Dear Severin,

Welcome back! You've been sorely missed
and I second Suze's feelings. There have been times
when things have gotten out of hand - and the feelings
get bruised and you begin to think, "Who needs this?"
But then it only takes a few posters like the ones
Suze mentioned - that bring you back to reality and you
begin to realize that this Forum is better than most,
and its the people that make it special.

I am sorry that Examinator has opted out.
I hope he knows how we all feel about him,
and will re-consider, because we do need voices
of reason, like his, on this Forum.

Dear Belly,

As for you - well you know how I feel about you
dear friend, and I'll always be grateful for
your friendship, understanding, and support.

Well said Foxy- and ditto re what you said about Belly.

I have just had an awful experience when I looked at another forum- it shall remain nameless.

They were talking about an Iranian woman already condemned to death for adultery who may be facing another sentence of 99 lashes because she was photographed without a head scarf.

Some of the comments about this woman and her photo were truly disgusting. It made me glad that such comments would not be tolerated on this forum, and that I am lucky I found it.

Dear Suze,

I'm sorry that you had that awful experience.
Things like that bring you back to earth
with a thud, and as you said - make you
realize how lucky we really are.

Life can be ugly at times, but like you,
I'd prefer not to be exposed to it.
I prefer to see the world through
rose-coloured glasses, and believe that
people are basically decent.

On a hill outside Camden NSW or was it closer to Picton?
A tree grew shaped by the cows eating it it looked like a mushroom.
A Sydney based firm, very big one, used it to say its business slogan.
While live I grow, maybe learn too.
I stole that slogan, I did not live far from it, within a hundred miles most of my childhood.
I have learned conflicts , not wars personal conflicts, can not be won by stubbornness.
I have seen much of the male tough guy rubbish we Aussies think is funny as I think the remarks about that poor unfortunate woman, but words flow faster for fools.
The idea any female in the world should be treated badly is a measure of the lack of humanity of the fools involved.
We have better standards here.
I simply ask we support the forum.
GY must at times shudder at my frankness and truly held thoughts about conservative Australia but we have quality here let us support it.
PS almost certain some one poisoned the while I live I grow tree.

Belly

I guess that few of us have got any idea about how well OLO is doing via profits from advertising and how much difference it would make if more of us contributed on a regular basis.

My feeling is that if a poster spends a few hours a week by way of writing posts and just being involved with OLO, then that’s a pretty big contribution.

I would hope that my input over the last five years has spurred debate and attracted more posters and advertisers to this site. Who knows if it has or not, but I’m sure that on average, this sort of input from contributors does do these things.

I’ve tried to help in another way too – by offering my suggestions and feedback quite copiously on technical threads.

So while there’s nothing wrong with you or Graham asking or even pleading for financial assistance for OLO, I don’t feel inclined to…. unless it can be asserted that the site is in danger of folding if posters don’t offer financial assistance.

continued

While I obviously think that OLO is great, I’ve got to say that my recent suspension, my first, when I didn’t think I was infringing any rules and didn’t even consider the possibility of being warned over what I had written let alone suspended without warning, didn’t help.

Perhaps a sort of gold membership should be offered for those to contribute financially, with a little gold icon placed next to their moniker at the base of every post that they write or something like that…if they want it. Maybe this would attract a lot more financial contributors.

But a strong set of clearly elucidated rules and a good regulatory regime is as least as important, so that posters know where the boundaries are and cannot inadvertently cross them and find themselves suspended… and offended.

With this in place, posters, article writers and advertisers should be abundant and OLO should thrive. …. even more that it currently is, and as far as I can tell, it is doing pretty well.

On Graham’s recent thread about the moderation of OLO I suggested that if posters were just willing to hit the little red cross that is present at the bottom of every post whenever they thought a post infringed the rules, then regulation of the site would be excellent…. and we’d never again encounter a great deletion and mass suspension event! To my dismay, people just didn’t want to support this sort of ‘community policing’!

I’d think that this sort of regulatory input from contributors, as well as just being contributors by writing posts, is far more important than a few small financial contributions.

Welcome back Sev.

So… what’s the story with Examinator?