News Forum Closed

[Amie]

We have had so many problems and complaints about the News Forum in the past few months, that I have decided it is more trouble than it is worth, so as from today it is closed until further notice. Please note that this does not mean that members can flood the Water Cooler with news items, they will be deleted if that happens. Yes it is fine to post the occasional "very important" thread, but please bear in mind this rule.

10.) NO Spamming. No commercial posts or flooding the forum with useless content.

Thank you

Amie

[Linda]

The news forum was originally added just to test out the idea. Over the time that it was here, it was monitored in various ways. We tried different ways to fine tune it and to make it be a better draw for the forum. However, it did not fulfill its purpose. It did not bring in new members and even though a few of our own members contributed, there was not enough varied member input nor enough shared interest to keep it going. Instead of it being a valued asset, it became a bickering ground. Administration gave it ample time to see if it would float, but it was decided (and fairly if I might add) to let it go.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes and it truly gets to the point that it is not worth the time and effort to continually have to sort things. As for spreading the news, there is television, radio and the internet. If someone truly wanted to constantly read news, just put in "news forum" in google and you'll have all you can read.

Lastly, keep in mind that administration has the right to decide what forums to keep and in what areas they want to apply their energies. Amie, Les and the rest of the staff are not paid to do any of this and they have their own lives, work and families of which to take care. Any time that they give here is truly a gift for our benefit. :hi:

[Just Rachel]

Very well said Linda!! :)

[Amie]

The News Forum was closed not just because of the fact that it caused many, many problems to me and my staff, but because I along with a lot of our members come here every day and click the "New Posts" link on the menu bar, and I was being presented with 2 or 3 pages of results, 85% of them from that one forum, and they were literally flooding out all the other posts.

John, our MPC Linux Mod, made a brief visit to us last week, and he posted in staff chat that he had hoped to catch up on all the posts he had missed, but after getting page after page after page of results full of news items, he gave up trying to wade through looking for other content, meaning potentially interesting or important posts get missed.

Please accept that the staff and I have tried so hard to make the News Forum work, Linda in particular worked to reorganise it, but we were all in agreement that it really was much more trouble than it was worth. You really have no idea what goes on in the background, and this has caused us headaches almost from the start, so I think the fact that we persevered for months and months before pulling the plug should be appreciated.

It is not censorship, it is keeping the majority happy, and no matter what you personally think of my decision, I have to do what I believe is best for the site and our membership as a whole.

I have received many thanks for closing the forum, and only one PM complaining, so doesn't that tell you something.

Amie

[L e s]

Amie did the right thing in closing the forum, it had been the source of hours of work to the admin staff.

I was going to post last Friday (before going away for the weekend) about the situation, having spent half an hour writing the post I accidentally closed the tab on preview instead of posting it. I took that as fate not to publish my thoughts.

We have turned a blind eye

We have had quiet words

All that was left to do was act

Perhaps now our moderators can enjoy MPC along with the rest of the members

No-one ever said life would be fair and this is just one of those situations where management's decision is final!

enough said, so now, just enjoy MPC