@WaterBird said:
My concerns are as follows. First, you should state clearly whether or not moderators have the authority to ban posters other than for posting spam. Don’t hint; state it clearly.
Second, how exactly do you define spam? Does it only mean advertising by companies that are not members? Is it spam if an individual member advertises his products or services?
Third, you should have specified how many times people could vote to prevent a small number of serial voters from taking over.
…
Fifth, people who claim that this forum has always been “friendly and helpful” are mistaken…>
None of this ever originated with the concept of moderators banning posters - other than clearly obvious spammers - in mind. It came about because of a plague of (probably) Korean spambots posting about all sorts of items and services for sale none of which had anything remotely to do with paddling.
I also don’t believe anything had to do with anyone trying to “take over” this forum. It was done in a effort to clean up the junk that was being posted in the most expeditious manner possible. New moderators were requested simply because the clean up task became too much for the available personnel.
I’ll admit that I’ve only been on this forum about 4 years and I very rarely visit sections other than Advice and Paddlers’ Place, but I stand by my previous comment in that in my experience at least, "this has pretty much always been a friendly and helpful community ".
Peace out.