What a disappointment
 

It's truly disappointing to see that a business which generates all of it's revenue from the speech of it's users remains completely committed to opacity and censorship of reasonable but disagreeable speech on topics of interest, and a centralized command and control structure that absolutely assures this will not be influenced by the users in any structured way.

And as disappointing as this pronouncement is, even more so is the spin with which the message is delivered, which is, unfortunately, much more transparent than possibly intended.

The value proposition of this website, which is 100% derived from the users, and 0% from the management, is such that users will tolerate enormous censorship and limitations on their participation, and that will continue unless or until someone disrupts the business with a different, democratic conversation model.

I do think we owe a moment of thanks to the management, however, for making their intentions very clear, regardless of their actual intent in doing so.

I am in agreement with this post. Apparently, unless you agree completely with the management, your posts disappear... and some posters disappear too!

Pretty strong statements from long time members.

I hope the management is willing to listen to their concerns, as to the concerns of many other members, including elected TB members.

Hopefully we can work together to get what the posters want.

In the long run its just not possible to disregard repeated concerns.

Its time for a FT wake up call@:-)

Great post Carol and look forward to continued improvements under your stellar guidance

All I'm going to say on the subject is that I was elected to represent the members (and I interpret this as "general members") of FT and will do so to the best of my ability over the next two years.

Feel free to PM me with anything -- no topic is off-limit or off-topic in my PM box.

I'd like to take a moment to thank kokonutz and Rich both for their commitment to represent the members and their willingness to read and reply to PM's. Both have demonstrated to me that they are very responsive and are very committed to at least listening to suggestions and ideas. ^

anyone can PM SanDiego1K/mod/TB/IB.
anyone who is responsive/reply = ^

^ And I'll throw in my two hockey pucks as well on this

My signature even has a direct link to the PM form for me. ;)

I have yet to receive any PMs, though. :(

Here I was thinking that this would be a thread that could seed an OCD forum on FT, as successor to ORP. :o

Not sure why you would think that, since her statements on this issue, as noted above, have been clear and consistent for almost a year:

+1

Certainly appreciate the hard work and effort put into the community.. I found that responses by the TB and Moderators to be quite detailed.. there is definite direction set forth..

unfortunately, with size comes mistakes, and some member discontentment.. with anything in life, there is room for improvement..

But I for one personally, truly appreciate the L/Earning experience curve in my personal travels with the 2 years of membership here on FT. Thanks for all the volunteers' effort and input.. Have a Happy New Year..