[Capt'n Mike]

The Lake St. Clair Network (LSCN) website is intended to be a resource for the boaters, fishermen, and water-sport enthusiasts around the lake. The site has always been known for it's first class attitude, and it's first class people.

Over the past year, LSCN has grown immensely. It has brought in people who know the lake only by name, and that's fine. We welcome everybody. But along with that, the perception and intent of the site has become obscure. The complaints we see, and conversations we overhear, indicate that people are getting the wrong impression of this site.

Above all else, many of the regulars are unhappy with what this site has become. Many refrain from visiting the Boathouse forum, and isolate themselves only to the forums which interest them, and that's okay. But others are choosing to not visit the site again, and we don't want that.

LSCN was built to be a fun place, and the creators of this site, want to have a good time running it. Lately, it has become more of a hassle than it has been fun. Our moderators, who also find their work to be a "labor of love," are finding it hard to keep up with the immature, outrageous, attention-getting and rule-defying posts. That's not fair to them.

Effective immediately, the LSCN moderating team and administrators will be taking a zero tolerance stance on the content posted in the LSCN Boathouse. ANY and ALL posts that the moderators deem inappropriate, offensive, or just plain mean may be DELETED WITHOUT WARNING AND WITHOUT REASON! There is no longer a "3 complaint rule." It's now a matter of good judgment, with the greater good of LSCN in mind.

Those who repeatedly post objectionable material which requires moderator intervention, will lose posting privileges without warning.

We're sorry that it had to come to this, but we feel that this action will make the Lake St. Clair Network a better place for everybody.

- The LSCN Staff

 

[excalibur al]

that sounds good to me cap't mike .

 

[pampurred]

good idea

 

[firecracker]

QUOTE(Capt'n Mike @ Feb 18 2004, 12:03 AM)zero tolerance

Boy, I better stop drinking and posting.....
j/k

Sounds reasonable to me

 

[fatcat660]

sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[rerun]

Everyone please feel free to use the "report this post" button on the bottom right corner of a post. Noone will know who reported it so please don't worry about that.

 

[Focker]

Very well said Capt'n Mike.
Thanks.

 

[Dookie]

I can say in the past year that I've been on LSCN it has somewhat changed. I'm know I'm guilty of being a smarty pants at times too. There are some issues that are humorous to some and not others. I've never had anything pulled unless I did it myself. The boathouse is a general forum, I guess I'm not really sure on what the 'line' is that should not be crossed. aside from the obvious, but that is subject to the opinion of the readers or peeps posting

Can I assume that since nothing I've posted has been pulled that I haven't crossed the line? We joke around a lot and most can figure out what is and isn't a joke. Are you referring to things like that?
I'd totally go into withdrawal if my posting privileges were suspended h34r
:

 

[mongo]

No personal attacks...
Be nice

Nothing mean or negative about other people.

No nekkid pictures...
If you must share your porn collection, e-mail it to me

 

[Dookie]

QUOTE(mongo @ Feb 20 2004, 06:19 PM)No personal attacks...
Be nice

Nothing mean or negative about other people.

No nekkid pictures...
If you must share your porn collection, e-mail it to me

You got it

 

[Rosie_The_Riveter]

GOOD CALL - Capt'n Mike, I agree with you 100%.

If I may push the envelope a little more, I personally think some of the avatar choices are a little questionable.
I feel a few are disrespectful toward women. Some may think they are funny, but as a woman I am not laughing.
There are a lot of professionals on this site and I think if they use their imagination they can come up with some good avatars. For all the others who took the time to pick out cute ones and non-offensive ones
"Good Job"..Remember,
your avatar represents you...

 

[homebrew]

I find it very interesting that for all the patriotic talk we have on this board, there are apparently no dissenting opinions regarding this decision. While I understand this site is a business and must be operated as such, I do not believe this to be either a morally or fiscally sound decision. I sincerely hope this is merely a knee-jerk reaction and cooler heads will consider a more lenient policy in the future.

 

[rerun]

QUOTE(homebrew @ Feb 23 2004, 01:03 PM)I do not believe this to be either a morally or fiscally sound decision.
Can you go into any detail on why you think this?

 

[Capt'n Mike]

QUOTE(homebrew @ Feb 23 2004, 01:03 PM)... I do not believe this to be either a morally or fiscally sound decision.
You've piqued my interest too, please do elaborate.

We have had a wealth of positive responses from this decision, both on and off the site. We have no regrets about the change, and the payoff of seeing old faces trickle back into daily activity is a wonderful payoff.
Somebody mentioned to me that people may be afraid to disagree, for fear of being kicked off the site. If that's the case, please PM any of the administrators or moderators, and let us know how you feel. We do want to know!

