Folks, We recently had an email come through that pushed up to and then washed over the boundaries/rules that we have in place. This event has been addressed off-list, but some comments have been made that seem to ignore certain realities that all here must face. We have the rules posted at the club-house door here: http://imperialclub.com/IML-specific/Etiquette.htm Folks that find these rules objectionable or overly confining are encouraged to remember that they're not obligated to remain here, but please know that we genuinely want everyone that can agree to the pretty simple rules (Imperial only, pls) to stay. Folks that feel that the rules are enforced unevenly or unfairly aren't apparently in posession of a full set of facts, so here are a few that seem to be repeatedly misunderstood by the conspiracy-oriented folks in our ranks: 1. We have permanently banned at least 1, and likely no more than 2 people in the last 8 years, based on my recall of the events that I've seen on the Admin Group messages (and I've seen them all). The first one wound up in a murder-suicide situation months later, so being booted out of the IML was merely one upper step on a descending spiral staircase. Someone wrote a rejoinder to our current event saying that the author should not be "banished" from the list. -Nobody has been banished. Posting priveleges temporarily pulled, yes, but posting priveleges will be restored IF the person involved swallows their medicine and agrees to toe the line on the simple rules in play that everyone else is abiding by. Only people that refuse to stop breaking rules get "banished", and since we don't banish folks all that often, it's fair to say that almost everyone here has a good chance of setting things right. This is a virtual message board about old cars. Virtual means that it technically doesn't exist in actual realtiy. Missing car-related messages containing words for a short period of time is at most inconvenient, but please keep things in perspective. 2. We rarely pull people's posting priveleges. Maybe 3-4 times per year, if that. Usually for a period ranging from days to weeks, or until we hear back and get our concerns satisfied. See Fact #1 for how often that doesn't work out. Most people here are adults and things sort themselves out amicably. A few folks that got a ruler across the knuckles when they were new went on to be really super contributors here, so it's not all bad news. 3. Admin messages notifying people that they're out-of-bounds/knock-it-off go out maybe once per month on average, with each message maybe going to 1-3 people, depending on who's chewing away on a bad thread. Most folks apologize and we all move on. 4. Admin messages are normally 2-5 sentences, never contain emotion or insults, and are based on fact and the framework that we've all agreed to by being here. All messages that I've seen were much more even-handed, fair, and nice than I'd be inclined to write. Dealing with bone-headed and sometimes rude people nicely isn't always the easiest thing to do gracefully. Our folks do that regularly and consistently as far as I can tell. 5. Such messages go out to the author - the person that should be responsible for their actions, and nobody else that didn't join in a dog-pile. This is to avoid public humiliation in front of one's peers, since it's deemed best to tamp down these sorts of things discreetly and promptly to maintain civility and order in the common space that we share. We want a change in behavior, not mortal embarassment in front of your buddies over dumb words that are almost always of the correctable/mistake variety. Nobody likes being called on their crap, and some really resent it. The rest of the group would prefer not to spend time reading a stream of messages that are profane or otherwise unrelated to the topic at hand, so that's why/where the line gets drawn. If you see something that's obviously out of bounds, the best thing you can do is ignore it and presume that it will be addressed off-list by the moderators, who are always available for comments. See something wrong? WRITE TO US. We get perhaps 3-5 inbound comments PER YEAR (and we do take them seriously), so either we're doing OK or the people with the problems that are complaining off-list about being "afraid" of making a mistake are un-motivated to resolve them In a group this large, you're statistically bound to have a few of the black-helicopter folks, but the place is run by people that are genuinely trying to do the right thing, and nothing else. Please note that Rush Limaugh, Hillary Clinton, and President Bush are all absent from our Pantheon Of Heroes: http://imperialclub.com/OIC-specific/donors.htm Hopefully it'll stay that way and we can focus on what we came here for. Kenyon Wills on behalf of the OIC Admin Team ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121 ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm