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Dirty-South Blues Harp forum: wail on! > Calm- Breathe in, breathe out, play nice
Calm- Breathe in, breathe out, play nice
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nacoran
7940 posts
Aug 16, 2014
9:49 PM
Hi everyone, Nacoran here...

Some of you may have noticed things have been a little stirred up the last couple days. We gotten some email complaints and had some people throwing insults around back and forth. Usually everyone is pretty civil here. There are a lot of things I like about being an admin here. I love when I'm able to solve someone's problem accessing the website (even though I'm often frustrated with the software during that process). I love helping with strange requests and don't even mind filing support requests when the captcha isn't working. I love the way people rally round when we've got a spammer working (even although that, thankfully, doesn't happen often anymore thanks to some upgrades in the server software). I even find mild amusement in restoring all the posts the spam filter chews up every day. The sheer tenacity in attacking the filter some of you guys have inspires me- when it eats 7 straight posts and you persevere to manage to get your post to post is a sign, I think of your passion for the subjects here (or insanity- Einstein said the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

The only part of my job as one of the admins here I don't like is when I have to jump in and send the fighters to their respective corners. We have a lively exchange here, and we manage to only have to lock a few threads, and we rarely have to issue warnings. In rare cases, we have to resort to more severe measures. We hate doing this, but when it's necessary we will.

After this last dust up we have issued some temporary suspensions and warnings. We are serious about this. This group is a nice community and most of the time aside from the computer stuff it can cruise along without much intervention. Please, when you get in a dispute with another member, don't blow up threads over it. If you can't settle things peaceably let us know and we'll try to figure out a solution that deals with all parties fairly. When you do it that way it is much easier for everyone at this end, and much more pleasant for everyone else on the forum. Remember, we've all got to play in the same sandbox.

I'd like to thank the other admins and the people who did contact us off list with their concerns and the people who politely asked for calm.

Thanks for your time,
Nate

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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009
eharp
2205 posts
Aug 17, 2014
5:00 AM
I like the idea of suspensions over permanent bans.
Gives the offenders a second chance.

I think most of the time a thread gets locked is because it becomes it gets hijacked by a couple of people that just take turns insulting each other. I never understood why people don't take the high road and just ignore an insult.

I rarely post here because sometimes folks are quick to find personal insult in a post.

Way to go, moderators.
kudzurunner
4874 posts
Aug 17, 2014
5:20 AM
I'd like personally to thank Nate and the other administrators for the invaluable and selfless job that they perform here.

I'd also like to remind everybody, including some longtimers who weren't here at the beginning, that this forum started back in late 2007 or early 2008 when somebody emailed me and said, "I really wish there were some sort of forum or place where those of us who have worked with your YouTube lessons could come to talk about them--to share notes and encourage each other." At first I resisted the idea. Then I decided that serving beginners and other developing players was important--in fact, vital--and I relented.

The results astonished me. Over the past six years, this forum has morphed into something quite different than one might have imagined from that origin-point. It's become, at best, a kind of front-page for the blues harmonica world--a place to go for the news, such as it is, and a place in particular where folks like to post new videos, others' performance videos, and news about new products.

All that is terrific. But there have also been downsides. All that restless, fermenting energy can be hard to control. Sometimes (and especially when the full moon is incoming) things boil over in a way that demands action. On rare occasions, the administrators and I have had to revoke the membership of particular members. None of us enjoy that or want to do it, but we are dedicated to the overall health of the forum. We also know, because we've been here for a while, that the forum is larger than any of us. It's larger than any particular member, and no member is exempt from the one nearly-sacred requirement: no name-calling, no flaming, no "You're an idiot." We welcome honest disagreements about every element of blues harmonica and the blues in general. (And yes, the blues in general--as a musical form, a cultural formation, and a feeling--are a partinent topic of discussion here. So are harmonicas in general. We make a space for full discussion of both words in our world: "blues" and "harmonica" as well as the thing called blues harmonica.)

Above all, I urge forum members to remember why this forum was started: to give newbies, beginners, and other developing players a welcoming community, a place where they could come, ask questions without being sneered at, and enjoy the fellowship of players who've been playing and thinking about the instrument for a while. When forum members develop antagonisms towards other members and take them from thread to thread, allowing them to blossom and fester, that quite rightly alarms and scares off the newbies, and it drives away some longtimers as well. When individual members, both longtimers and brand-new people, decide, consciously or unconsciously, to dominate the forum, with or without overt bullying activity, that, too, alarms and depresses newbies--they may see what's going on more quickly than the rest of us do--and it also leads to longtimers emailing me and the other administrators. Neither situation is one that we are happy with.

