Thread:OylerD/@comment-24668482-20160710191127/@comment-32738051-20160711080847

4paws, it is after 4:00am where I am and I've been writing this for a really long time now and I haven't had a decent night's sleep since this started not too mention real life has suffered and I haven't even been able to play the game for the most part except to gift. But I'm going to respond to this anyway before I go to bed for the night and try to get some sleep (I didn't get any last night...I gave up and not for the first time in the last week...because of events here).

No direct action towards me by TDC has caused any of it. I have only had good interactions with him so far. But so many others I'm friends with here have been affected by it - many of them hurt not so much by him directly but by all the peripheral pain that has surrounded it (and the other issue that was happening at the same time) - that I have paid attention to all of it, including TDC's posts, and have spent a great deal of time trying to help everyone out of it. I'm still doing that. Everyone's reactions to all of the recent events has hurt this community in general, has hurt Foss and has hurt everyone else here as well. I've even seen new members of this community decide this is not the place for them not because of one person's reaction to one thing but to the cumulative reactions by many. And it has also hurt me. I even thought about leaving at one point but it would be the wrong thing to do and so I'm not going to do that.

That said, though I know you meant to be informative and nothing more than helpful, I feel you inappropriately posted your comments here. First, my comments weren't directed at you and I only made mine here because I felt it appropriate since part of it pertained to another related thread of which I am now a part and the comments in this thread could affect my involvement in the other. You had no such involvement in either as of my earlier post and I see your post here as an intrusion and a distraction, though I do also see it is up to the others here to decide that for themselves. However, I think it would have been more appropriate for you to have instead quoted my comment here and submitted your comments directly to me on my wall.

For the record, I did see the thread you mentioned and the explanation for the removal and, since TDC created it, I do believe it was his prerogative and I agree with his decision to remove it. He created it; his right to remove it. If it had been on his wall instead and the same had happened, I would have concurred then as well. Could he have simply unfollowed the thread instead of removing it? Yes, and then everyone could have continued with it if they wanted. But I have seen too many threads of late where he has been attacked, as I see it, and I'm sure he at least started having a fear by then that if he didn't remove the thread that that is what was going to happen. I do believe that was also, as you say, telling and I'd consider it a pretty good reason to remove instead of unfollowing it. As for the spamming comment, he said "the thread" was spamming his inbox, not "they". He is not accusing members of the thread...he acknowledges it is the system. I can't be sure whether he means his email inbox or the notification here on the Wiki but either way I know what he means and how he feels because I have felt the same. We can either get email notifications or not and we can either follow threads (or message walls) and get or not. There aren't a lot of levels of control in between. So if one starts a popular thread and one really only wants notifications that pertain only to those responses applicable to the thread's original intent, one has to wade through all the rest or not get any of them. Did he realize that before? Probably not. Does he now realize it? Yes, probably, the hard way, and there aren't likely to be a lot more such occurrences...at least not the same as this particular situation, though I have seen other threads and posts of his that he has removed that were not quite the same situation and I believe I saw many if not most of those and the ones I saw I concurred with as well. Yes, this community seems to thrive on going off topic and I have certainly done it more times than I care to count, including now. But there are times when it is not warranted, wanted or appreciated and you probably don't know of all the times because TDC is direct and others not so much. I have unfollowed more threads than I care to count because people did that and I was tired of wading through all the irrelevant, no matter how entertaining it was, or felt the thread has long outserved its purpose and if it wouldn't end on its own, then I needed to leave it. My time, like everyone's is finite. I will admit the comment he made about it distracting people from the game seemed odd but there may be a reason neither of us knows. But the rest of it I support, though perhaps he should have worded it better.

I've picked apart only the one example situation you have presented but, as I said, I have seen many if not most of the other threads and posts he has removed and I have agreed with his decision on each. You mention controls and disruption - his ability to control whether he follows something and gets notifications, his ability to learn when to post in a forum or somewhere else or not all based on a reaction he should know he's going to get, his desire to control content on threads he starts, his disruption to others by removing a thread that was itself out of control. But you acknowledge no responsibility for your own or others' lack of control over your own respective actions and you fail to acknowledge how disruptive you collectively may be being yourselves. Surely your own experience could be less disrupted if you showed some control and stuck to a topic instead of going off-topic. I'm not trying to be mean or try to get you to do less of what you enjoy...only to see the other side of the coin and how your own and others' actions could have become so disruptive as to give TDC the very reason he needed to remove the thread or post in question.

Lastly, I'm not talking about a blanket policy so much as a right and an ability. One really should - as they would elsewhere - have the right and ability to edit and delete the content they themselves create, even when that content has been added onto by others. I have quite a lot of experience with this in the workplace and this is in keeping with that experience. One would hope that the user would be judicious and use that power wisely and not simply blanket practice that authority but nonetheless the decision should be theirs.

Sorry about the length...I often have to make that apology. If you want to reply to me about this, feel free to do so on my wall. If you and everyone else prefers, we can manually move both your comment and this one of my own to my wall as well. My intent is positive and constructive and an attempt to show an opposing point of view because nothing in this world is one-sided. I hope you will see it as such and that it helps. In any event, peace and best wishes and good night.