IS it wrong to ask what happened to CSB?

[Timster]

I must say that the no warning seemed a bit abrupt.

And I note that the newest member is "checkmate".

My guess is that this person[na] doesn't play /chess.

Whatever~

[The Hen]

Strangely enough, Checkmate registered after the Board was in Maintenance Mode.

The other strange thing is ... you can't register whilst the Board is in Maintenance Mode. (I just tried.)

Do you think it is a message from the G-Man?

In which case, shouldn't the name have been Stalemate?

[Crackpot]

The board is shut down. If you want to email Gar I can give you his e-mail.

He's just fed up with the bickering and the accusations of his taking sides.

The Future of the board is uncertain at best, but, he is welcoming of any e-mail.

[loCAtek]

Yup, Gar is just an average guy, with an average job that takes up most of his average life.

Constructive criticism was asked for and welcomed. You can still do that.

I'll be glad to pass along any such messages. He's done with the gratuitous insults masquerading as speculation. If you just could have waited a sec...

CSB would have been eleven years old this week; The CSB is dead - Long live the CSB!

[Gob]

Well I'm probably as guilty as most, more in fact, of putting my foot in it. First I asked to be deregistered, which Gar declined, then following Edi the liar saying me, Hen and @-W should be banned, I had a rant at him (Edi) and asked gar to give Edi what he wanted.

It's not our fault that Gar has been away for so long while this has built up, it's not his fault that his reasonable man approach is not going anywhere.

We're in touch with him, and will be having further discussions soon.

[The Hen]

I'll be calling G-Man.

[@meric@nwom@n]

It may be for the best.

[Crackpot]

You can e-mail Gar at:

JP(at)AFAA.COM

It would probably be wise to put CSB in the subject since he mentioned a spam filter.

He also mentioned passing his phone # along to anyone who wanted to talk to him providing they weren't like "Jeffery Dahmer". I'm taking that to mean the serial killer aspect and nothing against say Timster or Scooter specifically. (forgive me for injecting some levity into the conversation but I think Gar would appreciate it)

[Guinevere]

He tried. He wasn't allowed. That function was disabled.

I was just trying to link G-Man to all of Steve's lovely Concern Troll posts so he would realise that his Welcome Mat thread was not a genuine suggestion. The Board is down for maintenance.

It needs more than maintenance. Hoping that people will post positively when dust covers are thrown over the crap that has been flung around isn't going to work. A proper discussion would be benefical. It is a shame I seem to be the only one that is willing to have an open discussion on the Board, without it needing to go behind the scenes with PMs etc.

Secret squirrelling with members behind the scenes is NOT going to get anything fixed on the Board.

Just my opinion anyway.

Um Hen, plenty of us have expressed our opinions about how to fix or resolve things on the CBS board.

[Guinevere]

Gob, I would never de-register, if only because it gives others the chance to steal your nick and play games. But if you don't want to be there, then don't. Surely you have the ability to deny yourself if you truly want to

[Big RR]

hen and Guin--do you honestly think things can be "resolved" on the CSB? We are always going to have all kinds of people posting in open forums, some for attention, some to be downright disagreeable, some because they think what they say is more important than whatever anyone else says, etc. Things won't change because people don't change; and short of dictatorial control over what is posted and/or banning of members, this will alwsys be the case. But is that preferable? Are thing so bad that we cannot ignore the drivel of someone we care little about, and so we run to the "authrorities" to "do something about it"? The CSB can be turned inot that kind of board (so can this for that matter), but I seriously wonder how many of us would want to post under such a regime (I know I wouldn't).

Tolerating free speech isn't easy, and you will often see things that are disagreeable and/or downright offensive, but are the alternatives any better? I don't think so.

Certainly some work can and should be done to make the administration of the site more responsive to the suggestions and needs of the community, but I, for one, would not like to see involuntary editing of posts and/or suspension and banning of members because their posts are offensive to some or many on the board.

[Rick]

Went there from work the page is white.

But some sites don't show up from my work PC anyway.

So it's gone?

Well invite Gar here and let it be.

He's a great person in person and he thought alot of you Gob.

When I was in KC the majority of the conversation concerned you and Hen and how he wished he could have been at the wedding but would still like to visit. Blah blah blah.

He didn't tell me NOT to tell you...

[Rick]

Gob, I would never de-register, if only because it gives others the chance to still your nick and play games. But if you don't want to be there, then don't. Surely you have the ability to deny yourself if you truly want to

I posted this over there but there is gone.

Thanks for the heads up about ABATEMENT.

A very useful tool, better than a bigger hammer.

I'm most appreciative...

[Miles]

I was awol from my computer yesterday and have just now discovered the absence of the CSB. While reading this thread it occurs to me that the tone is much the same as the CSB in the past months. I realize that we are the same people we were over there but we came here to establish a more friendly emvironment. Gar has his hands full, although I have not communicated with his as I am not one of his favorite people, if the CSB is truely gone we need to consider it as a learning experience not something to argue over.

We all have fond memories as well as painful ones of the past 10 years. I have seen friends come and go. Some were driven out others became disenchanted while some died. I fondly remember being on MSM with a great many of those here as well as many who are no longer around. If the CSB is dead I personally choose to morn it rather than point fingers at those I may consider as contributing to it's demise. Lets face it, every member is partially responsible. Those who were active in the flame war and those who just stood by and didn't try to inject some sense of order. Perhaps we could have used some of Loki's wisdom.