All of us--including me--will benefit if we rededicate ourselves to making this a friendly and welcoming place. Strong opinions are allowed, and welcomed! But please strive to treat your fellow forum members with respect, even when--particularly when--you disagree with their ideas.

It is quite possible to get beyond the bad blood that contentious disputes have generated. As I recall, Kingley and I were pretty irritated with each other three or four years ago. Now we coexist without much trouble, and even agree on certain things from time to time. That's the way things can go here, if you allow them to.

Last Edited by kudzurunner on Aug 17, 2014 5:29 AM
jbone
1733 posts
Aug 17, 2014
6:23 AM
Having been a around here a while, and having been a member of several forums devoted to a purpose, but with not-so-good moderation, I can say this: Adam and the volunteers who run this joint do a damned good job. I thank all of you, even with the fact of my own indiscretions on an occasion or two. In that event I was emailed and brought to see where I was in the wrong. Once that happened I was intelligent enough to just make my apologies and tweak my behavior a bit. After all I just need to keep in mind what Momma said so many times: Be nice or be quiet!

Information is a sort of power, We can make better decisions with information. This joint here is where a lot of very good people share what they know, and it's where mid level and beginner guys get informed. Sometimes people go a bit geeky and become the class buffoon, and when I personally see that I just don't bother with that person. Usually they wind down after a time or get into enough hot water that they either leave or get booted. And in the long run, no real harm is done, right?

WRONG.

Often we lose members who have been assets here. Also when this sort of personal agenda to do some sort of bad behavior continues, word gets around and less new folks come by or stay long. The life blood on a forum like this is new people. A good part of why I hang out is, I have stuff to give back to the harp and blues community, and this is a great place to do that. I have learned a lot and been given much good stuff here in the way of experience, counsel, and a sense of direction on how to proceed with harmonica.
I have some good friends here. I have maybe disappointed a couple of folks with no ill intent, and for that I have apologized and tried to be a better member.

My big point is, this is not my living room, or yours. It's an open forum where our manners and behavior are noticed. We have an inherent duty to act like adults in public, and this is to insure that we see new faces coming in and hanging around, asking for help and getting it.
We can also have some crazy good times here! I have seen some stuff on video posted here, and heard from people about personal adventures, that are better than Hollywood ever came up with.

Again, my hat is off to Adam and crew. We members owe you all a lot for keeping the doors open. But it's on all of us to behave civilly and insure the future of such a great and vital place as this is.
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walterharp
1483 posts
Aug 17, 2014
6:47 AM
I think much of the problem occurs when people do not see the difference between discussion of ideas and being attacked as a person. Some of us (including Adam) come from an academic background where active debate is central to moving things forward. However, to many people, this sounds like fighting.. but there is a difference. This is how much of the hard feeling arises when, for example, Adam brings up blues and race issues.

On the other hand, we all get up on the wrong side of the bed some days, and some people seem to get up on the wrong side almost every day!

Yes, good job moderators, you are much appreciated.
The Iceman
1938 posts
Aug 17, 2014
7:16 AM
Out of all the chat groups in which I've participated, this is hands down the best and MOST FAIR to all members.

(actually, there are times when I feel it is way toooo fair and nice to negative energy).

It is here that I learned a lot about how my approach to volunteering my information can sometimes morph into a personal agenda and have made personal growth towards more mature behavior.

So, one can learn more than just harmonica technique at MBH.
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The Iceman
1847
2065 posts
Aug 17, 2014
8:12 AM
The harmonica is Considered a toy, and Not a “Real “ instrument”

Because, It is mainly played by children.


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i get a lot of request when i play my harmonica
"but i play it anyway"
nacoran
7942 posts
Aug 17, 2014
11:04 AM
One final request. When anyone sends me email about forum issues, unless it's a message you specifically only want me to see (which is fine, just note that in the message), please send it to the membership address on the contact page. That automatically forwards to my email but it means that the other admins have access to it as well, which saves us the hassle of having to forward things back and forth.

Thanks,
Nate
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Nate
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First Post- May 8, 2009


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