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Right, I've had enough!

S

smidge

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,761
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Guys!

I am absolutely sick to the back teeth of this forum right now. I think there are many people on here who have behaved like a mob over the last few days. There have been brewing tensions for ages and there were some moderating decisions with which many of you didn't agree. Ben has apologised for those that he thought were wrong and has reversed the major one. I won't give my view in a public forum on what my opinion was - that would be unethical. I accept the original decisions were made in good faith and I accept Ben's apology and reversal of those decisions. You should all do the same or leave the forum.

Yesterday lunchtime I resigned as a moderator and told Ben, Anna and some of you of my decision not to take an active part in this forum for the forseeable future. I had no intention of announcing that on here as I do not like the 'should I stay or should I go' wranglings - it isn't my style. However, despite a number of you stating you would like to get back to doing what we do best (and I am assuming you don't mean arguing by that :lol: ), there are still so many of you contributing to the threads of the last few days that there is no chance of putting it behind us. I see Ben has had to be moderating them again a little while ago.

I am not sure what anyone is hoping to achieve by carrying on like this. There have been no winners over the last few days, only losers, with those in need of help and support being the biggest losers as their questions and discussions and genuine calls for help have been buried under a pile of what I will politely call self-indulgent posts. I hope you will now all consider your behaviour and consider how your points might have been more constructively made. And do it silently, please - there is no need to share :lol:

In order to allow the forum to move on, I would suggest that we ask Ben to now lock all those threads or, preferably, remove them. Anyone disagree?

Take care everyone

Smidge
 
I am still unclear as to if I / we can

a) Give relatively blunt messages about the dangers of complications and health risks etc using our own adult judgement and experiences.
b) Give out specific dietary advice based on our own experiences regardless of what "brand" that dietary advice is.
c) That it is acceptable to have reasoned and polite debates and even disagreements (that may get a bit frazzled occasionally and need moderation) about diets and all related diabetic health care issues.

The rest as you say is pretty pointless background noise as far as I'm concerned. If I am to remain a member I want to know that I will be treated as an intelligent adult by the admin and the moderators not as a child.

Effectively has the moderation style changed? What happened on that "Blunt advice" thread the other night tells me it has. If that is the style that this forum will now be moderated I want no part of it which is why I set up those poll threads so see if I was the only person who thought that way.
 
*** !

I'm having a very large VAT !

I can see that there have been problems here but my sincerest wish is that we can get back to where we belong, giving new members a good insight to their future journeys with their diabetes issues.

Oh well, lets get on with it !

Mines a large one ! Superchip
 
1. My thoughts are that if complications are discussed reasonably sensitively and with consideration of the member they are replying to that's fine.

These things always go on a case by case basis. If we feel the line has been crossed, we as mods reserve the right to edit a post. I can't see that this will be needed aside from exceptional bases. One such might be if someone replied with "can't you see you're eating yourself to death!" (just a hypothetical example)

2. Dietary advice should not be given as a direct command eg "you need to ..." or "make sure you" -we don't know people's medical background so can't be giving commands

Most instances I see are of the form "I've been eating ... and this worked wonders for me". As you can imagine, we'll have no problem with this at all.

3. Debates are good. Disagreements will happen. As best practice avoid use of more than one form of highlighting such as exclamation marks, bold or large lettering and capitals as it's not good debating practice. I'd say that excessive multiple exclamation marks are generally best avoided too.

Avoid stifling a debate by putting '+1', 'totally agree' unless you have something significant and new to offer.

Edit to add: Please don't claim a debate has been won. If you think you have done a good job be proud of yourself but there should be no need to crow about it.


Yes, this is very general but virtually every thread brings something new, so I think it can only be general.

I hope this helps a bit.

Benedict
 
Hi, Smidge

During the last few days this forum has got a little argumentative.
You were not the cause of this bad behavior. A decision was made then after further investigation, reinstatement of the person involved was implemented.

That is the proper procedure one would expect from any forum.

I hope you cancel your notice of resignation.

My simple choice is to follow what the moderators suggest as they can blend in with all points of view.

I do hope that the majority of members would prefer you to stay. Therefore you should put your faith in them and carry on with your good work.

Good luck

Roy.
 
Don't disagree with most of what you've said benedict, but I can see a couple of problems if mods, or anyone, takes this too literally. For example;
benedict said:
Dietary advice should not be given as a direct command eg "you need to ..." or "make sure you" -we don't know people's medical background so can't be giving commands
Click to expand...
If we were saying "you must eat low carb" or "you must avoid bananas", then I agree, but it's a bit different when you say something like "you must be careful to look at the total carb content, not just the of which sugars part" It's not a "command", but an imperative. So common sense needed here. People also slip into words like "you need to" without meaning it as a command; eg "you need to be careful about sauces because you don't know what's in them..."

benedict said:
Avoid stifling a debate by putting '+1', 'totally agree' unless you have something significant and new to offer.
Click to expand...
Difficult. Members make judgements according to weight of opinion, and need to see what a range of other members do/think. If you wish to confirm that you also follow a particular course of action, sometimes all you can do is add "I agree"

I suggest, commonsense is the real rule we need.
 
Come on folks, we are human, humans have altercations. It's what separates us from the apes - I think.
 
smidge said:
In order to allow the forum to move on, I would suggest that we ask Ben to now lock all those threads or, preferably, remove them. Anyone disagree?
Click to expand...


Not at all and I agree they should be removed Smidge.
 
No one can go back and make a new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

That is all I have to say

All the best RRB
 
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