Wordforge Mission...

[Volpone]

All right. Back when Cass started Wordforge, she made this Mission Statement:

Originally Posted by Cassandra
Wordforge Mission Statement

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Instead of tons of rules we trust in common sense and personal responsibility of our members. Yet: to make this board a pleasent experience for our visitors and to keep it legal we have to have a few rules.

The enforcement of these few rules is up to the mods of the forums in question. You can reach the mods via mail: [email protected] or the Private Message system.


This site is on a German server. That means: we are under the German nazi legislation. NO swastikas or other nazi symbols - except for discussion or scholary reasons. No glorification of nazi personnel, deeds or similar. Breaking this rule will result in criminal prosecution.
Same goes for 'warez' talk.
No flaming and/or trolling outside the Red Room. There are trolling cases that are too much for even the Red Room - like extreme racism against any ethnic group, death threats or accusing somebody of pedophilia. This can get us in trouble and to be honest - I'd have a big problem with leading a site that allowed this kind of behaviour. Determining cases of 'friendly bantering' vs. 'hardcore trolling' is up to the common sense of our mods.
Posting anybody's real life info without consent will get you banned at least until the matter is resolved. Privacy isn't a good to be played with these days.
Posts with nudity or graphically violent pictures must be marked as such. People come here from the workplace and these could get them fired. There is also a hidden forum for erotic content. To see & access it, click Group Memberships in your UserCP and join the group called 'Naughty'. You can turn this on and off as you like.
Duals will be smoked out sooner or later. The mods do it for a sport and the administration won't hold them back.
Try to avoid copyright infringements. Ask permission to repost something. Picture posting rule of thumb: small sites usually have bandwidth restrictions. Put pics from such places on your own webspace. CNN will have no problem with you linking to them.
If you feel treated unfairly make a thread in Bitchin' and Moanin'. Try to talk to the mod in question privately first, then take up torches and pitchforks.

That's it. Use your brain and you'll be fine. In case you have no brain, we have a warning system.

Coming in flaming and spamming without any prior contribution will result in immediate permaban. If there was a 'misunderstanding' you can contact [email protected] or [email protected]

This can be the starting point for discussion of what we think Wordforge is about.

That said, it needs some work. This is as much the rules and bylaws as it is a mission statement. It is too long and involved to serve, in my opinion. A mission statement should be more like a paragraph, maybe a sentence or two, that boils down the essence of what Wordforge is and what it is about.

For my money, Wordforge is about the posters. It is a place for people to gather, to share their views and their lives, their ups and downs. Wordforge is a place to bitch about politics, or show pictures of your absurdly fluffy dog (or even pictures of your boobies), and be around people who know you.

Wordforge is a place where we take care of our own, we clean up our own messes and, as Bailey has said elsewhere (and I paraphrase) "the staff is there with a spare set of keys in case someone gets locked out."

That's my two cents for now. The floor is open for brainstorming and discussion. Ideas are welcome. So are full-on drafts of Mission statements. And discussion both.

 

[Friday]

"Privacy isn't a good to be played with these days." A good what? Damn, I wish they'd fix that sentence. It irks the grammar nazi in me.

That mission statement is a good starting point.

 

[faceman]

A good as in "goods and services"?

 

[Anna]

Looking at that statement, that's pretty much all the guidelines we really need for a nuWF. Back when I first found this place via Stewey's sig link at TBBS, my idea of good moderation was something along the lines of...

Today, not so much. As Volpone said, WF is for everyone to make of it as they will.

 

[Turd]

How do people manage to drag this crap up from years past? Do they save it on their hard drive or something?

 

[Tyrant]

How do people manage to drag this crap up from years past? Do they save it on their hard drive or something?

I find it interesting that other WFers who didn't sign on with their regular handles were criticized for it.

What must the state of affairs be like when detractors of this group have to hide behind a piece of shit?

 

[Anna]

How do people manage to drag this crap up from years past? Do they save it on their hard drive or something?

Spoiler

We're all Tamar's duals.

 

[Turd]

I.......knew it!

 

[guldulac]

For my money, Wordforge is about the posters. It is a place for people to gather, to share their views and their lives, their ups and downs. Wordforge is a place to bitch about politics, or show pictures of your absurdly fluffy dog (or even pictures of your boobies), and be around people who know you.

Wordforge is a place where we take care of our own, we clean up our own messes and, as Bailey has said elsewhere (and I paraphrase) "the staff is there with a spare set of keys in case someone gets locked out."

That's a good start. It shouldn't be about much else. I understand mechanics are being discussed in the Constitution thread, so the mission need not say much about how we achieve the articulated goals.

 

[Turd]

You know, one thing above that is right is that WF is about the posters. The problem with it's current state is that the posters are different from the early days. No rule changes will alter that. The orginal mx no longer exists so people should either deal with it or go elsewhere. I see not other option.

 

[Tamar_Garish]

How do people manage to drag this crap up from years past? Do they save it on their hard drive or something?

It's called Google....ever hear of it?

 

[Volpone]

You know, one thing above that is right is that WF is about the posters. The problem with it's current state is that the posters are different from the early days. No rule changes will alter that. The orginal mx no longer exists so people should either deal with it or go elsewhere. I see not other option.

Could you expand on that? I thought I knew what you were saying until about halfway through.

