Well, doc and I do agree on one thing. ^

More true words were never spoken.

A moderator in ORP will inevitably have an agenda separate from Randy's, and I daresay there's no guarantee that it will be positive as far as communicating with Randy, nor even that their judgment calls will be good for the community. What if you have an issue with ORP's moderator? What if the moderator closes down your thread as redundant when it isn't? Those of us who aren't moderators and, thus, don't have Randy's ear separately from the forums open to all members, need to have an open, moderator-free forum for discussing matters directly, openly and candidly with Randy, without interference. If you have members who are truly problems and violating the TOS in ORP or making personal attacks, then just ban them.

Randy, ORP does not need a moderator, nor would it be desirable. It wouldn't be all bad, but the bad would definitely outweight the good to come from such a decision.

A lot of folks don't trust a lot of the moderators we have now - for a variety of reasons - so I can't see adding one to ORP is going to make a difference.

If you don't like what the ORP moderator says, you're going to start a thread lambasting them. And if the moderator starts closing those threads, then we get a(nother) "Moderator Shadow Government Conspiracy" thread.

ORP is for issues people want to bring to Only Randy Petersen's attention.

If they wanted to bring it to a moderator's attention, they would have. So I don't see adding a moderator here doing any real good, and probably just causing even more strife.

If Randy wants to weigh in on a thread, he will. Starting dozens of new ones on slight tangents won't increase the chances of him answering - just increase the chances of us missing his answer.

Tremendously insightful. ^

Agree 100%. ^^^

Just some of the specific Mods keen to agree here and elsewhere we 'need' one of their number "assisting" here sends a chill up my spine.

The present sole 'Moderator' is doing a good job IMHO.

doc's suggestion was not, as I understand it, intended to criticize our host.

As the old saying goes, "Even God can use help sometimes, that's why he created mothers."

Intentionally or not, this thread that doc dug up does highlight one of the impediments to maintaining civility on this forum. To recap briefly, one weekend one or more FlyerTalkers abused Randy's hospitality by posting under false handles and deliberately attempting to stir up a public fuss. (Had they only wanted to communicate a problem to Randy, they could have done so by e-mail.)

Further, their choice of timing was, shall we say . . . "fortuitous", striking on a weekend when one might expect the moderator of this forum to not be available to promptly quell the disturbance. Because of this, the disruption dragged on, getting worse and worse, for days before Randy was able to step in and restore order.

Since then, there have been other instances when, deliberately or fortuitously, a fuss has broken out on this forum at a time when the sole moderator's attention could be expected to be distracted, either because he was on the road or in the air or engaged in setting up one of the most important events of his year (and if this trend keeps up, I would expect another "fortuitous" outbreak the night of his wedding rehearsal).

So, since he can't give this his undivided attention all of the time, the suggestion is that perhaps he could use some assistance so that this forum does not become "ungoverned territory" every time he leaves the building. Think of it as the functional equivalent of hiring a baby sitter.

If you look at what has transpired over the last couple weeks on this forum, I can understand why the suggestion is made.

I think it merits consideration.

If the primary issue is malefactors taking advantage of the unmoderated nature of this forum when our host is expected to be busy with other matters, perhaps Randy should just shut this forum down for a week or two when he is unavailable?

We still have access to e-mail, and if our �words of wisdom� are so valuable, will they not keep for a fortnight?
"The Laws of the Navy," Captain Hopwood, RN.

I actually think that this forum should either be removed altogether (as has happened before after a prior round of attacks in which posters chose to wage bitter, long-standing battles to the court of ORP opinion) or take advantage of functionality of the new board and go totally moderated.

By totally moderated, I mean that new posts go into queue and have to be approved before they appear.

There are some people we'd never see in here again!

Three good ideas in the two posts above. (I'm including CAPT Hopwood's.)

For someone thinking that, you use it quite a lot .

I think all of us with a great emotional investment in Flyer Talk tend to do so.

Prior to this onslaught of unbelievable and ridiculous attacks, I had made about 100 posts to ORP, out of 4500 posts, that is hardly an obsession.

OTOH, you have spent fully 1 out of every 8 of all your posts in this forum. Is that really want you to attack me about today when you are here FIVE times as often?

Chill out, my post was hardly meant as an attack, and I surely did not mention the word "obsession" in my post......can't believe you went and counted my posts in this forum vs. posts in other forums...plus, I was not the one asking for this forum to be removed, so what is the point of pointing out my number of posts here? Anyway, thanks for that stat .

My wife is in the Philippines, having voted. My sons are in the office after school, and would rather visit cheatcodes.com or mugglenet.com. I think we'll go home to dinner.

Everyone would be well advised to take general comments less personally.

Good night all!

[Smilies per Sons of SPN.]