Official "Ask Admin/Mod" a question thread

[Nosaj Thing]

Again I sense the "balance argument", in which people are happy because now the positivity towards GN'R has been balanced with negativity. I don't get that. Why should a fan forum be balanced by non-fans? Should a carnivore forum have a large number of vegans, too, just to balance it out? It doesn't make sense. I am not saying it should be unconditional and fanatic, criticism is good and often validated when it comes to GN'R, just that I don't get why we should be happy about all the members here who haven't got anything positive to say ever and just come here to cupcake and derail. This is a fan forum.

Maybe I was a little harsh to include you in the list cos all said and done you're not insane but I wasn't saying I was glad there was negativity, only that there was a more moderate middle ground now. I mean disagreeing with lolcano, Angeles and Popcorn doesn't make you a hater it just means you're unlikely to spend an inordinate amount of time smearing your own faeces up the walls of your padded cell.

Exactly.

[SoulMonster]

Again I sense the "balance argument", in which people are happy because now the positivity towards GN'R has been balanced with negativity. I don't get that. Why should a fan forum be balanced by non-fans? Should a carnivore forum have a large number of vegans, too, just to balance it out? It doesn't make sense. I am not saying it should be unconditional and fanatic, criticism is good and often validated when it comes to GN'R, just that I don't get why we should be happy about all the members here who haven't got anything positive to say ever and just come here to cupcake and derail. This is a fan forum.

Maybe I was a little harsh to include you in the list cos all said and done you're not insane but I wasn't saying I was glad there was negativity, only that there was a more moderate middle ground now. I mean disagreeing with lolcano, Angeles and Popcorn doesn't make you a hater it just means you're unlikely to spend an inordinate amount of time smearing your own faeces up the walls of your padded cell.

No matter how hard I try I just can't disagree with any of this

Edited August 11, 2012 by SoulMonster

[Rustycage]

Just forget it. Waste of time.

[bacardimayne]

Great post! Totally agree with you on Zint too, to be fair I can kinda see where he was coming from beforehand too now. Seemed a little heavy handed on the old ban button but with hindsight I'm guessing it was out of frustration with the state of the place as much as anything else. I got my marching orders a few times for lashing out at MSL other members out of frustration because the place was so heavily biased to the nutswingers. I'm not saying that was a conscious decision from the mods just that so many people had either left or been purged in the latter days of Madison's reign of terror that having a sensible discussion became impossible. When the general tone is set by people like lolcano, Popcorn, Soulmonster, Ali and MSL (no offence fellas but you see what I'm getting at) then it's just frustrating as hell and leads to more in the way of arguments. Now we've more of a balance of opinions and a more relaxed atmosphere I think everybody has just lightened up and the forum is such a nicer place to be as a result.

Again I sense the "balance argument", in which people are happy because now the positivity towards GN'R has been balanced with negativity. I don't get that. Why should a fan forum be balanced by non-fans? Should a carnivore forum have a large number of vegans, too, just to balance it out? It doesn't make sense. I am not saying it should be unconditional and fanatic, criticism is good and often validated when it comes to GN'R, just that I don't get why we should be happy about all the members here who haven't got anything positive to say ever and just come here to cupcake and derail. This is a fan forum.

It's a GNR fan forum, not an Axl fan forum. How do people not understand this?

[Dazey]

Great post! Totally agree with you on Zint too, to be fair I can kinda see where he was coming from beforehand too now. Seemed a little heavy handed on the old ban button but with hindsight I'm guessing it was out of frustration with the state of the place as much as anything else. I got my marching orders a few times for lashing out at MSL other members out of frustration because the place was so heavily biased to the nutswingers. I'm not saying that was a conscious decision from the mods just that so many people had either left or been purged in the latter days of Madison's reign of terror that having a sensible discussion became impossible. When the general tone is set by people like lolcano, Popcorn, Soulmonster, Ali and MSL (no offence fellas but you see what I'm getting at) then it's just frustrating as hell and leads to more in the way of arguments. Now we've more of a balance of opinions and a more relaxed atmosphere I think everybody has just lightened up and the forum is such a nicer place to be as a result.

Again I sense the "balance argument", in which people are happy because now the positivity towards GN'R has been balanced with negativity. I don't get that. Why should a fan forum be balanced by non-fans? Should a carnivore forum have a large number of vegans, too, just to balance it out? It doesn't make sense. I am not saying it should be unconditional and fanatic, criticism is good and often validated when it comes to GN'R, just that I don't get why we should be happy about all the members here who haven't got anything positive to say ever and just come here to cupcake and derail. This is a fan forum.

