so I finally got around to saving old threads ...

Thanks for clarifying. Do we have the real French teenager thread saved? I don't recall that thread.

I wanted to come back and say a little more about this issue, as the bolded part is absolutely not what I want to happen here at all.

Personally, I'm not afraid of drama. I've saved quite a few threads from the old site for myself, including several that were pretty controversial and ugly at times, because I learned a great deal from both my own part in them and the words of others. Robust discussion, straight talking, and being open to hearing some pretty tough words, are an enormous part of the value of the old board IMO, and hopefully this one.

So I don't want this to be anodyne fluff site. A board like that would hold no interest for me as a Pea. But I'm also conscious that there are a significant number of our current members that have felt able to find their voice here precisely because the perceived unpleasantness and drama from before largely hasn't happened here yet, and those members might well favor more active moderation.

I don't want anyone to be unhappy or feel they need to leave because of the nature of the board and/or how it's run, but I'm a realist and I know I'll never be able to make everyone happy all of the time, so I have to try find the best balance I can. I'm fallible, and I won't always get it right. I  know that if I get it significantly wrong you all will let me know, but also hope that you'll grant me a little grace for minor missteps. I can promise that whatever your opinion of the decisions I make, they will be made with the intention of doing the best thing for the community as a whole.

As far as moderation goes, there are really two options from where I sit. One is no moderation at all. That's easy for me - I log out as admin and don't log back in.

But if you accept that there is a need for any moderation at all, then as much as we could discuss and vote on every single thing, in the end it will always come down to me having to make a judgment. That includes judging whether an issue is something I think I know how the Peas would collectively feel so I can act with confidence, whether it's something that does need to be discussed and voted on, which opinions I take into account following a discussion, or even whether it's something that 'majority rules' wouldn't necessarily be the best option. I can't define precisely what for me would cross into 'needing moderation' territory, as it's very much I'll know it when I see it and if I'm unsure I'll ask.

At the moment my ability to exercise that judgment rests largely on my years as a Pea, but it's something that will hopefully grow as our community grows. I have already learned a lesson here - it never crossed my mind that what I meant as a polite request could be perceived as censorship. Now I'm aware that it could be seen that way, so I'll have that in mind in future. I can tell you that it's difficult to set aside my own feelings so that I can be as unbiased as possible. There have already been a couple of threads where I've wanted to step in and say 'enough already, quit that' but I know that's just my personal opinion and not actually something where it would be appropriate for me to stick my oar in. I'm sure it will get easier with practice!

I'll try explain better where I was coming from with the beadhound thread. I realize that not all the threads preserved in the History board are fun. What I do think is that, whether good or bad, they are all threads which somehow brought us together as a community, that we bonded over, whether it was a crazy hairflip, a tragic loss, an angry outrage, a story we laugh at year after year. They are some of the things that helped unite us, or demonstrate our unity. I felt like the bead thread is the exact opposite of that, as it was not just negative but divisive, which isn't a feeling I want to perpetuate here.

One thing I particularly hope for this board is that we collectively get better at remembering that none of us are one-dimensional, and that we shouldn't define or pigeonhole each other based on a few posts. That brings us back to divisiveness, and if we go too far down that road, we won't survive.

So I guess I had more than 'a little more' to say!!

BTT