 

[homebrew]

From a moral standpoint, it is contradictory to the spirit of the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech. I say contradictory "to the spirit" because the Constitution applies only to government (with the exception of the prohibition of slave ownership). As a private enterprise, those in charge of setting LSCN policy are, of course, free to act as they wish on how they police content. However, allowing arbitrary content censorship runs counter to what we as a society (and I thought this community of boaters/ partiers) see as morally acceptable. I wholeheartedly agree that as a family site, the moderators should be able to pull nudity and profanity at will. Anything short of this (ie vulgar, distasteful, questionable, annoying content) should be subject to some kind of review or standard. I personally believe the three complaint rule was reasonable, though it may not have been workable in practice under heavy requests for moderator oversight. Having no experience as a moderator, I do not have an alternative solution available, though I believe something more in line with our expectations as a free society can be instituted. Let us not forget that anyone offended by any thread or comment has the option of either not viewing that thread or comment, of contacting the moderating team, or of posting their own opinion.

From a fiscal standpoint, I believe LSCN usage will drop due to this policy. Alot of what makes this site so much fun and so interesting is the divergence of opinions and subject matter which we have been relatively free to express. I personally am extremely turned off by the fact that someone may alter or eliminate my posts based solely on their personal opinion. I would imagine that after a person has their posts, which they do not see as offensive, edited a few times and with the knowledge of what is necessary to do so (one moderator's opinion) they will curb their participation here. Of course I may be wrong about this; the moderators may use their discretion wisely in deciding what is and what is not acceptable, new users may be enthralled by the mature nature of our conversations, and LSCN will see an increase in usage. Only time will tell for sure what impact this will have on LSCN's bottom line, but my guess is it will be negative.

My .02

 

[rerun]

QUOTE(homebrew @ Feb 23 2004, 03:17 PM)Let us not forget that anyone offended by any thread or comment has the option of either not viewing that thread or comment, of contacting the moderating team, or of posting their own opinion.
I think this is were a major part of the problem happened...most of them stop viewing the site all together.

 

[Rosie_The_Riveter]

The statement "Freedom of Speech" was just mentioned. HOW TRUE..
That is where part of the problem lies, people think they can say whatever they want without any repercussions.
This site was founded on integrity and should be kept that way. No matter where you go or what you do, there are always rules and regulations. The owners of this site have the right to make their own policy.
Question: If you were paying for this site, would you like to spend your money to hear about...who threw up at the last party or who was so trashed it was embarrasisng...?
I wouldn't ..If you respect yourself, you will respect others especially when they try to do the right thing...
Whew, now I feel better I got that off my chest...

 

[Snowbi-Wan]

But I like hearing about who threw up.

 

[Goose]

Out of the entire site, the maps, the business listings, the charts, the lake info, the water levels, the foresale forums, the boating forums, the fishing forums, all the other stuff, there is one forum (the boathouse) that appears to have the most activity as far as questionable or objectionable things being posted. There is much more to the website than that one area that so many people claim to have a problem with.

If someone had wandered into the LSCN and this is the one area of the entire site that they find objectionable, and they decided to never visit the site again because of some off color comments or threads in this one little area of the entire site, then those people have a problem or will find something to complain about no matter what the content.

It NOT all over the site, stay out of the boathouse if you are a nun or priest. I think you can safely use the entire rest of the site without seeing a post about being drunk or possibly reading a sexist joke.

The captains run the site the way they want and the "just delete the post on their discretion" makes it easier on them, they dont need to see people complaining about what I did every day!!!!

Although, there are some moderators like RERUN that just have it out for me and delete my posts just to antagonize me, then post their own questionable material and run around parties in their underwear!!!!

It does seem that the board has become kinda slow/boring in the past couple weeks, and have noticed the posts are down and others have noted it too, just in passing or in the chat room, how slow it is or uninteresting or not lively, like it used to be. I have written some reply posts, even ones that aren't objectionable, and then just said forget it, why bother respond, someone will have a complaint.

BTW, I lay claim to be the first deleted thread under the new rules, approximatly 5 minutes after Capt. Mike posted the rules I had my first thread removed......IT WONT BE THE LAST - HA HA HA HAH H HAHHA

 

[hammer]

QUOTE(Goose @ Feb 23 2004, 04:13 PM)Although, there are some moderators like RERUN that just have it out for me and delete my posts just to antagonize me, then post their own questionable material and run around parties in their underwear!!!!
ROFLMFAO