Thumbs up to you, Carol; to SpringGreenThumb, not so much!

Some thoughts on this subject........

In my opinion when a forum has been as disturbed, as the iris forum has been for the past few weeks, it is good to see in a notice that the problem is over. Normally I would not think this way but other people than the poster were involved. It had gotten to the point that many of us were not posting and I was thinking that the forum would never be the same again. If this changes I will not have any problem with it.

I read the posts from this person and at first I thought 'just needs meds and prayers'. I can supply one of those.....

And the ignore button is a great option but after awhile, as the attacks continued, it was impossible not to be aware of the topics of the posts even if the ignore option was used. After many of her posts people were defending not only themselves but others. I had moved beyond pity and I thought 'grow up and stop this behavior!'.

Some people like conflict and drama and no matter what is said they always take offense. I have disagreed with many people on the forum but still have great respect for what they think. No one wants a world with one book and I love that we are such a diverse group with so many different ways of tackling things. However, I have never seen words on any forum, except the Roll Call thread in the Iris Forum, like the ones that were used in just a period of days. These words were scattered over many posts, and a lot were aimed at me in different posts, and I had not responded to any of these posts but that did not stop them from coming.

I am a big believer in if you don't like what you see look somewhere else. As the posts began spreading into other threads on the forum it became harder and harder to avoid them. If it is not a happy place why am I there. I can't fix it. Reasoning by calm voices were not fixing it. It is sad but when you think of the alternative, which is for most or all of us to just leave, it is more than sad. This person did make the comment that they liked another forum because it did not have as many people and they could 'dominate' it.

I felt a great deal of relief when I read the message that they were banned. I felt other things as well.

I think this option has saved the Iris Forum and therefore a source of comradery and new ideas for me. I hope anyone who was looking the site over was not put off by this past months angst.

It took a lot of negative posts, accusations and some name calling by this person before anyone made a decision to report them. We are a live and let live group and that is as it should be. It was not taken lightly.

I hope I never see this situation on this site again but it is good to know when you have exhausted all options there is someone that can set things right. In every society, and I think the forums are a bit like a tiny society/\. there are rules to live by. The rules we live by, and most of us adhere to, are just good common courtesy and thinking all of us are equal.

If the admin system had not posted the banned notice I think after a period of time people would have started coming back slowly to the forum. As it is this morning there is a lot more posts than has been there is weeks...... very few of them about this situation.

I hope the banned person finds peace in their life and will not need to 'dominate' a group of people to feel like they belong.

Just my thoughts...... and they are worth just what you paid for them.

Dave, Trish and Company....

I don't know how you guys are able to keep up with the rest of your lives and still manage to make things better and easier for all of us.

Rick. Like having thousands of children to look after.

This thread is to announce and discuss the new features Dave put in place, not to attack or criticize other members. The system did it's job and dealt with the problem. There is no need to go on and on about what a bad person this member is.

JamesAcclaims said: Rick. Like having thousands of children to look after.

Well we do know one thing and that is that Dave & Trish absolutely adore children so I guess they're pretty darn happy to have all of us to look after.

Jay -- "she" is not a bad person. Her behavior is bad. And since Dave saw fit to discuss it -- I guess we can too.

You are right, Jay, thank you for the nudge.

I agree with you, Jay! The point is that while that person was banned from a site, she was still able to tree mail a blast, and continue to stir up trouble.

Muddymitts said:Jay -- "she" is not a bad person. Her behavior is bad. And since Dave saw fit to discuss it -- I guess we can too.

Dave's responses was in regard to the post about the public announcement of the banning, and another post about whether someone who is banned can be reinstated. All mention of the person were in context of the system. Members should have taken the high road and not used Dave's comments as an opportunity to publicly berate another member.

I apologize, Jay. You are quite right. My thought was that if I shared just a bit other members would know the depth of feelings involved and that reporting was not done without a lot of soul searching and why I thought notifying on the thread had its merits. I regret sharing my thoughts on this forum and in the manner I did. As I said, they are worth just what you paid for them.

I will try to stay on topic. My thought process may be different from "normal" people but...

The "ignore" feature is excellent and should solve many potential problems, however instead of having the anonymous red exclamation point to report posts, (in my humble opinion) it might have been better if we could have had a "thumbs down" button. That way each and every poster would be able to see how each of their posts has been received - whether positive or negative - and have at least a chance to alter the way they post in the future.

Edited for spelling error.

Good suggestion Greene. My concern is that they would confuse the thumbs down little icon with the thumbs down button. I have seen people make a separate post and put this in thinking they have given the previous poster an acorn. I can see a person saying that he found borers in his rhizomes and then get the thumbs down button. I was hoping that no response to posts would work. nope. But I do like your idea.

I like the idea of a "thumbs down" option (in addition to the report option for inappropriate posts). Some means of conveying feedback to the post author is a good idea.

On another forum I visit, they have "agree" and "disagree" options as well as "report".

I've never been a fan of thumbs-down icons, and I don't think we need it here. Being able to report problem posters is enough.

The system has worked as it is intended, and will continue to serve this community in the future. I kind of feel like this conversation has pretty much been concluded, so if nobody minds I'm going to go ahead and lock this thread. I appreciate very much the conversation we've had about this feature.