[Guinevere]

hen and Guin--do you honestly think things can be "resolved" on the CSB? We are always going to have all kinds of people posting in open forums, some for attention, some to be downright disagreeable, some because they think what they say is more important than whatever anyone else says, etc. Things won't change because people don't change; and short of dictatorial control over what is posted and/or banning of members, this will alwsys be the case. But is that preferable? Are thing so bad that we cannot ignore the drivel of someone we care little about, and so we run to the "authrorities" to "do something about it"? The CSB can be turned inot that kind of board (so can this for that matter), but I seriously wonder how many of us would want to post under such a regime (I know I wouldn't).

Tolerating free speech isn't easy, and you will often see things that are disagreeable and/or downright offensive, but are the alternatives any better? I don't think so.

Certainly some work can and should be done to make the administration of the site more responsive to the suggestions and needs of the community, but I, for one, would not like to see involuntary editing of posts and/or suspension and banning of members because their posts are offensive to some or many on the board.

My point was that there were plenty of us making suggestions. And I think more information and more ideas are always better than throwing up your hands and saying you can't/won't do anything. You never know what might get change going.

In the end, what Gar decides to do is up to Gar -- it is fundamentally his board (I know not everyone agrees with me on this point, but I think its been shown on several occasions, regardless of what words are said/posted -- and I personally don't have a problem with that).

[Big RR]

Can't argue with that; all any of us control is whether we post or not. As this board shows, any of us who don't like what happens are free to form our own board.

[Lord Jim]

I was awol from my computer yesterday and have just now discovered the absence of the CSB. While reading this thread it occurs to me that the tone is much the same as the CSB in the past months.

I couldn't possibly disagree more Miles...

This thread has become contentious at times, but this is nothing like what has been going on at the CSB; the threats, the viciousness, the blatant trolling, the attempts to draw drive people off, the non-stop gratuitous insults...going on all over the board...

What ever testiness has occurred in this thread is paddy cake by comparison....

Re the CSB Shut down:

It will be interesting to see if it's permanent; I tend to doubt it, since it wouldn't make much sense for Gar to still be trying to gather feed back if his intention was to kill it off...

Personally, I think (though I'm sure he was well intentioned) that Gar badly mishandled his return to the CSB, and that "hitting the re-set button" and having a "do over" isn't such a bad idea.

I think Gar, by offering his initial take on things, (which included assessing blame) before he had completed gathering information was a big mistake, and really contributed to stirring the pot further. Once he did that, intentionally or not, he signaled to many that his thinking was leading him in unproductive directions, and this wasn't helpful.

I think his problem was further compounded by his decision to start talking about all the "bells and whistles" changes he had in mind for the board, right of the bat, which left the impression (probably erroneous) that he might be missing the deeper problems....Nothing wrong with his plans in that regard, but he really should have saved those announcements for later.

He would have been better advised to simply announce that he was back and resuming the role of admin and that he was going to take some time to review some of the posting, and to get input from folks regarding why things had gotten to the state they were in and how to best address the problems...

And then to ask for eveyone's patience as he completed this process and announce that he wouldn't be posting any further about until he had completed this review and decision making process so that he could avoid giving misleading impressions that were based on incomplete information. And then stick to it.

I believe if he had done this, (rather than jumping in with numerous posts that encouraged speculation and had the effect of further stirring the pot) the vast majority of folks, being reasonable people, (there might have been a couple who wouldn't) would have accepted that and given him some space.

In bringing the board down, Gar has now given himself an opportunity to make a fresh start, and take this sort of approach. He could say that he closed the board to try and give everyone an opportunity to cool down. Then he could acknowledge that he may have made some mistakes and unintentionally left some impressions that weren't helpful, and that he wanted to start over. And then announce that he was going to henceforth follow a process like the one I outlined above.

I think if he did what I'm suggesting, he'd save himself a lot of grief, and a much more productive process would take place.

I also disagree with what someone said about Gar getting feedback behind the scenes not being the right way to go. As a matter of fact, I think the atmosphere on the CSB at this point may be so poisonous, that that is the only way to do it. Gar is far more likely to get more mature, cool headed, and well considered comment off the board, than he is on the board, where every comment is subject to attack, and passions are running high. (That doesn't mean that every private comment will be thoughtful but a much higher percentage will be, and in any event the comments wouldn't be further contributing to the problems on the board).

[Joe Guy]

Is the CSB down for good?

Seems rather abrupt and I would expect some sort of message but I don't even get an image when I try to go there.

So, anyway, the CSB was fun while it lasted. Too bad there were so many fruitcakes involved that took themselves way too seriously.

That's what probably frosted Garaelb's bippy to the point of misdestruction.

[Guinevere]

Miles, I have to disagree. What we have here is healthy discussion where people disagree. I don't see the name calling and nastiness that was present at the CSB. If everyone agreed, we'd have nothing to discuss and the board would be a very very boring place.

[Guinevere]

I also get the white page, with no message/warning/etc.

LJ, I disagree with your analysis of Gar's approach. I think one of his earliest threads was "what to do about the CSB" which devolved immediately into about 95% nastiness, and it clearly frustrated him from some of his following posts. Particularly when he asked folks to leave the bickering out of that thread. Obviously I can't speak for him, but perhaps he's decided to do whatever changes he wishes to do without the distractions of people posting and PMing him about their latest complaint.

Of course, in the end everything we post about what's going on is nothing more than speculation, unless and until we hear from the man himself.