Greg

Betsy has hit it on the nail, I think a lot of people forget, a successful online discussion forum is the product of those individuals who engage in civilized debate. I can't claim credit for the high quality of the discussions that often (although, not always) takes place in these forums, because ultimately without each of you contributing your thoughts and opinions, this place would be vacant shell. I think it goes without saying, the role of the moderate isn't to blindly enforce a strict set of rules - if I did that, most of you would be gone. So lets remember that nearly everyone (myself included) makes mistakes we wish we could take back. Lets make sure this forum isn't defined by those mistakes. And finally, if you want this forum to be successful, and I can assume most of you do, then take pride in the forum and in yourself. Many of you have expelled an exceptional amount of energy contributing some incredibly insightful comments and it would be a shame if those comments got lost in the sea of drivel that so often permeates partisan bickering and trolling. If the quality of the discussions have gone down due to my lack of moderation then I apologize - I will be placing a greater emphasis over the next few months on correcting this mistake. However, this is a two way street - I'm going to do my part to make this forum better, are all of you willing to do that same?

August, I'm open to restructuring the forum as you've proposed. However, everyone will need to work to make sure that the Book/Movie/TV Reviews section doesn't dissolve into, "Did you see Survivor last night?" type of conversations. And if the level of conversation does go south, I will remove that section. Everyong Agree?

Hello everyone, To answer some of your questions, everything is going really well. Little Holden is growing fast and he's already up to 13 pounds. His mother and I are finally getting the hang of parenting (although I have to admit, in the first few months, it's mostly the mother!), and I appreciate all the kind words from everyone. You can expect to see more of me around the forums, as I plan on overhauling the look of the forums and making a few changes to the forum structure in the next few weeks/months. Keep tuned to this space as I will be announcing the changes in the next few days.

Hey folks, just wanted to drop in and tell everyone that I'll be preoccupied for the next few days/weeks. My wife and I had our first child over the weekend and she and the little squirt will be coming home from the hospital today. This means that I am going to be unable to monitor the forums as closely and I want everyone to be on their best behaviour. I really don't want to have to worry about this place over the next few days, and I just know that everyone here will be civil and respectful to each other. Thanks everyone, I appreciate the cooperation. Cheers, Greg

FYI, traffic on the website is way way up. To give everyone an idea of the sites popularity, this month we'll easily hit 3.5 million hits from over 200,000 unique visitors. So you could be right, the server may have been strained under the post-election traffic. It that is the case, I will watch the servers preformance over the new few days, and if we're still seeing problems I'll upgrade the memory and processor. Rest assured, I don't want any of you going elsewhere for your fix

For some reason their was a memory overflow on the server which caused the database server to fail. I was able to get everything restarted this morning and it looks like we're back to smooth sailing. Sorry for the inconvience.

Cybercoma is right, there is no longer seperate button for polls. Rather you can select, "Poll Options: Click here to manage this topic's poll", after selecting "New Topic," to add a poll. hope that helps,

Eureka was removed because he/she failed to maintain a respectable level of discourse in these forums. It is as simple as that. I'll remind everyone that the removal of Eureka has nothing to do with ideology or partisanship. Eureka may have provided a "positive" contribution in the past, but as of late, he/she was more concerned with scoring cheap points then discussing the issues. Eureka was repeatedly warned, and he/she choose to ignore those warnings. Left, right, center, it does not matter what way you personally lean politically. If you fail to discuss the issues with respect for the issues, and other members, you will be removed from these forums.

Ok, this is a feature that was incorporated with the forum upgrade. What the forum is intending to do is merge member's concurrent posts into one if they are posted within a certain time limit. It was set to merge multiple postings made by the same author, in the same thread, if the postings were made within 10 min. I have since disabled this feature. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to share them. Cheers, Greg

test 1 test 2 Ok, I see what you two are saying. I'll look into the problem and get back to you. test 4

yes, and example of your problem would help. I've tried to replicate your problem, but everything seems to be working on my end.

