FYI, Daniel Pineault has been silently following AWF's current issues and posted the following about it in his Devhut site.
In his blog, Daniel said he did a "three-week anonymous trial on AWF".
I think his comments were largely fair. It is not new to me that some hate the non-technical discussion areas, especially politics. But many members love them. You can't please everybody. All I can do is provide options to hide the areas that members dislike. That way, both parties get the best of both worlds. You get the site you like, whatever your inclination.
Additionally, until now members were not aware that the Politics section helps fund the costs of running the site. Those who hate that section have a site they enjoy using because of its existence.
Sadly, we have a new overlord: The Online Safety Act. I disagree wholly with it, even if I understand its intentions are supposed to be positive. The collateral damage stifles free speech, and makes it hard for small sites to navigate its legal complexities. The site owner faces undue financial and legal risk, despite attempting to create a benign space for users to discuss topics of their choosing. Despite this, I have to comply. It is the law.
As things currently stand, it is likely that the Reform party will be the next UK government, and they said they will repeal this law. However, that is a few years away. If we close the Politics forum (almost certain) and heavily moderate the Watercooler, once we get a change of government we can again revert back to the free-flowing discussion that members love. If we survive that long.
I have 4 proposals for which I solicit your feedback:
1. Close the Politics forum (until the repeal of The Online Safety Act).
2. Create a list of words that will get starred out. Example words could be: Muslim, Islam, Islamist, Jews, Israel, Palestine, nazi. The word list would be more extensive.
3. Increase the moderation threshold within The Watercooler.
4. Have a new moderator who's specific role is to only moderate the other moderators. It is not for the squeamish. I suggest a new moderator because otherwise it is like the police policing themselves. While moderators police the members, who is policing them? Currently no one, but I suggest this new role be created to tackle that issue.
I wish I did not have to take these kind of measures, because the site has been a good home to many of you over the last 25 years. We got by. Without these changes, I fear both the risk to myself and the site will be untenable. It is a bit like someone else speeding but I get the ticket. And I would be responsible for thousands of drivers, where even one ticket could bankrupt me.
So, I welcome feedback on my 4 points above, and any other suggestions you may have.
and you should've seen what Daniel has posted in the past about AWF that Jon called him out on. Daniel removed a lot of it, but you can still see it via The Wayback Machine.
