Greg

It's possible it was down when you tried to login. Two big events happened last week - a forum upgrade and the launch of the new version of Mapleleafweb. I am still moving a few things around on the server, however, from this point forward the forums should not be affected. However, I will be making some changes to the forum templates to bring them more in line with the new design of Mapleleafweb. That shouldn't cause any problems with the forums, however, if it does I'll make sure to notify everyone, Thanks...

I apolgize for the confusion. What you're seeing is the new version of Maple Leaf Web. The link has been fixed. Thanks for reporting that.

Down? Define down? The forums were off-line for about 20 mins on Friday, as a few files were accidentally deleted. However, that issue was resolved quickly, and everything is operating normal now.

I have every intention to explaining all the new features. However, I'm right in the middle of launching the new Mapleleafweb website. So give me a week or two and I'll be back to explain everything. In the mean time, feel free to post a question and or comment and I'll try to stop in once in a while to read and respond. Thanks!

I'm pretty sure they're not talking about these forums. Yesterday this forum has over 348 separate postings and 7 new topics created.

Final test - everything should be working fine now!

test again

Lets see - test post.

Opening warning posters creates a situation where individual posters, who are subject to the warnings, feel attacked. Also consider while you may send in a Report, that doesn't always mean Charles and I act on the Report. Charles and I take into consideration many different factors when issuing warnings, and the Reports that are sent to us are only the beginning of the process to assess whether an warning, suspension or a banning will be handed out. Open and accountable moderation doesn't necessarily mean everyone should have access to the Reports and or our responses to those Reports. I've also made myself available to answer members questions about forum moderation, forum features, etc. I also take into consideration members opinions on these topics. However, you must trust me when it comes to moderation - this forum has avoided a partisan/ideological lean for years. The forum has been a success because of the clear and concise rules and guidelines and the fair application of those rules by myself (and more recently, Charles). It's not a perfect system - I admit that - but it is certainly better than most alternatives. And I assume most of us have participated in forums where anarchy rules.

Ok, please make note of these two recent decisions: 1) The edit post notice (the line that gets added below a post that is edited) will stay as a permanent feature of this forum. We are all responsible for the things we say, therefore it you edit something after it is posted, the other members should be aware of this change. I am also going to lock older postings, so that members cannot go back and radically change a post that was posted past a certain date. I haven't decided on lockout period - perhaps a month will be sufficient. 2) All members are responsible for trimming quotes and replies. If you refuse to properly edit and format your replies, you will be warned once. If you continue to ignore the warnings, you will be suspended for 30 days. If it continues after that, you will be banned. If you are having troubles with the [ quote ] function, feel free to ask me or Charles for help. I will also be implementing a function that will remove embedded quotes. So if you're quoting a quote, you're out of luck - the embedded quote will be deleted. If this cause major problems, please report back here. Please feel free to comment on these decisions below, Thanks,

This issue has been resolved. You can now add up to 30 quotes per post. Thanks,

Sorry about that - flood control has been lowered from 30 seconds to 5 seconds.

To be fair - I warned all members who used the term 'Mr. Dithers' to only use the term in relation to the Economist article. Just because the Economist coined the term Mr. Dithers in one of their article, wasn't a good reason to use the term to insult the Prime Minister of Canada. The same goes for any misspelling of names that isn't respectful - Harpo, LIEberals, etc.

I wouldn't go that far - experience has proven that ideology doesn't really coming it play when dealing with undesirable behaviour in the forums. Members who are on the right, left, center, etc have had difficulties following the rules.

Huh - I'll tell you two what I've told those in the past who routinely complain about the moderation of the forums. If you don't like it, leave. Please, do me a favour - and everyone else who has to listen to the whining - leave. p.s. the last line is a joke - I've been called every name in the book, usually from those who are close to be removed from the forums. If you think you can run a better discussion forum, power to you. But my record of moderation and the overall success of these forums stand in direct opposition to your baseless claims of unfair treatment. These forums have stood the test of time, and not just from my direction through moderation but from the amazing contribution of forum participants who instead of whining at the hint of a problem rise above the immature bickering and complaining. We've been operating without issue for over seven years - not bad for a bunch of [fill in the blank - liberals, conservatives, pinkos, fascists, racists, etc] p.s. that last line is a joke - over the years I've been called every name in the book, usually by those who are close to being removed from forums.

