Greg

Everything looks good on my end. If you continue to see a problem, update this thread.

It's always an option, but it's not a prerequisite to becoming a moderator. Remember, a facilitator can participate in the day to day discussions, moderators can not. A facilitator's formal role is just to encourage reasonable debate; both through leading example and by publicly encouraging participants to keep on topic and to treat each other with respect. Facilitators are there to help facilitate reasonable and respectful discussions.

That simply cannot happen in this situation. Remember, a Facilitator is NOT a moderator - they're more of a good-will ambassador. Their role is to guide and encourage forum participants to act and post with respect, not disciplining of participants. There is a huge difference between these two roles.

I have decided to create a new position in the Maple Leaf Web forums called, Forum Facilitator. Each facilitator would be expected to provide direction and advice to other forum participants. He or she will be provided with LIMITED moderation controls (closing threads, issuing abuse reports, etc) and all of their actions will need to be approved by either Charles (Moderator) or myself (Form Admin). Facilitators will be free to participate in the forum discussions; however, their contributions will be held to a very HIGH standard by Charles and myself. Facilitators will be expected to encourage participants to adhere to the rules of the forum, and to keep the quality of the discussions at a reasonable level. To apply for this position, you will need to be a long time member of the forums (minimum 1000 postings) and to be a member in good standing (no recent complaints or disciplinary actions against you). If you are interested, please PM me or contact me directly.

Yes, of course. Charles and I still monitor the reports and moderate the forums.

If you see issue arising with moderation or tone, please contact me directly or post your comments in the support section of the forums.

I think everyone is getting a bit ahead of themselves. The forum will stay active for the foreseeable future. If, in the future, the forums are shut down, I will give everyone plenty of warning beforehand. Trust me, I won't suddenly pull the plug.

In the immediate future, nothing major is going to happen to the forums. The Max Bell foundation has generously offered to pay for the hosting costs and security updates for the website and Charles is committed to volunteering his time as a moderator. In terms of my involvement, I will be responsible for applying the updates and making sure the website remains live and available. I don't plan on relinquishing my forum administrator title and so long as the work load remains light (I'm a volunteer now, just like Charles). I still plan on seeking a few new moderators to assist with the moderation of the forums and I will always update forum members about any change to the forum. So this announcement has more to do with the writing and publishing of our political education materials than with the forums. However, I still wanted everyone to know what was going on with the site.

After 11 years of publishing Canadian political educational materials on the Internet, Mapleleafweb.com will no longer be actively maintained. This decision was hard to make, but unfortunately finding additional funding sources to pay for the active development of the website was proving too difficult. This project would have never been a success without the generous donations provided by the Max Bell Foundation, Arthur Child Foundation, Canada West Foundation, University of Lethbridge, David Elton Endowment and anonymous donors. I also want to thank all those talented individuals who contributed to the Maple Leaf Web project over the past decade – your hard work and dedication made the project a big success. This is not the end of Mapleleafweb - the website will still be available online and the discussion forums will still be open and moderated by volunteers. It has been a great honor to work on this project and I firmly believe we added something valuable to the political discourse in Canada. Thank you and farewell, Greg Farries Project Director

No, but I would follow up and intervene if there was ever a complaint or a threat made via a private message.

I believe good moderation falls somewhere in between total anarchy and strict approval of each postings (which would be closer to fascism). As in life, the majority of offenses go unpunished - it is simply unrealistic to monitor every post or private message of every single contributor. I don't have the time nor the patience to undertake such a task and I don't think anyone would want to contribute to a forum where their behavior is constantly watched and critiqued. On the other hand, it's important that someone (Charles and I, in this case) keep an eye out for negative trends (repeated offenses, etc) and severe rule breaking. As I've stated in the past, this forum is what you make of it. I can't force peace (or intelligent discussion, for that matter) upon anyone. It is everyone's responsibility to take the high road when attacked or insulted and the strength of the community (and the discussion is produces) depends on the majority of the participants treating each other with respect. Have said that, I'm open to the suggestion that another moderator be added to the mix. I am going to speak with Charles and I will be posting a request in this section of the forum shortly. Feel free to add your two cents to the discussion below. Thanks,

What was the original thread's title?

We are preforming important maintenance on the web server Maple Leaf Web website is located on. Therefore, the Maple Leaf Web discussion forms will be unavailable between Dec 15 6PM EST to Dec 16 6AM EST. Thank you for your cooperation.

I've noticed a disappointing trend amongst certain forum members - insulting other members via the Status Updates feature. If this continues, I will begin to suspend the offending members. The forums rules apply to all sections/features of the discussion forums. Please treat each other with respect.

For security (and partly aesthetic) reasons we do not allow images to be posted in these forums.

I am glad to hear that!

Everything is fine on my end. Can you try to clear your cache in your browser?

It looks like I've solved the problem. It now shows this thread as having 272 Views. Please update this thread if you see any other issue with the stats. Thanks

I just want to inform everyone that I am aware of the incorrect server time being displayed in the forums. We have been attempting to resolve this issue for the past couple of days. Each time we correct the time, it reverts to the wrong time after-wards. Also note, that a few posters have reporting issues with posting and viewing certain postings after the server clock has been updated and corrected. If that should happen, the only thing you can do is wait a few hours to allow the forum to "catch-up" with the new corrected time. I'm sorry for the inconvenience and I appreciate your cooperation.

Thanks for reporting this issue. We're working on this issue. I'll update this thread when i know more. Thanks

This is a hiccup relating to the server's internal clock. I recently rebooted the server and for some reason this knocked the clock forward a few hours. I'm not entirely sure why, but this issue is being dealt with as we speak. Thanks!

I don't think this is a glitch. I'm not familiar with this specific operation of the forum, but I'm willing to speculate that these numbers are not updated "as they happen" but rather are tabulated nightly by a regular script. I will see if I can find out why and update this thread when I know more. In the mean time, watch the views number for this thread and lets see when it updates. Cheers,

Can you give me a specific example?

The system clock has been updated. The system clock is set to CDT. Thanks,