Happy Anniversary, www.skatingforums.com!

[Isk8NYC]

With this being the one-year anniversary of our new board, this topic made me think a bit about the standards that have been in place here since before I joined years ago.

When I joined the board, the atmosphere was "Keep it G-Rated" to avoid being rated badly on the net nanny sites.  I've made an effort to continue that practice.  Lots of lurkers and silent sams, read our posts, including people we know!  Some are even kids, so all the more reason to think before posting.   (I know several posters in real life, and even more that admit to lurking.)

Skatingforums also had a "write properly" atmosphere - no "IM speak," although we use bulletin-board shorthand (DD=Darling Daughter.)  Sentences instead of fragments.  I've added a few words to the censored words list to make it easier to type on cell phones.  Example: "b-e-c-u-z" is transformed into "because."  The truth be told, most posts that are badly written get ignored by others.  It's too much effort to translate what they meant, I believe, so those threads usually die.

Other thread-killers are TMI, especially repeated TMI, and endless complaining that turns into bad therapy because it depresses everyone who reads it.  There should be a 12-step program for thread killing.

Lengthy essays (which I'm guilty of under both of my IDs) also get ignored.  If you want to spout off at length, write it on your blog and post a short invitation here to check out your blog link.

We haven't had a lot of spammers get by us, thanks to Jim's security implementations that let us block most of them before they can join.  Kestral must be bored, lol.  We've had the occasional spammer, but thankfully only one nasty porn spammer in the last year.
 
We haven't had a lot of problems in the last year with posters who "drink and post," for which I'm grateful.  Not a lot of trolls/troll-like posters.  Guess we're doing a good job as a community.

Thanks to everyone for keeping the board going and fresh with new information and discussions.  Thanks to Jim for putting everything together - wish he wasn't so busy...then he could enjoy the atmosphere here.  Thanks also to my fellow moderators who've been ready to jump into action whenever I've been AWOL.

I hope we enjoy many more years this peacefully.  It really is a sanctuary for figure skaters here, especially for adults to communicate.

[MimiG]

Thanks to Jim & the staff members for all the work you do to keep the board running smoothly, and to everyone for sharing their knowledge and experiences!

[davincisop]

Thank you to everyone who has made this board successful!


Side note: People have drank and posted (in the past)? I feel like that's a bad accident waiting to happen.

[hopskipjump]

thank you for your hard work and being a welcoming place of information!

[jjane45]

Thank you so much Jim, Renatale, Isk8NYC and every member of this excellent community!

[Isk8NYC]

Side note: People have drank and posted (in the past)? I feel like that's a bad accident waiting to happen.

Hence the "censored words" list on this board.  Probably not necessary, but it doesn't hurt.  ;-)

[aussieskater]

Wow, has it been a year already??  (That sure went fast.)  Thanks to all who set this up and have kept it going.  It's a wonderful resource.