Thanks at least for that.

Evolution doesn't guarantee the survival of the fittest - only the most fecund.

In the mean time I edited to say prefect...Ive been in north america too long...

We are expected to play by the rules, which we do.

But then EVERYONE is expected to play by the rules, even if some posters push them more than others.

brilliant word - not heard that for ages!!

Sometimes it is easier to say nothing than provoke unnecessary controversy I would then have to clean up anyway, so there is some self censoring, as I would hope most people here exercise on occasion.

My posting style has changed over the years anyway, but since becoming a mod I do occasionally post in threads that are in danger of degenerating in the hope of not having to come back later to take more affirmative action. Usually its pretty clear when thats the case. In the past I would have just shrugged and moved on.

One thing I do now know is its very easy to criticise the mods without any clear idea what really goes on here.

Actually I was thinking you post less frequently, and (sadly) less 'intelligently'

the above is in no way meant as an insult

LOL, how could that possibly be taken as an insult


I post less frequently because I have probably said everything I have something to comment on about life in Canada here dozens of times by now. I just dont have the patience at the moment to go through it all again in the same level of detail / thought as in the past.

Probably if I hadnt become a mod when I did I would have taken a long, perhaps even permanent, leave of absence again by now.

That actually makes it more insulting - nice work

I think the Moderators in here are actually pretty restrained on the whole.

If I had the power to delete a post or a thread or 'rub someone out' with a mere click of a mouse, BE would look pretty different, that's a fact!

OK perhaps I ought to explain (I had considered trying to start a thread on this topic).

Once upon a time......
Souv, dbd, Novo, Iain, Steve_P, Judy(in Calgary) and several who have either disappeared or are now on the back benches, once upheld the more informative, educational, intelligent end of the forum. They would either start 'intelligent' threads or contribute in an 'intelligent' manner, intelligent debate was the order of the day (for gods sake even I occassionally contributed something 'worthwhile'). Mods stayed out of the bickering (rightly or wrongly). 'Stupidity' and inane comments\posts were reserved for the Maple Leaf. Newbies were treated with more respect. The first response to a question was NOT 'Go look at the (f'in) wiki.'

Over the last year or so things have changed, NO ONE seems to have any respect or patience, point scoring seems to be more important than genuinely 'helping' each other, mod bashing (rightly or wrongly) has almost been elevated to an Olympic event and worst of all the previously intelligent threads and post are either not appearing or are lost in a sea of dross, tedium and mediocrity.

Im not at all sure how true that is. You certainly seem to remember the old days as more high brow and serious than I do. Sure, there were some intelligent debates now and then, but then there still are. There was a lot of crap too.

Personally I think most newbies get their questions answered fairly well and fairly quickly. In the past there was no wiki to direct them to, for FAQs there is no harm directing people to the wealth of knowledge in the wiki, it would be insulting to ignore it, if only for the sake of Judi who wrote a lot of it initially.

There are more members and posters in general, so the law of numbers means that more are going to be off topic at some point anyway.

Most of the degeneration seems to be to me when two old hands butt heads or try and have the last word, or as you say "score points", at least thats how it seems to me. But it takes two for that to happen, so dont get involved is my advice.

In the last few months, since the last (and final) round of mod bashing there have been far less need for moderators to act, and very few complaints. Several old hands have returned, and generally, from my perspective there has been peace and love across the land. But you werent around for a large part of that...(coincidence?)

Having said all that, I dont want this thread to degenerate into comments about moderation...you all know the ropes, if you have something to say, feel free to do it by Private Message.

I've had some good debates with dboy, Oink, JonboyE, yourself, Steve_P since I've been posting regularly, although they are rarer than they were. We don't discuss enough contentious stuff here for sure, but there is always at least one or two threads on the main page that are serious (e.g. the hunting one).

I suspect the issue has a lot to do with the fact that many of the 'debate' threads have topics that have been discussed many times before and as such its easy to fall into banter and points scoring rather than go over the same things yet again. Myself, I don't post many new threads, but I do try to post ones that require some thought (e.g. the first nations one recently).

If you want to discuss something intelligently, I'm all for it. But you kind of set the tone for this one with the OP

Let me try another tack.

Firstly let me say I do respect your opinion and will even go so far as to say I've been around here long enough to consider you a friend.

That being said when you enter into a debate as in this case:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...1&postcount=57

Everything you said is valid up until the last line "Please, keep it civil. You all know the rules by now." by adding this last line you have become the bully. Because the word Moderator is under your name you're implying you have the big stick and you're not afraid to use it.

This is what I object to.
Just my opinion others may or may not agree.

Huh - see my name wasn't in there!!!
I could take offence and flounce you know!

Fair cop. There was a thread about tea recently - want to go over the finer points of orange pekoe again?