Re: Ongoing Twattery Thread
Posted: 16 Oct 2009 21:48
Na, you do right to bite back sundance. There's fun, and a bit of winding up, but it's gone a bit beyond that now. Respect to ya for playing along initially, but enoughs enough lads!
Yep, I have Sundance's back on this. We all had a bluster in the spring on the Star Trek thread, to his credit he took my comments on board and has made a real effort ever since. In his defence he has taken an awful amount of stick, and I must point out, taken it on the chin.
I dropped a line to four forum members in the week as I felt the ribbing was becoming a bit nasty. I'm all for a joke but when people start ganging up I am not amused. This entire thread stated as a piss-take upon me subtly asking Ironblood to stop ruining decent threads with immature banter. Sadly it backfired big time. I too have had enough of this sh*t. BFTB isn't a large site like Yojoe or Terrordrome. There is only one mod here; being me. I'm the one working on editing the archives and updating the submissions and replacing the duff images and promoting the projects and flying the flag and thinking up new sh*t, let alone moderating the forum.
I'm all for a bit of off-topic banter, but umpteen posts about ass-trifle and pseudo gay-bashing while people are trying to present beneficial prospects for the entire community does wear a little thin. I have been more than a little curt of late, for which I apologise, I've been burning the candle at both ends trying to get BFTB recognised as both a Joe-affiliate website (seriously, all the True-Palitoy posts are doing me no favours whatsoever) and as the sole UK-based Joe site. But please, it's just me keeping this all afloat. The juvenile cameradie is fine most of the time and is a recognised part of the community spirit (hey, I can whitter on about why you should all listen to Dream Theater until the cows come home), but let's keep a few things in mind, eh?
First, everyone is welcome here. No exceptions. I believe in equality and when packs start circling I will automatically side with the outnumbered party.
Second. Some of us are serious. Yes, it's light, and it is a representation of our more childish nature, but be that as it may, some of us are working to promote these concepts and ideas with an intention to benefit the entire global community. Now obviously I don't expect every BFTB member to automatically be a part of that, but logging in and posting 27 posts about whatever bollocks splurges into your head and then f*cking off for the night is nothing more than bloody irritating.
Third. You should all be listening to Dream Theater.
Fourth. I don't want this to escalate. BFTB long held a reputation as being one of the friendliest forums on the net, I was proud of that. People don't say it any more and I have to point out that new memberships are down. I really don't want to come off as a dictator - I have never laid down ground rules in over seven years of forum activity and I don't ever want to. Please let's pull together. We all love Action Force and we all love BFTB. We may squabble and clash, but let's never forget that we have more in common than we have different and that this place is a sanctuary for everyone. When two members fall out it affects all of us.
Fifth, while we are all here. Please, do not promote BFTB without consulting with me first. OK, we've had some fantastic suggestions over the years and some tremendous initiative has been shown, but I need to be aware of what has been said. More specifically, don't pick fights on my behalf. I deliberately kept the Cobra Island row between myself, Dave and Grimlock quiet. The last thing that situation needed was for the entire BFTB community to wade in screaming "FOOL! THE BARON IS ALWAYS RIGHT!" Now I'm not asking for us to become a secret society, but do please exercise a little common sense and, where possible, some polite restraint when discussing the site externally.
Sixth. I'm not one for rules and regulations. I'd rather just bang everyone's heads together and forget about it. Hopefully this post will suffice and we can all move back to our respective positions with the least amount of grumbling. But this is my site. If you act like a twat every single day people will complain. To me. If I feel that your behaviour is detrimental to the community I will show your ass the door. I did it with sf1378 and I absolutely hated having to do it, but I do not regret it.
All I'm asking for is some decency, I see BFTB as an extended family, not a bunch of strangers, please let's treat each other as such. I can take a joke, most of us can, I do feel bad for our overseas members from time to time as the english wit is so devastatingly sarcastic, but it is clearly apparent when somebody has had enough. When the joke is over, continuing to rub it in is no longer funny and for the outsider it can be uncomfortable to watch. Enough with the malicious wind-ups.
I wasn't kidding about Dream Theater. Five minutes of their material will comprise more ideas than most 75 minute albums. Their very approach to music itself is positively anarchic.
Show me a drum machine that can do that!