I'm calling a town meeting right now to highlight the issue of self-governance now that we are in a state of total anarchy without mods to enforce rules, or any rules whatsoever at this point.
There are issues going on with people derailing threads and spamming them to suit their agenda.
This is a fine example and was Sean's last moderation, but there were no punitive measures taken.
There are plenty of other threads here that I need not bring up because it's not hard to find a topic title and find people deviating from it and forcing an agenda completely unrelated.
Two arguments that I hear often are "Just ignore them or use the ignore function" and "Be spiritual and tolerate", but the problems with those two approaches are 1) they normalize bad behavior, 2) they distract and detract from the discussion (especially for those not logged in who don't have the ability to use the ignore function that members do), 3) it makes every thread a bait-and-switch because a random search for a topic that was once Mr. Rogers and spirituality for example becomes laden with conspiracies involving the CIA and someone declaring his own authority as a Christian and educator, 4) for members who come here to talk about cultivation or philosophy, history, or relevant issues, it's like tuning in to watch Mad Men and trolls coming in to change the channel to watch Fox News and spammers making you watch infomercials instead.
Obviously, we do not have the ability to suspend or ban and remove or hide threads and posts.
But behavior such as threats (several members have sent out very obvious public and private threats) also accompanies this unmoderated dialogue. So while some may argue to tolerate it or get out, this means "Accept spamming and trolling, accept threats and abuse".
I also believe in exceptions, such as this and this, where we are dealing with potential dangers to other members on the forum. On the one hand, the topic is deviating from what was posted in these two examples, on the other hand, why let seeds of what is harmful be planted and even allowed to grow and take root when we can stop it from even happening?
Some may say that this is an eclectic community and we are not a VIP club or elite group, but then there runs the issue that runs with playing with qi and how misinformation and disinformation can seriously harm complete neophytes trying to avoid spending money on teachers or who just don't have access to quality teachers and lineages at all, and the sad fact is, many are coming for power and techniques. These can ultimately cause harm to people and to the forum community as a whole.
I've come to a point where I had to take a two-week stress leave because it was becoming too much, and while I am not proud of my behavior with personal insults and getting angry (to put it mildly...), I do believe that it is understandable given the fact that a simple thing like having a discussion on topic without having to worry about spamming, trolling, seeing misinformation and disinformation, or being threatened, should be here.
I propose discussing what we can do collectively without moderation privileges to enforce rules and without resorting to mob mentality to create some sense of balance and order here rather than chaotic unrest, the bad chaos, as opposed to primordial chaos and true creativity.
So, talk amongst yourselves.