What is up with FPN?

[pengeezer]

Oho! Now the pieces fall into place. You see, people on FPN are openly scared of even speaking the Isaacson name, for fear of being banned. Now, I agree that any porn-image swapping is dirty pool. But a Stalinesque culture is worse.

And commerce is good! I do it myself. But it is an increasing presence on FPN. If it was just there, like all the other forums, that would be fine. But it is in plain sight, while being trumpeted as being a negative influence. And while there is talk of covering hosting fees, there is never any evidence of the actual numbers. If each member bought just one $5 badge, once, how much money would someone have in a bank account? $200,000? That's not small change, for a very small transaction. If that is how much it takes to run the board, fine. But until I see the numbers, I reserve both judgement and the right to be cynical.

My Junius quote has been there since I created my account, and is something I honestly love. I didn't just trot it out for this occasion. Life is too short to live it in fear of bullies. Or to waste it on negative relationships. When I read JBB's post, my heart went out to her, because she didn't deserve what she has gotten.

My post is mostly just observations and logic. I don't like heavy-handed moderation tactics, and I say that as someone who has moderated forums for years, and dealt with my fair share of loonies in doing so. If people are scared, they won't stay. And if they smell something fishy, they won't stay. And if the site is down because of a mod war they won't stay. And if they are flashed by porn they won't stay (I was yesterday, at about 4 pm. And It was a link from within the temporary place-holder page, which calls into question the whole DNS-server thing, because that is a top-level re-direction. But I digress.)

Shawn, I know that you have invested a lot in FPN over the years, and I have always appreciated your postings and enthusiastic input. And I was glad to see you made a moderator because of your positive personality. I do hope that FPN can get itself together and be a happy place again. But you have to be realistic.

PS David I., you are a very bad boy!

I need to jump in here to clarify something even though I'm late to a party
that's been over for some time. I'm not one of those that was afraid to mention David I's name--I just didn't
find mentioning anything about him significant or important. I find him inwardly little and as controlling as the
one running FPN.

Guess that'll keep me off FPB......not that I planned to join anyway.


John