Let me start by saying that I have no doubts as to Randy's motivations and how positive they have been and continue to be. But at the end of the day, we are all customers, not partners.

And if you think we're not customers, think again. There is a lot of money on the table. I have zero idea about FT's finances, but if a single guy like John Chow or Darren Rouse can make US$350k+/year online from a mix of fixed price monthly, CPM, and click-through advertising on a blog with only 250-350 posts per year... well then either Internet Brands is doing really well, or they are making a mess of things.

A volunteer effort was appropriate at one point in time. Today, a volunteer effort is leading to a lot of customer vs. customer fighting. And I'll admit that I'm in the fray, because of my views about the TB and suspensions.

But customer vs. customer fighting is not good for anybody. Think about it, would most people continue to shop at Costco if customers could get into fights with each other in the aisles? Specifically for FT:

• It is not good for the blood pressure of the combatants,
• It is not good for newbies who miss the wisdom of people who have given up and left, or are about to do so and
• It is not good for IB's bottom line.

In short, I think this business has reached the point where, now that the system upgrades are in place, IB has to consider investing more resources in the people side of management. To me, that means slowly investing in quality control of the user experience, which means an incremental evolution (as in over a year) away from a volunteer-based management of the moderators and the TalkBoard, to management by IB employees who are evaluated based on their ability to maintain a consistent high quality experience for IB's customers - us.

I know that I am in the minority of people who read this particular little part of FT on this topic. I do not have the emotional attachment of however many moderators there are, and probably 25 people who are, were, or want to be TB members.

Customers fighting with customers has to stop. And no matter what any of us might think about ourselves and our capabilities, no customer can really make it stop.