@brb has kindly obliged to update my status again. Many thanks to you sir I'm sure we'll all continue to get along famously...
Congrats Lardi. Now it’s time for you to make an executive decision. I’d suggest we keep the light hearted threads, for those incl me who occasionally wish to use them - but delete the Good News & Bad News threads, and the political posts one.
Here's the position as I see it. It isn't my job to tell members what they can or cannot talk about. Joking references aside I'm not the President, or the Administrator, or the Manager, or the Guv'nor. Or any other kind of leader. The philosophical or political direction this forum takes is not down to me to decide or even influence. My primary task is to protect the Charlton forum from harmful posts such as spam or trolling. If this was a large forum with hundreds of active members and new ones joining every day, that would be an appreciable task. Indeed a whole team of mods might be required to keep an eye on everything that was being posted. However here we have a small community of long serving members, all of whom are trusted and always post their content in good faith. And we take on new recruits at the rate of two or three per year (at a guess). In theory spammers or trollers who join other Club forums within Not606 could come on here and be disruptive, but I cannot recall that ever happening. Certainly not recently. If that ever did happen it would be dealt with. My secondary jobs include keeping the forum tidy - moving posts accidently made in the wrong thread, deleting duplicate posts or merging duplicate threads etc. Mediating only where strictly necessary, if a dispute between members gets over-heated or too personal. Fixing technical issues, or seeking help from the board management if I can't help matters myself. Now, granted this is a Charlton Athletic fans' forum. All things Charlton Athletic should be our first interest and our first love. Then naturally, other matters to do with football - and other sporting matters. However, if any of us as Charlton fans go out to a local pub or go to the Valley and socialise, we would not expect the pub landlord or a steward to tell us that we cannot talk about other things that affect our lives, such as politics or the cost of living or crime or immigration or the NHS or education etc. - as long as we keep our conversation from being offensive to others around us. I don't believe there is any justification to impose such restrictions here on this forum either. Although we are all technically anonymous, most of us know each other to some extent and some of us have met and socialised out in the real world. In some ways getting together in fans' forums (especially small ones) is not too different from meeting mates in a pub or in a football ground. So here's what will happen, in the interests of keeping the forum tidy. There will be one new thread for discussion of current events and politics that are not related to CAFC, football or sport. What goes on that thread will stay on that thread. Any off-topic politics that gets posted elsewhere will be moved to that thread. And I ask all members please, don't let any bad feelings you might experience while reading or posting in that thread spread out to contaminate other threads. Any new threads created covering political subjects will be merged into the politics thread. No posts or threads will be deleted. We are all emotionally mature people. We should be able to discuss contentious matters and not let those exchanges sour our whole relationships with other Charlton fans with whom we may disagree about specific political matters. Folks who feel they may not be able to do that, I would suggest they do not read the contents of the politics thread. I promise to do my best to make sure that the contents of that thread stays on it and does not spread to other threads that are concerned with CAFC, football or other sports. PS: All the current 'off topic' threads such as the Bad News thread will stay. There are some bad news stories that are not political in nature (like that stupid influencer who stole the baby wombat). Such matters should still have a place to be discussed. However, if content posted on the bad news thread looks like it is political in nature it will be moved to the politics thread. All the 'light hearted' threads such as commentaries on other Charlton fans' forums and their members will of course stay as well. They are threads about the Club and some its fans after all, even if in an indirect way. And other off topic light hearted threads such as favourite soup etc. will stay. As I mentioned before, it is absolutely not my job to dictate to other members what they can or cannot talk about. All I would ask is please - don't create too many of those threads at once. One every now and then is no problem. A lot of them cropping up in a short time will push other threads off page 1, which would not be good.
Any other observations by all members, please continue to post them in this thread. Or contact me by personal message if you wish.
I think @Ponders Revisited and me speak the same language. @Part Time Crombie Model is in this category as well.
