The following was sent out today as a private message to all registered users:
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Today I was forced to take an unprecedented step in my management of The Cocklebur: I deleted the topic "More Evidence of a Biased Media" in response to a flame war that had broken out between several users.
The action was in my opinion one of the only ways to bring an end to this unacceptable behavior in a timely and straightforward way.
>From the inception of The Cocklebur community, we have tried to provide an adult space for people to robustly discuss local affairs.
The community of users has, for the most part, brought wisdom, wit and a fair amount of good information to our local political debate. But we have always been "bedeviled" by posters who either don't care how their bad behavior might ruin an otherwise helpful public space for everyone else or who are intent on destroying this community space.
I believe Cocklebur users won't sit by and let that happen.
Our move to a new platform had much to do with giving the community the power to moderate this forum, and I am calling on every loyal user of TheCocklebur to use the power save this forum.
Please:
1. Routinely and consistently use the "thumbs up and thumbs down" feature on EVERY comment you read so that you send a message to the good citizens and the troublemakers about where they stand.
-- Thumb Up whenever you think a post adds to the debate.
-- Thumb down whenever posts are unhelpful.
Only by doing this consistently can we demonstrate the will of the Cocklebur community and ensure that we can take appropriate Democratic action to deal with the menace in our midst.
2. I will not hesitate to ban people who the community seems to have decided aren't worth having around. Don't bother trying to create new accounts. We intend very shortly to have a very sophisticated solution to prevent banned users from doing so.
In response to today's flame war, I am sending a private message to four posters -- each of them identified by a longtime and deeply respected user as those most responsible for "flaming" on this forum.
Their accounts will be placed in a "sin bin" for a week, and they will be asked to cease their bad behavior when their accounts are reactivated. If they don't want to play by the rules, they will be banned permanently.
I hope you agree that action is needed and that you can be part of the solution.
If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to drop me a private message.
In closing, TheCocklebur is only as strong and as the community of users who live here. Let's take responsibility for making it a better place.
