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[Ric Gillespie]

The intent of this thread is to question the fairness and effectiveness of the moderation of this Forum. The criticism has been explicit and scathing, including the naming and characterization of individuals.

I did a survey of the Forum's history of banishings over the four year period, 2011 - 2015, for which we have records.  The results were interesting and I'm happy to share them. I have listed the dates of the banishments and the reasons recorded at the time but, out of respect for the banished, I have not named names.

Since September 2011, 23 individuals (as opposed to spammers) have been banned from the Forum for cause.  Death toll by year:
2011 - 1
2012 - 2
2013 - 14
2014 - 6
2015 - 0 (so far)

Here's the cemetery:

September 12, 2011         Falsifying information.
October 17, 2012              Falsehoods and personal attacks
November 23, 2012           threats
February 05, 2013             Offensive conduct
February 27, 2013             Persistent misrepresentation
March 04, 2013                 Troll
March 04, 2013                  Troll
March 04, 2013                  Troll
March 04, 2013                   Troll
March 04, 2013                   Troll
March 28, 2013                   Troll
May 16, 2013                      Troll-ism
May 16, 2013                      Troll-ism
May 31, 2013                      sarcasm
June 06, 2013                     no reason stated
July 07, 2013                      harrassment
October 23, 2013                impostor
August 26, 2014                  political harangue
September 27, 2014            Ad hominem attack via PM.
November 03, 2014             hostile bias
November 03, 2014             hostile bias
November 03, 2014             hostile bias
November 03, 2014             hostile bias

In retrospect, it's clear that, over time, we have become more tolerant and that's a good thing.  I think three observations are apparent:

•  Our policies of moderation and judicious banning work. The Forum is better than it was (the critics will, of course, disagree).

•  There are no legions of detractors waiting to fill the ranks of the fallen. There is a small and finite population of passionate critics.

•  A clean house tends to stay clean.  We had to do some major housecleaning in 2013 and 2014 but it was the right thing to do.

[Monty Fowler]

I find the overall tone regrettable and not conductive to the open and honest debate and spirited discussion that lead to an increase in our body of knowledge about Earhart and Noonan's fate.

I too find the recent overall tone regrettable and I'm eager to return to increasing in our body of knowledge about Earhart and Noonan's fate.

I should have been clearer - I found Dr. Riddle's tone regrettable. I'm not sure how limiting comments in here to TIGHAR members after March 1 is going to contribute to an open debate and increase our body of knowledge. What Neff Jacobs pointed out about people voting with their feet is very true as well.

I get the fact that some people who comment in here, comment simply to see their comments in print (I'm as guilty of that as the next person), but if you really look at the forum membership stats, almost 75 percent of the listed members have posted zero or at most one comment. There is a small percentage of people who have posted at least 10 comments for their time in here, and a very, very small number of people who have posted more than 30 or so times, not even 10 percent. So maybe TIGHAR doesn't have any more, or any fewer, truly active participants than any other aviation/historical discussion forum. We should be looking for more and creative ways to get more people involved, instead of moving in the other direction.

Every comment has intrinsic value, to someone. We all sort our own grains of wheat from the vast conversational chaff, every single day. I don't see how reducing the number of grains of wheat is going to move TIGHAR's effort forward any faster or "better" than it is already going. This newest initiative feels more like an attempt to control things than anything else.

LTM,
Monty Fowler, TIGHAR No. 2189 EC

[Chris Johnson]

Here here