My suggestion was (and is) that if you (and others) are so unhappy with what goes on here, then why persist with it?
I didn't. You still fail to understand. I quietly forgot about the site. I received a PM from an administrator about one of my threads, basically mentioned I didn't care, was asked why, and now you have it. They were quite open, in fact. Seemed on a private basis to encourage wanting to know why less than 23% of registrants stick around.
You could go to the same expense and put in the same level of work that Amin, BB, and all the others do, and create (and pay for) your own site, and your own forum, and then get what you want.
I actually do. Naive on your part to think I don't. The previous mods who left know because I used to help them try to catch spam.
Instead you just complain and accuse people of all sorts of attitudes and forms of behaviour, and I think many of us, myself included, are actually quite offended by that.
Stop it. You're not offended. If you are, then you have low standards for offense. Real life must be terrible. And stop suggesting others a bandwagon to jump on (ie: the being offended bandwagon).
This forum is a somewhat civilised oasis in the midst of what is an internet "Dodge City" most of the time. If you feel yourself so misrepresented and misunderstood, there is a simple solution. Create your own.
Your imagination is running wild, with respect to me being "misrepresented" and "misunderstood". Those two words were used in internet forums in 2001 quite often and used as a tactic, not as a valid offensive.
And again, your imagination is running wild about me not creating my own.
It would, as I said, be a more positive response than seeking to suggest that there is some of kind of "silent majority" out there who are discontented and about to boil over into some kind of ill-tempered revolt.
I never suggested that. You did. It's your imagination running wilder as you type. However, less than 23% stay on and several I referred to the forum have not stayed.
I'm offended, personally, by you putting words in my mouth and mischaracterizing me.
Amin, as the owner, has always been keen to maintain an even tempered environment, in the midst of what can be diverse views and sometimes heated responses. To accuse the people who give up their own time to moderate and administer this forum of "cliquishness" and disregard for the importance and relevance of others views, is, I would suggest, somewhat innacurate. If you want an environment where people freely abuse and criticise each other, there are surely more appropriate alternatives.
It is a clique. Otherwise, I don't know what the rest of that is supposed to mean, to be honest.
I have no great hope that the voices of reason will prevail here,
That is unfortunate and perhaps the spirit in which you wrote your response. It echoes closed-mindedness. Again, I'm not the first person to bring this up.
but I felt compelled to write this anyway, in support of people who over time, have become as close to being "friends" as is possible by corresponding via the internet.
Well, if I attacked people, then yeah, you can defend them. I criticized the modus of the site in an effort to make it better. It made a remarkable turnaround after we lost two great mods that helped steer things to increase community.
None of what you say resonates with me, and I don't see the attitudes that you insist exist here. But then you probably have me down as part of the "problem".
That is unfortunate and drives more of the assertion of closed-mindedness and cliquey behavior here. My words have no value, apparently. Yet there are no cliques? There's no such situation of most of the people posting being ignored?