Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
I've said this countless times.
I don't believe we have to give degrading avatars to unpopular posters, as their actions speak for themselves.
I also don't believe in kicking people off the site just because they're unpopular (even if their posts usually suck). Not only do I think that sets a bad precedent, but we don't have the stream of new traffic like NWP did in its heyday, simply because poker has declined a lot since then, plus forums in general have also declined big time.
If I turn this into a circle jerk of "good" posters, then it will ghost town very quickly, much like the rest of the NWP spinoffs have. Truthfully, most people who have "left" simply lost interest, and would have left even if things were much better here.
While bragging about stagnation is not usually a good look, the fact of the matter is that having a poker forum with roughly the same level of activity in 2018 as 2012 is a pretty amazing feat. Between the decline of poker, the 7 years since online poker was widely and easily available in the US, and the fact that everyone is ditching forums now in favor of reddit and social media, it's a wonder this place is even still standing.
Look at 2+2. It used to be so busy that you couldn't keep up with it. Now their once-bustling NVG forum isn't that much busier than this Flying Stupidity forum (seriously, go take a look).
I used to post on another forum which was once very popular (not poker realted), and it is a total ghost town now.
People just don't post on forums anymore, and especially not about poker.
The bottom line is that I've maintained a fair activity level here for all 6 years of the site's existence (it just had its anniversary last week), and I've even managed to keep a slow but steady flow of new users all these years later (which is tougher than you might think).
Not even NWP itself lasted six years. While some of my decisions may not be ones you agree with, I can assure you that they're all done with the overall health and future of the site in mind.
Also recall that the biggest fear upon PFA's inception was that I would engage in heavy-handed moderation. Instead, the complaints mostly seem to be that my hands aren't heavy enough. For the most part, I've found that letting the forum mostly run itself is the best solution, and I've taken to lighter administration touches such as deleting junk messages and banning people from threads, rather than outright bans from the site.