It's a GNR fan forum, not an Axl fan forum. How do people not understand this?

I also give Zint credit for my "Definitely not Dazey" username which was amazing!

Edited August 11, 2012 by Dazey

[Dariablue]

Anyone who has admin emails enabled should get our first mass email in a long time in the next day or so.

For those that don't, here it is: http://www.mygnrforum.com/public/email_template/aug12.html

Also, we now have a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You can access both documents at any time through the links at the bottom of every page on the site.

Are these emails going to be a fairly regular thing? Will they include info on what's coming up or just what's already happened? I think it's an awesome idea.

Fyi 'separate' is spelled wrong.

[Haters Gonna Hate]

WARNING *NOT A STAFF POST*

Mod squad feel free to delete my post later for cleanliness, but I must say a few things here.

Here is what I see, as a fan of the band past and present, as a user of this forum. My status as a news reporter having nothing to do with this.

I see a very small handfull of people that before the takeover pushed and pushed to get banned as some sort of trophy, they got their wish...

... all banned members are now back, great! If it were not for the fact that the same small group that were against our policies of past now come to what I consider a VERY open forum that is VERY lenient on the rules and the posts by the users here, to come and try to push some more, push hard to see what is the breaking point of the mods. That is what I am seeing, and as a user here (not staff opinion) it is not only disconcerning but needs to end. I have always said if someone does not want to be here then leave, log out and don't come back. Like I said it is a small group intent on finding the line and crossing it just to say they did then complain about the mods or the site. This site is 1000 times more open to users than it ever was, why the fuck is that not good enough?

To me, hmmph, to watch all Subs and HV as well as all the staff put into this to make it so that everyone can have a good fucking time and be resonable is being pissed on by a group set out to try to destroy it fucking sucks, plain and simple, it fucking sucks.

I am all for allowing EVERY user of past coming back, most of them apprieciated the gesture and have found a place here to call their own, it is just this handfull of users that defy logic.

I don't get it, I don't think I will. The idea here is to enjoy whatever you love about the band or the people in it past or present, we all share at least something here so why try to engage mods and admin over and over, over what I consider petty shit like look I got Zint to lock my thread, or ER said this or that can you believe that? It is childish shit that I thought this group should have grown out of by now, it is really sad to think otherwise IMO.

Oh well, nothing I can do but post about my thoughts regarding the BS I have been seeing lately. As a user there is not one mod here not doing a great job, not one. The staff here worked tiresly to bring this to you the users and to have a few users shit on it is really crappy. You know Zint the guy some of you love to hate? HE IS THE REASON FOR MANY things you love about this new layout. If it was not for Zint working here day and night during our discussions on layout for the new mygnrforum we would not have many sections you all seem to love, ATTITUDE for one, how about Slash? Zint stood out for me during the layout change, why? He put his entire fucking heart into this venture, not taking anything from any other mods or staff but Zint stood out, he fucking worked very very hard. For anyone to shit on him for being a mod or doing mod duties leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

Things are not always as you think they are I guess is my point, the staff here does not have a pick on a specific user motto, or a group of users be it Slash fans, BBF fans, Beta fans whoever, this as a staff member here for some time IMO is the most fluid and understanding group of staff I have worked with here, it is fluid and we thought you might enjoy it...

Ramble on'

inb4 etc etc etc

Just my point of view, I don't hold grudges, let's all just get the fuck along and enjoy life instead of looking for the negative, it truly brings ya down

anyways, I still love MOST of you and as most returning members know I get along with anyone, cut the shit

Justin

That's deep

[UK SUBS]

Great posts in here have retorted better than I can but I have dedicated some more time to respond.

So many questions (aka: shit stirring, accusations etc) that I'll give them a brief mention.