WF is about the posters. Check.
The posters ARE different from the Early Days. Also Check.
But why is that a problem? And what do you mean to "deal with it"? I could guess about what you're saying, but I don't want to put words into your mouth.

Why wouldn't new posters like TKO or Ash or...whoever want a place where you have a community and people look out for each other rather than relying on Moderators to decide what they can and cannot see?

 

[Turd]

Could you expand on that? I thought I knew what you were saying until about halfway through.

WF is about the posters. Check.
The posters ARE different from the Early Days. Also Check.
But why is that a problem? And what do you mean to "deal with it"? I could guess about what you're saying, but I don't want to put words into your mouth.

Why wouldn't new posters like TKO or Ash or...whoever want a place where you have a community and people look out for each other rather than relying on Moderators to decide what they can and cannot see?

The point is that the mix is different. So those who look back fondly on the old days are going to be dissapointed in the place until they realise that the dynamic has changed and so must the board.

 

[Anna]

The point is that the mix is different. So those who look back fondly on the old days are going to be dissappointed in the place until they realise that the dynamic has changed and so must the board.

I don't think a changed dynamic is the issue here. There are people I enjoyed that don't post there anymore (Like the person whom I followed there after he was banned from TBBS), but there have been others whose company I've gotten to enjoy. Likewise, not every poster that's left is a big lost. No one misses JohnM's "Nigger!!!!1one" threads sprawed out in the RR, for example.

 

[Volpone]

The point is that the mix is different. So those who look back fondly on the old days are going to be dissapointed in the place until they realise that the dynamic has changed and so must the board.

...

Hmm. Either I'm still not getting you or we're talking past each other. I agree that the dynamic has changed, and the point that the board needs to change is the whole reason I'm here, having this discussion. Because right now, I think the way things are being run has fallen into a rut and The Powers That Be have lost sight of what made people come to Wordforge in the first place--a place to be free from heavy-handed and uneven moderating.

 

[Turd]

I think the fact that Enterpriser now feels at home on WF tells how the membership has gotten weaker in character.

 

[Volpone]

OK. Maybe this is a dead horse, maybe not. But for various reasons, I'm going to take another couple whacks at it.

I really, really tried to build a mission statement off Cass' original document, but it just doesn't work. It isn't a mission, it's rules. So I'm going to work from the paragraph I mentioned earlier. :cylon:

 

[Volpone]

OK. First, some background:

When it became clear that there was virtually no chance that the fundamental problems with Wordforge that we have been discussing were going to be fixed, I took steps to start a new board. As much as I'd like to stay at a board called "Wordforge", I wasn't going to start something like "WordforgeBBS", so I had to come up with a different name.

After some discussion (and some disagreement) and much consideration, I selected the name "Valhalla" for the successor to Wordforge. In Norse mythology, Valhalla is where the most noble of warriors slain in battle were carried by the Valkyries to live. Each day they'd arm themselves and battle each other to the death, and each night they'd be healed and spend the night drinking and feasting together.

That is sort of what I want the next Wordforge to be: a home for "noble warriors" from other boards, where they can fight each other during the day and drink together in the night. That said, here's my draft of a mission statement. Comment is welcome:

VALHALLA BBS MISSION STATEMENT

In Norse mythology, Valhalla was the home for noble warriors who fell in glorious battle. Only the most heroic of fallen warriors were selected, and carried off to Valhalla by the Valkyries. Every day in Valhalla, the warriors would ride forth and do battle with each other. Then, at night, the dead and wounded would be magically healed and everyone would join together for a night of feasting and merriment.

Valhalla is a bulletin board founded as a home for posters who grew frustrated with other boards; with uneven and excessive moderation and with board management who put personal whims above the goodwill of the community.

Valhalla is a community. It is a place for people to gather and to do “glorious battle” with each other each day and to “share a drink” together each night. Valhalla is a place for its members to share there personal and political views, to discuss, argue, debate, and commiserate. It is a safe place for members to bitch about politics or their jobs or share pictures ranging from naughty body parts to their absurdly fluffy dog. Valhalla is a place to be around people who know you.

At Valhalla, we take care of our own. We clean up our own messes. Moderators exist to fix typos or move threads when appropriate. We prefer to resolve our differences at the community level, but when a rule is blatantly violated management reserves the right to formally sanction members for the good of the community.

The management of Valhalla exists to serve its members. Twice in the past, members have left boards that forgot this fact. We will take steps to ensure that the management exists to serve the community, not the other way around.

Now get out there and have fun.

 

[guldulac]

I like that quite a bit. I'd say it captures what Wordforge was originally meant to be. The one quibble I have is in the fourth paragraph.

when a rule is blatantly violated management reserves the right to formally sanction members for the good of the community.

I'm leary of the idea that a minority (ie the staff) can be charged with deciding the good of the community. Smacks of some sort of ism (either commie or fascist variety). I'd recommend this instead:

when a rule is blatantly violated the community reserves the right to embarrass, harass, and belittle the violator. Management will only step in when a law is broken.

 

[Grammour Boy]

If I may interject...I do not think the name chosen is a wise one. It's dangerous to base a board's mission, by virtue of the name, on members doing "battle" with one another. Don't be surprised if such a board devolves into a haven for nastiness and vindictiveness. After all, it is a valhalla.