Ea: You are an intelligent user and I've appreciated many of your posts but I strongly disagree with what you are saying in this thread. I can appreciate your feeling hurt but I think it comes down to some misinterpretations.
First, this forum is not -public- in the sense that it is an open democracy. It can certainly feel that way given the degree that Alex (and mods) acts on concerns by the users. But in the end it is still a privately owned forum, and privately run.
I have only been a member for little over a year. I believe the forum was, in a much less developed form, created over 7 years ago. Every time I look at the forum I see Alex working to advance it with concerns of the user base, by way of their suggestions and comments. When possible he'll leave decisions to an open discussion. I have never seen a forum with more user input into its development then MobileRead. Recall that Alex was against the creation of the Conservatory or separation of threads from the Lounge. It was only because of the concerns of the users that he decided to create it in the first place.
As to why no open discussion was formed prior to the discussion, I think that he was placed into a situation where the benefits did not outweigh the stress he was under from users and moderators. If, as the administrator and owner, Alex was presented with a situation such as the CHAT box was eating up 90% of the server's processor time we wouldn't question him for doing away with it. Instead of the server, I think what is being said here is that Alex's time was being eaten up over issues caused in the Conservatory.
I have been on BBS's and some form of 'forum' for over 20 years now. Each of these communities certainly exists because of the exchange of information by its users. However there is always a line, always, where it is no longer the community's decision and it becomes that of the owner/administrator/sysop. I think the problem here is that Alex gives users unprecedented levels of freedom and control over the forum and when he does have to make an executive decision it feels completely out of place. Looking at this from what I perceive as his angle, there was no discussion to be made. It was more trouble than it was worth to him, more people would be upset by its staying then by its leaving.
I'm not posting this because of my opposition to the Conservatory, I made my concerns known from day one. But I don't run things and said it didn't make any difference to me, and if you think I'm just saying that for purposes of this discussion this is a quote from the fourth day I was a member here, "Then by all means delete/lock the thread. It's not my forum. I say this with no malice, just statement of fact." It is a concept people need to grasp about forums and websites they access, no matter how emotionally attached they are to them.
When the bill comes for hosting the forum, they go to Alex (unless I am at all mistaken as to the hierarchy on the system
). If the forum receives a DMCA it is aimed at Alex, not me or you. If a lawsuit was brought against the forum, it is brought against Alex, not "MobileRead", not HarryT, Zelda, or MtravellerH. As much as my posts, Ea's, Patricia's, et al.'s make up MobileRead in the end the final definition of MobileRead in the great encyclopedia of Life, the Universe and Everything is, "A forum owned and administrated by Alexander Turcic".
I have privately stated and will now make it public that I think Alex, in trying to be diplomatic and create a great community, is -too- mute an administrator and sometimes needs to take a more active and authoritative role. If you want a free-for-all community on the web, go to 4chan. I think we have a great forum but people need to accept that in the end it is his forum to run how he sees fit, even though he pulls up the bootstraps on VERY rare occasion.
I'd like to point out that even I know how much this sounds like brown-nosing, and in fact most things I say in regards to Alex sound that way. I like the guy, I think he does a great job running things and having my own experiences in these arenas I feel akin to him when situations such as these come up so if people cannot understand my motivation in defending him I REALLY
could not care less.
I also did not mean for the above to belittle the actions and importance of all the wonderful (and not-so-wonderful
) moderators we have on the forum, but like I said in the end if MobileRead was guilty of some crime, Alex is he who would be arrested.
-MJ