KO2 was warned after multiple incidence and he didn't heed the warnings; so he was banned - end of story. Of course they're going to appear arbitrary, no one other than Charles or myself has access to PM Reports or warning functions of this forum. Read the rules and guidelines, if you break one of those rules repeatedly and you ignore the warnings, you will be banned. No one, besides spammers or the extremely belligerent, are banned or suspended without warning. If you find yourself suspended or banned, its your own fault. I don't want to do it, actually, I hate do it - but i often have no choice.

It is a system that allows me to better managed the mountains of content that we produce and publish. It also helps me manage the various writers and editors that contribute to Maple Leaf Web. Obviously moving 3000 + subpages of content into a content management system, along with completely redesigning the site, can take some time and we've been at it for about a year. If you're interested, we will be using Drupal for managing the content. We have no plans to change the forums, except for moving them into the new design. Feel free to ask more questions if you have any,

I'm in the middle of preparing the forum for migration to the new content management system. This means I'm going to be making small changes to certain functions of the forums to ensure everything is working smoothly. The change to the forum "groups" was made to reflect the fact that nearly everyone was in the "Big League" group. These rankings were created years ago when 1000 postings was an achievement - nowadays, nearly everybody was in the big leagues. I've made the following changes to the rankings: New Member - 1 Post Junior Member - 250 Posts Full Member - 1000 Posts Senior Member - 5000 Posts I apologize, I should have mentioned something before I made this change. If this is a huge deal, I will change it back. However, I think this new ranking/groups system is more reflective of the participation of the members in the forums. Also, don't blame Charles for these types of things - Charles is a moderator, not the administrator - he has nothing to do with these changes. Thanks,

You can still edit posts, this hasn't been removed. I'll think about it. However, I'm a fan of full disclosure. If you edit a post, then you should disclose this information. What's the big deal, a small line stating the post has been edited isn't taking anything away from the discussion. Plus, when some uses an insult, Charles and I have been asking that person to edit the post (to remove the insult, or offending words/phrase) - this feature helps us confirm that posting has been edited. This is such a small issue, I'm surprised it is even being brought up. The edit line will stay for a while, I want to see if it improves the situation... Well, use the preview function to confirm your post is free of spelling errors. And if someone is making silly accusations about your postings, you're probably safe to ignore them.

1) Forum members can now edit the thread titles and descriptions for those threads they have started. If you post a title/description that fails to provide sufficient context to the thread, Charles or myself will ask you to edit the title. 2) Flood control has been removed - for both search and for posting. If this is abused, I will turn it back on. thanks!

No, Charles hasn't participated directly in the discussions here for a while. And during his tenure as moderator, he will not contribute his opinions on any threads. I will announce the new forum facilitators shortly. However, they have no direct powers - they are here to encourage fair debate and report any major issues to Charles and myself.

Charles Anthony has recently been promoted from Forum Facilitator to Forum Moderator. Charles has done an excellent job working with me as a facilitator, and I think he will do a great job as a moderator. I've given Charles this new role because I'm unfortunately not going to be able to give the forum the attention it needs in the next few weeks/months. We're right in the middle of relaunching a new version of Maple Leaf Web, and this means that my focus is going to be on the relaunch, not the forums. I expect everyone to treat Charles with the same level of respect that I am given. Charles will be able to merge, delete, modify threads and will also be able to issue warnings and suspensions to members who fail to follow the rules. I will also be assigning a few more members to the role of Forum Facilitator, to aid Charles and myself with moderation tasks. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them here or contact me directly. Thanks,

Nope! Sorry, I've going to be upgrading the forum tomorrow (Wed), and I was waiting till afterwards to turn off the flood controls. Thanks for your patience.

To make them be more irritable so they'll put more snap in their posts? I can probably remove these flood controls and see what happens. However, I reserve the right to put them back in if I find spammers (and or other undesirables) abusing the search and posting features. Also, Keep me informed if you see any performance issues...

Yup, no study is being done - at least no study that I am aware of...