Rusty - You seem to be obsessing over this lately (and if you've been reading what I've been posting here, I've responded to most of your "questions" previously) however *sigh and deep breath* here goes again:

-- Donations: You might not be aware but donations have pretty much always been a part of this forum, only difference is now, you can actually see how much has been donated and what it's contributing towards. You see many members questioned the motives behind this previously and I asked "do you want complete transparency"? the majority vote was "yes" hence why it's visible. Of course if we'd have left it, we'd then be accused of 'they're getting a ton of donations...it's shady...we don't know how much money is lining their pockets...blah, blah, blah" so you got what you wanted. Donations are important in terms of the security of this forum as they are one of only two ways we (the forum) can receive income versus monthly costs (plus purchase cost, restructure costs, etc). It's a simple equation really: If the income dries up and the outgoings are consistently high and I have to effectively 'bank roll' the costs, eventually this place will go down permanently or re-sold to someone who has more money than sense. It's often left me in a difficult position in terms of actively looking for donations (and trust me when I say I AM uncomfortable with promoting that side of the forum) but without it, the forum dies, so....??

-- Structure: Again as has been previously mentioned COUNTLESS times; We invited all mods and News reporters to get involved in this process - aswell as receiving a TON of feedback from forum members. I think I'm right in saying there were over X650 posts that we thrashed around and around and we came up with the current layout that we agreed we would leave until after Christmas and review for TWEAKING (and I mean tweaking as in: B'Cardi' makes a good point about having a separate section for some former members - are they active enough, etc, etc? that type for tweaking). The main aim for me personally was that I love the new band set up (there's that phrase again some of you hate! ) and I wanted a fresh nu-GNR section but equally, I didn't want any of the members who want to challenge and criticize certain aspects of the new line-up to feel that cant say anything negative/challenging so I asked the team was there a way to get those voices still heard - A mod came up with the whole "attitude" idea and it just stuck straight away as a great idea (NB - It still took loads of challenging of each member of the team until we agreed the format but we got there). Then I wanted to better promote the "Former Gunners" section as i felt it was diluted in the main sections, caused major conflict and honestly...just wasn't represented at all well (IE - Pushed to the bottom of the forum, Christ it was even labeled under "Various" wtf?).

In terms of the restructure this is how it is, there are no motives beyond what I've described so if you're not happy with it now you're never going to be so you've got to decide if you want to stick around and if you don't want to, don't, I'll respect that no problem; what I will NEVER respect if a very small minority deliberately trying to course a shit storm, whining (be it, from ;voices and negativity they're hearing from other 'outlets' - It's bullshit, boring and not respected or wanted here).

The band/Beta: Again, must have mentioned this at least twice but for those not getting it here goes (AGAIN): No-one has ever told me from GNR they're happy, unhappy, etc, etc. I have always stated that I would encourage positive communications with GNR, Slash, anyone/everyone connected to GNR past or present, but no-one will tell me what direction this forum goes in, so I'm sorry to completely piss on that old gem (IE Beta is telling them what they can and cant do) again, bullshit, not happened, will never ever happen.

Mods: We don't always agree in private discussions and in fact I encourage their criticisms of me and the forums direction and respect their views in this regard (a point I think they love and respect). They have a brief which they follow but they are all individuals and of course if I'm unhappy I state that to them privately, it's how I work. So if a mod says something they're stating its for a reason, i may agree with HOW they said it, i may not (unlikely but possible) but it's almost certainly the right sort of 'vibe' I'm trying to create - again, if you're not happy with that, PM that mod, work it out, don't be childish about it. Seriously the mods here work their asses off for me and the community at large and I think they're doing a FANTASTIC job, plain and simple, couldn't be happier with the shape of the team and the support they've given the forum. Can't thank them enough!

I'm sorry if there are other questions I've missed but they are the ones from memory without doing a ton of quotes etc.

Thank you for the feedback good or bad (not the 2/3 idiots that whine about nothing constantly, I honestly just skim passed your posts at best, sorry)

I'm locking this down as I've asked on a number of occasions to keep it on track and be respectful and honestly, there's been little respect shown to me/the team by too many in this thread so I'm sorry that other's will suffer as a consequence but I'm not putting both time, money and energy into this forum to listen to the same old stories and conspiracy theories that are so wide of the mark, time and time, again.

Please feel free to PM me with any further questions though and thank you for the many PM's I do get of thanks, ideas, suggestions, etc I can honestly state your support never goes un-noticed, thank you so much!!

Loads of cool stuff around the corner guys - In the meantime (and it seems appropriate to highlight it here), short/medium term I'm taking a back seat here and High' and the team will be managing things as I've got family/personal stuff I need to concentrate on that simply put, I've neglected since the change over. I will answer all PM's - every single one as I always do - and I will be posting a certain periods but in the meantime, please continue to give the staff here your full support and you'll find you get back exactly what you put in.

*Locked*