[Off-topic] mdhensley5:
What direction will the forum go?

What direction will this forum go?

Paolo01

Forum Regular

Posts: 1143

Registered: 08-14-2004

My Device: Cingular 3125

Message 1 of 3

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Fellow Forum Members,

I have been a member of this forum for just over three years now. I think I joined when I bought a Motorola and tried to fix some BT issues, but it saw me through a Siemens phone or two, another Motorola and now I have moved to HTC phones (at&t branded). What makes this forum great is that you genuinely have interested people helping out others. I applaud at&t for setting something like this up and making it available. (Cingular/at&t) Over the years I have come to recognize many of the names here and I know where there advice falls. Technical, shortcuts, quick fix or thoroughly researched. It is all invaluable as it has expanded my breadth of knowledge on the phones and on the network. I have come to really enjoy this forum and the camaraderie of rallying around a problem and trying to fix it, or waiting for a new phone model to be released. It has become a nice community.

Periodically there will be trouble makers, but they have always become bored and moved on. The moderators have come and gone, but by and large they have kept the boards moving along and civil. Too many have come and gone over the years, but there have been some great ones, Mod Moose for example.

My issue know is that it would appear that the forum has been hijacked. Long term members are no longer heard from. Threads are killed arbitrarily. Yes I said arbitrarily. I understand the need for rules. Heck, I even understand the need for calming threads down with temporary cooling off periods, but I am not quite sure I understand booting someone with years worth of contribution for disagreeing with a mod. There never has been transparency with this forum. That is OK as well. If at&t wants to have a wizard behind the curtain running the show, that is their perogative, however, some of the guards running the asylum now are worse than the inmates.

The absolutely worse thing that could happen is for the forum to get shut down entirely. However, shortly after that, the worse thing that could happened is to cull the years of experience and knowledge by banning valued members. I think that at&t understands this. Just the fact that at&t designated "Valued Community Members" have been banned says a lot about the failures of a few effecting the system.

My recommendations. Immediately re instate the membership status of long term users who simply had a run in with wayward mods. Publish clear guidelines on what will result in a person getting banned. Utilize the forum to pass proactive information that the forum members are obviously clamoring for. If the answer is "We don't know" then publish that. If the answer is at&t has changed its mind,then publish that. Right now the behavior of the mods is fantastically feeding an unnecessary conspiracy theory.

I love this forum. It is a valuable tool in helping all customers with their at&t devices. It must save at&t a fortune in not having us call tech support for issues other members can and do solve. I would love to see the forum continue for another three years if not longer, but I really believe that firing valued input is not the preferred course of action.

10-30-2007 04:18:33 AM

Re: What direction will this forum go?

PhiDramaLlama

New User

Posts: 7

Registered: 10-17-2007

Message 2 of 3

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Runor has it that may were banned for voicing some honest concerns about the direction of the forums. Others have left rather than fight. It's a sad situation, and a sorry state of affairs for a once helpful/useful online community.

Someone posted much the same thought on an other forum...

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They have dropped the ball big time over there. When the 'old' AT&T was in business, that place was run well, and was full of knowledgeable people wanting to help others... then slowly over time, as Cingular aka the new at&t began to take charge, the good mods (who did more than just lock threads and ban users) began to disappear and were replaced by the current ilk. There is a HUGE opportunity on that site, but under the current leadership (at least as far as the forum goes), it will continue to founder. The current set of mods (as has been reported here and experiences there) are short-sighted, self-serving, power-tripping egomaniacs who want to rule with their proverbial iron fist... but at the rate they are going, they will only have a handful of axx kissers and a plethora of n00bs, trolls and ne'er-do-wells to rule. And the void left by those who were banned for stating that the emperor had no clothes will certainly hasten its ultimate and sure demise.

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10-30-2007 10:58:34 AM

Re: What direction will this forum go? Options

mod.moose

Administrator

Posts: 3531

Registered: 03-08-2006

My Device: motorola T730

Message 3 of 3

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Thanks, Paolo - appreciate your thoughtful post. We're taking a look at this internally.