I don't really want to get into a long debate about this again, but I do respect the opinions and contributions of the old school members.Originally Posted by Sanlmar
However, we've already had various iterations of the inmates running the asylum over the past 7 1/2 years, and it's never worked out. Those sites are either gone or dead. There's a reason why PFA has been the current home to this NWP-spawned community since early 2012, and that's because I have a good idea of what should and shouldn't be done as an admin of these forums. In fact, some of it I learned myself through trial-and-error since being appointed a mod on NWP ten or so years ago.
PFA almost never came to exist. I retired from this community in September 2011 after the surprising betrayal by certain people on Donkdown. After a few months passed, I still had no desire to start a new forum, nor was I particularly missing it that much. Whenever I wanted to share my opinion about something, I wrote a blog on dandruffpoker.com and tweeted it out.
However, I started getting e-mails from people appealing for me to start my own site. They didn't like the Donkdown forum anymore. They didn't like the Donkdown radio show anymore. Some even wrote really nice things about how much they missed my presence in the community. Eventually I decided that I'd give it a whirl, but also be prepared for it to be a failsite. If the site didn't catch on within a few months, I was going to shut it down, and not let pride get in the way. It never came to that. The site quickly became the replacement for DD (without my even trying), and soon DD was a ghost town.
When I started the site, however, I made various promises to myself. First and foremost, I swore that I would be 100% in charge of everything, with no mods or co-owners, thus preventing a repeat of the nasty betrayal I dealt with on DD. Second, I was going to trust my instinct, do what I felt was right for the site, and not let anyone (or any group of people) browbeat me into doing things their way. I would be willing to take suggestions, and I would moderate with a mostly hands-off style, but I would not let the site run me -- I would be the one running it.
Those were my thoughts in 2012, and they are still my thoughts in 2016. I ask for very little around here. I don't try to monetize the site. I let people bash, troll, and criticize me. With only a few common-sense exceptions, I don't censor content. I have let bygones be bygones with some people from the past and let them create accounts here -- something I initially said I wouldn't do. The one thing I ask in return from the userbase is a general respect for the way I run this site, and the acknowledgement that I'm going to be running it my way.
You are a big free market guy, Sanlmar. The free market has spoken with PFA. This is the site where the community resides, even though there were (and still are) several other choices. That means I'm mostly doing things right, even if there are some decisions that certain people don't agree with. If at some point there is a mass exodus from here, that's also fine. If it becomes a ghost town, then I will just close the forum down. I hope that this doesn't happen, and it continues for a long time, as it has.
Regarding Mumbles, he set out to "prove" a bias against his Mumbles screen name by creating a second account, and noticing that people weren't trolling it like they were his Mumbles account. But he didn't really prove a bias. What he actually proved was the fact that he can post normally and fit within the community if he chooses to, but for some reason he chooses not to. That's what I don't understand.
I think that the entire site will agree that FlyPaper was a much better poster than Mumbles, even in hindsight knowing that they were both the same guy.
Mumbles should take a lesson from that, and become more like his alter ego.
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