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Hi Mary,
Thank you for the invitation to this forum. It has been most interesting and worthwhile to read through all the posts.
There definitely are troubles that need to be shot (lol!) here on the Adlandpro community, but do not lose hope. As a member of several other communities on the 'Net, I have seen some pretty serious abuse elsewhere. While things sometimes seem to drag out in controversial forums from time to time, in my opinion, Bogdan has handled them quite well.
As a business owner, myself, I have had to deal with many situations over the years. One of the most common challenges that a business owner has to deal with is relationships. What is quite frustrating is a very common human trait. Adults want to be treated as adults, yet they behave like children when they face anything that encroaches on their comfort zone.
When one member of a community, or an employee of a company, or a member of a club, has a problem with another, the proper way to deal with it is for that person to privately go to the other person and try to work it out.
The next step, if the first one doesn't work, is to go to the first person up the line (the foreman/woman, local club president, forum owner, etc.) and try to work things out.
Only when the last two have failed do you need to go any higher (business owner, area rep, etc). In NO case should any of the problems be aired publicly.
Bogdan is exceptionally fair in the way he runs our community. He could arbitrarily close down any discussion at the first sign of trouble (or possible trouble), and protect himself and his business this way. However, he has given everyone the respect of allowing them to conduct themselves as mature adults.
Ken really hit the nail on the head:
As a forum owner, I feel it is our responsibility to monitor what happens in 'our house'. Your topic of discussion is yours and you can control 'the meeting'. We have settings in the control panel to make our forum public, private, invite members, ban a member, etc ...
It is still the responsibility of the individual to privately communicate with another individual when trouble arises between them. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of the forum owner, NOT the community owner, to deal with problems on the forums. It is irresponsible of forum owners to let destructive behaviour continue on their forums. A little controversy and/or debate can be healthy for the whole community, but public insults, attacks, and humiliating posts are never healthy and need to be stopped by the forum owner immediately.
So...
If I was going to recommend a change in this community to Adlandpro's management, I would suggest that the forum owners be required to be more accountable. This could be done by warnings, restrictions in privileges, and ultimately by suspensions for forum owners who refuse to exercise their responsibilities as owners.
Trying to make every member behave is like trying to carry water in a paper bag full of holes, but requiring forum owners to behave responsibly is much simpler, and, in fact, quite doable.
God bless,
Dave
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