Hello everyone, as part of our 2006 Election coverage we're trying out a new feature titled, Question of the Week. The premise is quite simple - each week I'll post a new question and everyone will be given the opportunity to voice their opinion. This week the question is, Question: Which Party has the Best Childcare Policy? I strongly encourage everyone to head on over and test drive this new feature. Thanks Greg

I really enjoy it when people who have only been in these forums a couple of days make sweeping generalizations about the state of the discussions and the quality of the moderation. I can't possibly read every thread and post, so if you see a violation of the rules, use the Report this Post feature so I can be notified. Subtle accusations of bias are a favorite of mine too. I love to hear how I'm biased against nearly everyone! Greg Admin

Just so everyone is clear, the above posting contravened the rules and guidelines of this forum. The rules are quite clear, ) feature to highlight the important parts of the article and provide a throughout summary for others. You must also provide sufficient credit to the author and a link to the original article in your post. If the article cannot be found online, then at the end of the post provide an appropriate cite using any of the available citing formats, MLA, APA, etc.

Hello everyone, as part of our 2006 Election coverage we're trying out a new feature titled, Question of the Week. The premise is quite simple - each week I'll post a new question and everyone will be given the opportunity to voice their opinion. This week the question is, Question: Which Party has the Best Childcare Policy? I strongly encourage everyone to head on over and test drive this new feature. Thanks Greg

I shouldn't have to remind everyone here not to feed the trolls. When you reply to the trolls like Scarascar, you're simply encouraging them to disrupt the place more. It took me over 45 min to remove all those postings and threads. Also remember, if you respond to a troll with a well thought out response, or you try to engage others in a off-topic thread the troll has created, you risk losing your posting entirely. This is because I often nuke whole threads if the majority of the thread is troll bait, off-topic, etc. For those who are curious, Scarascar was our friend, MapleSyrup/Mirror/BigDude reincarnated. Be warned, if you're serving a suspension and I catch you posting under a different name, you will be permanently banned. Also, if you're using multiple user accounts, please stop. If I catch anyone using multiple account, you'll be banned without warning.

This thread is way way out of line and I Miss Trudeau will be taking a one month suspension to consider the alternatives. This is indefensible crap and everybody here knows it.

seems to be a problem with day-light savings. I'll look into it and get back to everyone.

Goodbye Scott, you are now banned from these forums. My patience with you and your behaviour has finally reached an end.

Congrats guys, you've successfully wasted a whole thread with a pathetic partisanship pissing-match. I'm closing this thread and deleting it shortly afterwards. I will continue to close threads until some of you can learn to discuss politics with respect. And maybe I'll throw in a few bannings for good measure.

dribgnikcom2, you're now banned again.

Goodbye mockingbird, you are now banned from these forums.

It was certainly a low blow and unworthy of a diginified response. Can we not have a discussion that doesn't dissolve into a partisan pissing match?

First off, cut the insults out. It wasn't a stupid remark, it was a valid point. The posting of a full article, regardless of whether you provide the authors name or not, is copyright infringment. If you're not aware of the rules and guidelines of this forum, please be advised, ) feature to highlight the important parts of the article and provide a throughout summary for others. You must also provide sufficient credit to the author and a link to the original article in your post. If the article cannot be found online, then at the end of the post provide an appropriate cite using any of the available citing formats, MLA, APA, etc. Find out more information on Fair Dealing in Canada. http://www.robic.ca/publications/Pdf/032E-LC.pdf

The recent bannings were exactly as Kimmy pointed out, the result of a banned troll returning under a different pseudonym. The only other long time posters that were recently banned were MapleSyrup and Mirror. Both bannings were well documented and deserved. Also remember, being banned for trolling doesn't result from one post, it is the results of repeatedly poor behaviour and annoying troll-like posts. The forum rules and guidelines,