Cobalt :
I think Spark and Mike were more than ample in their warnings to Les.
That is exactly the point. That kind of behavior is very poor administration. You don't do that kind of thing in public. If I was Les I would have been more more direct with Spark and not nearly as polite.
I agree to some point with Les about emersons recklesness of making promises that are undeliverable. But stating this once was enough and he could have referenced his comments to his initial statement every time and there would have been no objections.
That is a problem with him as a poster, not as a moderator. If he had deleted posts or locked threads that defended Emerson then that would have been an abuse of his moderating abilties.
And again, all such comments between administrators should be made in private. If I was running BladeForums, after reading the public comments by Spark to Les I would have immediately warned Spark never do that again and the second time removed his posting abilties. It does not matter if Les was out of line (which I don't think he was), you don't get into arguments in a public forum between adminstrators or between adminstrators and moderators, or between moderator and moderators.
Additionally, good moderators are not apathetic people. Bill Martino has very strong feelings about what makes a good khukuri and he posts it often whenever the subject comes up. Does this make him a bad moderator? No of course not. Bill's strong opinions do not inhibit his moderating abilities and neither would I expect them to do so.
Spark :
Who violated procedure, Cliff?
You, and badly. Does not matter if Les was out of line or not. You do not undermine his role as a moderator by critizing him in public. What ever he did after that, while indepently a problem, is excusable simply based on your initial posts throwing the rules out the window. While I would never have continued the debate in public with you if I was in Les's position, I can understand him doing so and would place no fault on him for doing it.
You don't like Les's removal?
Way to completely miss the point. I was not commenting on his removal but the way in which it was done. Since you and Mike do not want to make the facts public I cannot make an educated decision on if it was the right choice or not. And in any case since I don't run BladeForums it not my choice to make.
You want to make a difference? Volunteer for the advisory board.
One more example of a huge lack of experience. Anyone who volunteers for a position in which they have to make decisions like Les's removal is not someone you want to be there. People with the necessary experience will realize what it takes to do the job right and what the consequences are and will not want any part of it. There are exceptions to this as with everything of course.
If you want to carry out this type of debate with the moderators in this forum, create a private forum and only allow moderators and admins and such to read and post there. You can then work out all the problems and once they are resolved post the final decisions in the public forums.
Everything else is armchair quarterbacking.
Nice job there. As an admisistrator you are supposed to be held to a higher standard than a regular poster. You have less freedom not more. Not fair? That's life. You ciritize Les for doing something and then turn around and do the same thing yourself. Good form.
Why I am posting all of this anyway. Its not because of a personal problem I have with Mike or BladeForums. Its the exact opposite. This is a great place and it has many advantages of rec.knives. I would hate to see it suffer the same way KnifeForums did but this decision is directly parallel. Mike you are willing to hire someone with professional experience to run the site and Spark handles all the computer aspects very well and keeps that aspect smooth. You could also hire someone to handle decisions like Les's removal and other administrative tasks. It would make life much easier for you and it would make the site run a lot better. It would not have to be a full time position just a consulting one. You should have no problem locating someone with the necessary qualifications given your business experience and contacts.
-Cliff
