Clearing the Community Question Box

Many of you bothered to write in, comment on my blog post and forward me email’s from the sbs list I left. In my absence there has been enough said on and off the list along with discussions that have been done behind the closed doors. Here is my whole objection list and disagreement with the current moderators:

The list is unmoderated – There is no post moderation being done. Anyone is allowed to post anything they wish, correct or incorrect.

There is no interest in moderating the list – Current list owners opinion is that post moderation is the wrong way to go about it, so instead they reply to the threads both online and offline and pile on more junk to the already unreadable discussion list. I offered to moderate the list by only allowing meaningful posts in – I was told that was not going to happen.

There is no interest in removing individuals that are not acting professionally –  The whole list is depreciated by a handful of individuals that tag onto every threat with meaningless warnings about licensing, war stories, and their self-dlilusioned best practices.

So I left and I might add, I am not the first or the most valuable person that has chosen to leave.

It is the fact that I have an opinion that I am not afraid to share thats the problem. I often write on this blog about the importance of having a professional attitude in this world and speaking your mind when you (think) you’re right. I have not censored this blog for Microsoft, Google, IBM, AOL and a slew of other Cease & Desist fans… and I’m not about to start censoring it for my friends feelings.

It is my honest opinion that they are doing a great disservice to the community by allowing the central gathering place for SBSers to become a blog, a ranting ground, source of misleading information. Over the past year that community has gone lower and lower and there is no sign that the moderators are willing to do anything.

So why should I stick around? Consider the following gem from Anne Stanton:

I admire every poster who has the guts to look foolish and post either a question and/or input.

I see, so we’re supposed to be rewarding idiots! Brilliant.

Going Forward

Susan and I have been talking about starting an SBS wiki board but thats about the extent of it. I’m working on the SBS Show newsletter which should be out any day now. That is all I have on the to-do list.

Lot’s of calls on this list to start a moderated group or a board or… Not going to happen. The group and people are already together and all thats needed is some order where there is none. So what may have worked for a few hundred users is not scaling to a few thousand – go figure. Until the owners of this list realize that the changes need to be made the group will tank, as it has for a year, turn away valuable professionals and only entice those looking for a fight. I don’t know about you, but thats not something I’m willing to be a part of. Susan and Wayne are my friends, I trust them to do the right thing. Sometimes you need to kick your friends in the ass to move them in the right direction, I hope thats all this is.

We have fragmented this community into enough lists and groups and the goal of this community ought to be to unite SBSers, not split them apart. I’ll be the first one to volunteer my time towards that goal, but I will not promote, have my name associated or my time wasted on correcting the junk that is allowed to be sent to the list in the first place.