Quote:
| Originally Posted by Rally I can't help but notice the absence of any MT/WT involvement in this debate. As far as I can see, that last 'official' post was Frank's post #19 some two days ago (and all that said was 'Read the T&C'). I've been trying to think of why this could be. The only options I can come up with is: - The MT think this will 'blow over', i.e. the dissenters will get bored and drop it.
- The MT don't place any value on the opinions of the members.
- There are 'sponsored' members who are posting MT's opinions on their behalf.
- They are composing a response so elaborate that it takes two days to construct.
Whilst I like the image of the whole of the MT with their fingers in their ears going "La la la. We can't hear you" I hope that it's not true. |
You left out:
5. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I posted on another thread about people tarring all members of the MT with the same brush.
Some of the MT have had very heated and very public disagreements with some of the members and have usually paid a very public price for it by being vilified extensively on this board. In some cases I wholeheartedly agree that those MT members have been very clumsy in trying to deal with whatever situation they were trying to deal with and have deserved a public kicking. Furthermore, I have told those MT members that to their face.
However, lumping the whole of the MT together as one entity with only "the party line' point of view is disingenuous.
You can read my post on the Regional Organisers thread that states my aim when elected to the MT was to be 'a voice for the membership on the MT rather than the other way round'. I have tried very hard to uphold that aim and I have also tried to be scrupulously objective in my judgement of the many issues and grievances that the membership see fit to air. This includes very blunt dialogue with others on the management team with whom I have disagreed. Like anybody else in the world, my opinions differ from the next man and this means that I sometimes agree with the consensus view of the MT and sometimes I don't. If I don't agree with the direction, method or approach taken then I speak my mind and try to persuade people of my point of view. That, to my mind, is the adult way.
What we have now is a situation where open season has been declared, by a few, on anybody who has tried to further the interests of the DSC membership by having the temerity to put themselves forward as an MT member. I put myself forward to try and help people have a good time on Ducatis, not to be an 'Aunt Sally' for anyone who thinks they can take a pop.
I am not alone in being an independantly minded member of the MT, some of us, however, just want to get on with the job that the membership elected us to do without being 'guilty by association'. Unfortunately, we have to deal with misguided assertions, like the one above, that we're too idle to be bothered by members concerns, that we couldn't care less, that we have to have people in our pocket to post for us because we're too stupid to think up a reply for ourselves.
The truth is that nearly everything that an MT member posts these days is ripped to shreds. It will be interesting to watch this post being publicly disembowelled.
To the point. My personal view on the whole subject on who should be allowed to post on this board is clear.
The board is paid for by the members of the DSC, in my view that makes them the users who should benefit the most from their usage of this board. However, I would hate to see this board become closed to any non-members who wish to use it and have argued that it should be available to all. On all the DSC rideouts that I've been on everybody has been welcome whatever they ride and I'd like to see this ethos maintained in the virtual world.
In my view, members have a right to use the board as they see fit and we extend that as a privilege to non-members (not that many would see that as a valued privilege right now). People who are non-members have chosen to be so either because they haven't decided to join yet, or they don't see any value in joining, or they have joined and found no point in renewing or they have left because they are disaffected. That's fine, no club can be all things to all men and if you don't want to be a member, then don't be.
As to moderation, people think that they have a right to say anything that they want to say on web forums, regardless of whether they are a member or not. This is not true. Moderation has to be in place to stop the board descending into a Visordown clone, stop pointless interpersonal feuds or worse, stop it from becoming a cesspit of bigotry.
Difficult job, moderation. One man's moderation is anothers censorship but on the whole I think it works quite well. People are not moderated for no reason at all and are given fair warning that their post has been found to be offensive or in breach of forum rules (or reported by another user).
It works both ways. People who have complained about finding their posts being moderated have also, if they care to admit it, been protected from attacks by others being moderated in turn, or having offensive posts directed at them removed. As an MT member I see some of the removed posts and some are sickening in their personal attacks. Do the webteam always get it right? Of course not, nobody's judgement is infallible, but from what I've seen they try hard to make sure there are no double standards.
17-Oct-2006, 22:16 
Jools
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