and I dont bite (well, at least not unless Curious is holding out a piece of choccy in front of my fangs:D )

I really feel that DocJohn has the right minimalist approach to board control and genuinely feel that those he picks to be part of his mod squad will be ok, and will most certainly be accountable to him and hopefully to the community here as well

so CT, pleeez come back out to play...........pretty pleeez with choccy figgy pudding on top :p

[Looking4hope]

Hi looking4hope, and welcome :)

KD

Thank you very much :)

OT - I just checked out DocJohn's profile and I see he is in the mental health field. May I say... yes! :) I always felt that the original braintalk was sorely lacking in compassion in that area. I only say that from my own personal experience there. I almost never speak up for myself and I found myself being warned by a moderator. I never came back much after that. I am particularly interested in the steps to self-esteem board that I saw at psych-central. I am sorely in need of support in that area. BTW - there is a kimmydawn over there as well. ;)

[Curious]

she is one and the same looking4hope. you might really enjoy being member of both forums. :D

welcome

[Chemar]

and a big welcome from me too Looking4hope :)

and a hi nice to meet ya to Kimmydawn and anyone else I havent said hello to yet:p

[kimmydawn]

Thank you very much, Chemar. It's great to meet you as well. :)

KD

[Looking4hope]

Oh my... many thanks to Curious and Chemar for the welcome! :)

[dorry]

bummed that considerthis hasn't posted since this thread :( :( :(

we all love you CT, and what that guy did was uncool. You put on a happy face for us, longer than I would have. It's unnerving to have someone do that. Almost like stalking to think someone cares that much about getting in your face.

It's NOT going to happen here CT. No one will hurt you, or any of us. Caring and compassion are what this forum is built on. Not just a soothing article of faith either..... I believe it's the real deal.

I pm'd you my email, but I don't have your email, so PM or email me please if you don't want to talk here right now.

pretty please? I have choccy for the top ;)

[dorry]

hi looking4hope! i think i remember you from bt1 :D

[JoJo6]

but ConsiderThis, I have missed you and you're inviting cup of brew:)

I truely am sorry about what happened, I didn't see, but can imagine. This happened to me over in MGH/Chats and Forums. Very disturbing to say the least. Please don't let this take anything more from you, ok?

You are still the lovely ConsiderThis and we want you back!! all my love, Julia

[snoozie]

Shouting out to Consider This---WE MISS YOU---get back here girl...Sue

[dorry]

still hoping for her return. I'm going see if I can find her email on her forum, as soon as I find the link to her forum again :confused:

[janster]

Consider This (Big C)~
You need to come back.....I wanna take you up on your offer, or is it not good anymore? It's OK if it isn't, just tell me. Our forum isn't the same without you honey! I miss you! :(
Hugs,
Jan-your quick-wristed bud :D

[ConsiderThis]

Comparing people who volunteer to help out keeping the community a safe place to the "war on terror" is a stretch and really undermines keeping an open mind about these things, don't ya think?

If you have your mind set, then nothing anyone can say is going to convince you, so I wish you well in your online journeys if indeed you choose not to stay.

John
I didn't compare people who volunteer to help out keeping the community safe to the war on terror, I said, "the army in Iraq is [not] just like the Iraqis" and by that I mean that in my experience the moderators had agendas that were in some cases antithetical to the members of the forums at BT1; additionally, I mean that people tend, in my overall experience, to want The Good, and do The Good, so moderators are like saying that people aren't good and don't want to do good. To me, armies should only be used against real enemies, not against kids, mums, grandparents who are doing nothing other than living... maybe not living with the same kind of carpet we prefer, but living in terms of breathing, eating, caring, just exactly like us.

To me, the forum was working really well without moderators.

But... I've also thought a lot about other forums I go to, and I realized that all of them have moderators. So it's only the moderators here that scare me, presumably because of BT1.

[ConsiderThis]

I haven't read any of my PMs here, yet. But some people wrote to me using my email address, to them (and everyone):

You know, it wasn't the mean post that made me leave as much as it was the idea of moderators ... the way they were at Brain Talk 1... I just began thinking that the mean post was done with the intention of having moderators installed, with that in turn leading to me being targeted in a much more destructive, but apparently acceptable, way.

See, I can understand an individual being mean spirited... bad day, more pain, outlet.

But the moderator thing at BrainTalk1 was so... hurtful, to say the least. Because, I think, it "seemed" to represent a consensus.

On the other hand, I've been thinking about how there are moderators on pbs, and while they delete posts periodically, and there are several people who have new names, presumably because the old name has been banned, overall I don't feel threatened by the mods there.

But then, pbs isn't a forum where you actually get particularly close to people. I mean, someone posted a quite nice poem for me the other day, and someone may be bringing me some worms for my garden, but overall it's an argumentative place where people often choose to be one-dimensional.

