Hi all, thank you for an important and though-provoking thread from which I’m sure we all learned a lot. Just to address a few of the issues raised:
1. Interpretation and Feedback: The rules about feedback and interpreting all the cards in Your Readings and the Reading Exchange are in place to protect the members and to discourage people from coming in to receive free readings at the expense of members who read for them. These rules were not in place from the beginning but were established over time because the moderators saw that such one-sided behavior was a real problem.
Aeclectic is a learning forum, and as such the full participation of members in terms of interpretation and feedback really is that important. When everyone participates, everyone learns.
2. Discussion of moderator actions: This is best left to private message, because such discussions usually lead to derailment of threads and it is important to keep threads on-topic. Should anyone have a problem with the actions of any moderator they are more than welcome to discuss the matter with that moderator, with the other moderators or with Solandia herself.
Moderator actions usually fall under two categories. One is moving threads to their proper forums (what we call “housekeeping”) and those actions are usually non-issues that are done routinely and with a minimum of fuss. Members should not feel that such moves are any criticism or sanction, because AT is a big place, it takes time for people to get to know the ins and outs of the forum and we're happy to help.
The second is dealing with all kinds of issues that may pop up such as off-topic threads or violation of forum rules for a variety of reasons. These decisions are generally discussed by the moderating team and different modes of conduct are weighed and then action taken. It is almost never decided by a single moderator.
3. Keeping on-topic: Some forums are rather more lax than others in terms of keeping to the original topic, and this is because of their nature. Some of the more scholarly forums tend to veer off topic and we take care not to quash lively discussion in them, but we do intervene when the topic goes too far off. It would be difficult to draw a specific line as to where a thread goes too far off topic because we’re all human and see things differently. However, again, we are always available to explain or even change our decisions if you present us with a good case, and moderator decisions have, indeed, been reversed in the past.
4. Promotions: The question of different types of promotions does come up from time to time and the rules are in place so that the forum does not get bogged down by different members advertising different things, even if the product is free. AT does provide several different venues for people who wish to put forth their own personal projects, it just asks that it be done in the proper place. Links may be placed in signatures, and for subscribers these are hyperlinks. As for the rest, the relevant rules have already been quoted in this thread, so there's no need to go into them again.
Feel free to contact any of the moderators if you have any questions or comments about these or other AT guidelines.
