As a moderator on another very large forum, I feel that ShamanPortal would benefit from some gentle moderation here and there. Moving out of place threads to more appropriate areas of the forum, keeping chit-chat and meta-discussions out of serious threads and removing personal attacks.

There are some very interesting questions posted here but few people benefit from the discussions when they go off topic or enter into mud slinging sessions so many people simply go elsewhere.

Kind regards.

Obviously the Moderation is inactive ...

Yup!

Shamanic censorship, oh that's priceless.

Obviously the Moderation is at the moment busy with other things ...

A recommendation:

Todays technique of bulletin-boards makes it possible to spare time. I do not make advertisings but I use the vBulletin script and since I am using it I have NO Spammers anymore. Really none, and I use the script now since 2 and a half years. With the other scripts I had still this Spammers around.

Regarding "Censorship": A Bulletin board is never democratic. It is per definition non-democratic. The one who sets up the rules and pays the bills is the one that has any right to kick, moderate and to censor anything. It is the simple right-of-ownership.

Yours,

Apu Kuntur that is administrator since 1998.

Hardly. Moderation is call that for a reason - to be moderate when others are not.

Removing spam posted by non shamanic practitioners can hardly be classed as censorship.

I remember reading about Drum Circle Etiquette on your site, same thing really.

As a moderator on another very large forum, I feel that ShamanPortal would benefit from some gentle moderation here and there. Moving out of place threads to more appropriate areas of the forum, keeping chit-chat and meta-discussions out of serious threads and removing personal attacks. http://www.ezibuystore.com
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There are some very interesting questions posted here but few people benefit from the discussions when they go off topic or enter into mud slinging sessions so many people simply go elsewhere.

Kind regards.

You know, I am getting tired of popping in to check what's new and find adverts for Russian Porn sites and sales ads for retirement properties and window blinds. It's even getting bad when the spammers are putting their nonsense in discussions as if responses. It's getting annoying.

So, when you say moderation, it doesn't necessarily mean 'censorship' of ideas, which isn't ALL bad either when taken in its entirety. Here it would most likely mean nothing more than less spam in the in forums. As a member of several sites, there are times when things get out of hand, when adults forget they are and revert to playground mud slinging. It would be a shame for all the valuable information in a discussion to get lost under the aegis of petty squabbles between a minority of people.

Moderation should be just that - a moderate stance which doesn't interfere but gently keeps a discussion on track (ie the original question is being discussed) and any divergent (meta) discussion is moved to a new thread where that new idea can be discussed without taking the original thread off track.

Spam, rude comments etc are removed.

Depending on the way the forum is run, advertising, self promotion and steering people away to other forums (links in posts to your own site, another forum etc) can be discouraged.

It's really up to the admin here but yes, I fully agree - it's beyond the point where this forum has become tedious due to the daily spamming. Shame really.