Going on from yesterday:
I got sick when I left; the stress, I think, caused it. I really liked so many people on BT2. So if I got as sick as I did after only a few days of bonding... what would it be like if I were there a long time and then the people were organized and were trying to get me out... that would be worse.

I mean, how do we know that the moderators from BT1 are not among the moderators on BT2? They were secret, as it were, on BT1.. so how do we know?

Do you know?

[ConsiderThis]

I wrote a second email response, too:

Thank you again for writing to me.

It's peculiar how "scared" - maybe apprehensive is a better word - I feel about coming back. I don't feel this apprehensive about spiders, even the black widows that appear to live at the front of my house.

I think, now that I've introduced the idea of the spiders, that I feel pretty confident that the black widows are living their lives with no malicious thoughts directed at me. I'm pretty sure they aren't planning to stalk me or anything... so I don't feel threatened by them.

I had a tiny black widow living below the window above my kitchen sink at my condo. It was tiny, so it wasn't scary, and I was impressed with the number of ants it got. I didn't "have" ants, so I wondered if the reason was the black widow.

It would always run and hide when I turned on the water.

But then it was getting quite a lot bigger, so I was thinking I didn't want to accidentally bash its web and get bitten, so I wiped the web away, thinking the little spider would move outside.

It moved to my stove top. I didn't cook very many things at once, so I almost never turned on the burner where it had decided to build its new web.

But, still...

So, I decided I'd better take it outside. I thought about that for awhile, sort of picturing it in my mind... I sometimes think that very clear mental images have a way of being "seen" by others who are receptive, even insects.

When I went to the stove to take it outside, the spider went behind the control knob, which I knew came off. I hoped it would stay behind the knob, on the knob, and that I could take it outside to the back by the fence way at the back. Sure enough... it stayed right on the knob, and I kept talking to it.

I remember that I passed the condo director who was so instrumental in me losing my condo because the association refused to pay their share of the privy pit remediation, and I hoped he wouldn't kill the spider, so I stopped talking to the spider, so as not to alert him.

The condo association director was certainly much MUCH more dangerous than the black widow.

Though until this moment, I had never really thought about it like this, in terms of an actual comparison.

Thank you again for writing. I think I may post this story ... to start.

(I posted this first, but then I edited so that the two emails would be in chronological order.)

[Rocking4Epilepsy]

Hi
I am glad to see you back posting with us...
I just want to say if you ever see any moderator or member not being fair or have any concerns please contact Kimmy or Doc and I know they will do their best to resolve any issues.

We are all human and we all do made mistakes but hopefully we can all work together and make this site a great place for all to be.

Hugs

[Chemar]

Consider This
I am so glad you came back :) and I echo what Rocking4Epilepsy just posted.
DocJohn has made it very clear that he will not permit mods to have the kinds of roles here that they had on OBT, and that he and KimmyDawn are the only ones who have administrative control, and that even there, they seek to be understanding and flexible, and not domineering.

I can also assure you, as you mentioned the possibility that the mods here may have been mods on OBT, that I most definitely was NOT EVER a mod on OBT !

I really hope you will stay Consider This and that you will be safe here.
I applaud you for returning and for explaining to us so clearly how you feel.

[janster]

Welcome back Big C!
PM forthcoming! Thank you!
Hugs,
Jan :)

[kimmydawn]

ConsiderThis,

I'm glad to see you. :)

Again I'll say, the moderators work as a team. They do not have the capability of banning, suspending, etc. They do not have access to members' personal information. They have agreed to be, and so far have been, out in the open. Decisions are agreed upon as a team (as many as can weigh in and who are online), and not by an individual moderator (unless it's a requested action by a member regarding their own post/edit). Moderators are accountable for any actions taken to their co-moderators and to administration. Also, you'll notice that I'm online alot.

Also, in mentioning decisions/actions, you'll find those to be different as well, I think. Suspensions are rare and after many warnings; bannings even more rare. If one posts something that needs to be removed, or addressed in any way, a PM will be sent in explanation...not a suspension...certainly not a banning (unless it's the obvious spammer).

Goals (as well as the practices) are different here regarding moderation/administration than they appear/appeared to be on some other sites, and many are working very hard to preserve everything wonderful about the OBT, but work on wanted/needed changes necessary as well. We're a "work in progress".

I've said this before, and I'll say it again...I know that only time is going to help with some things. I, one of the many, am dedicated to showing over time that things can be different. I realize, too, that my words can appear just that...words. I hope they become shared realizations based on shared goals over time.

I will share something without alot of detail...I know it's hard to trust after being hurt/injured/let down/uncared for. I'm a survivor of abuse. These things I do understand. Only time, and learning, helped me to trust and believe again. It's been more than worth it for me.

I've read of so much hurt, distrust and even fear. I hope that time and positive action(s) can alleviate those, as it can many things.

All my best,

KD