My compliments to the moderators

[RichieC]

Harry,

You are invited to moderate or co-moderate any section here.

Kindly let me know and we will appoint you accordingly. After that you will be able to view the Moderators section where you can view all the discussions about the superfluous BS and drivel that we all - OUR KICK-ASS MODERATOR STAFF- need to swallow, stomach and in turn - moderate and regulate here at any given moment.

Speaking for myself, Dimas created this forum, with many hours of contribution from me, with added hard work from Ade an Paul later on, but it seems that I (again speaking for myself only) spend more time policing, moderating, and editing than posting, discussing and contributing to my intellectual and collecting pursuits than anything.

Sigh...

Sincerely,
Richie

!!! - damit, basta. Thanks Dear Colleague.

PS - Nice star, yes?

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Kyle was banned a couple of years ago at the age of 12 due to inappropriate and insensitive things he posted regarding the Holocaust. I had nothing to do with any of the times he was banned. He has been in touch with me since he joined at WAF. I was considering making a request to the Administration to give him another shot. However, after sneaking back in twice under a new screen name, he has removed that option from happening in the near future.

I was unaware of this fact, but such circumstances speak for rigor here as well as an emphasis on the educational mission of this site.
I think there should be more transparency and requirements levied in such cases as is appropriate. Might I also add that the moderators
are well within their rights and duties in especially this kind of case to guard against the misuse of this site for nefarious political purposes, especially among
the young who are easy prey for the pied pipers of hate.
Thanks to Bob for all his hard work and his forthrightness as concerns the trials and tribulations of leadership here.

[DougB]

Sad to see what was supposed to be a thread on a genuine thanks to the forum mods/admins turn downhill like this.

Harry, I am the first to critique and have done so, sometimes correctly and sometimes incorrectly.

But I must say that moderating and administering a forum, like Richie has more eloquently stated above, is not fun. Period. I have moderated at GHW for years, and administered, and I modded here for a few years.

It is like watching over a kindergarden at times. It is a balance of trying to keep peace between members, personality conflicts and genuine dislike between members abounds, trying to stay objective and even handed, and retain a sense of fairness.

It is a mostly thankless job. I gave it up for good on a forum I even fund. I pay for the forum up front and hope that donations covers the cost, which usually it does. But I wont have anything to do with modding or admining anymore, and thankfully others do this and if it were not for the mods and admins there would be no forum. Its that simple. There is no membership fee here, or at the site I fund. So if members dont like it they can leave anytime.

But one must trust the rationale and reasons why members are banned. I think the forum here has demonstrated quite clearly what they and this forum stand for and for this reason I am an active member here and enjoy the conversation, comradeship and friendships I have made via this forum.

However, it is clear to me that dishonesty, unruliness, poor behaviour, intolerance, baiting and just being an asshole, will get you the boot here, as it will on my forum.

So be it.

Thanks again to the mods, who are doing IMO a bang up job at allowing the flow of conversation and tolerate a lot of silliness at the same time.

Cheers
Doug

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Harry,

You are invited to moderate or co-moderate any section here.

Kindly let me know and we will appoint you accordingly. After that you will be able to view the Moderators section where you can view all the discussions about the superfluous BS and drivel that we all - OUR KICK-ASS MODERATOR STAFF- need to swallow, stomach and in turn - moderate and regulate here at any given moment.

Speaking for myself, Dimas created this forum, with many hours of contribution from me, with added hard work from Ade an Paul later on, but it seems that I (again speaking for myself only) spend more time policing, moderating, and editing than posting, discussing and contributing to my intellectual and collecting pursuits than anything.

Sigh...

Sincerely,
Richie

!!! - damit, basta. Thanks Dear Colleague.

PS - Nice star, yes?

A real cry of the heart, and one I totally support. Thanks to Dimas, to Adrian Stevenson, to Richie, to Larry C and to so many other colleagues whom I salute here.
I further salute them to the degree that their vigilance especially with under aged users prevents children and teen agers from falling to the siren songs of integral nationalist and racial hatred,
as well as making a mockery of the difficulties in deciphering the problems of the past.
Young people are very welcome here, but with this site comes the responsibility to create and maintain knowledge versus the spewing of propaganda and the wielding of the weapons of hate.
The internet has enough of the latter with far too little of the former.

Thank you, RichieC, for all your hard work.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Richie C also helped me find a wonderful piece for my collection, so I am doubly grateful to him.

[Larry C]

I'm finding it very hard to think anything good of the moderators at the moment. You are there to police the forum and ensure things are kept on an even keel. You are NOT there to get rid of people as you see fit. Hang your heads in shame.

Compare city police to suburban police and you will know why the crime rate is higher in cities.


" EDIT " - My statement above was in no reflection against any city police forces..as all are equal in service..except by their municipalities governing Laws..that bound their hands to fulfill their duties "To Protect and Serve"

[MD Helmets]

You can't please everyone.

[StefanM]

So, "Moderating" is a power trip for small minded individuals who have no sense of empowerment in their offline lives which is why I enjoy being a moderator, so shoot me - who cares, not I.

[Glenn66]

I joined the WRF and the WAF at the same time and have over 5000 posts here and only a scrap over 200 on the WAF.

Could it be something to do with the quality of moderation, the members, the civil behaviour? I would say so!

Three cheers for the best run militaria forum on the web!

[Jerry B]

The other questions have been answered as to why members were banned, except perhaps in regard to the two in the metal detecting/grave markers thread. The thread starter was banned because he deleted his images from the thread, making the thread useless. The other member was given a temporary ban because he has instigated the illegal export of dug WWI items from France and his position is under review as this is not the first time he has considered his opinion to be of more importance than the rules of the forum, to which all members agree to abide by when they join.