I could see threads earlier but couldn't post Now I can't even see threads Was i banished for being a dick lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It's closed. There is an announcement. I haven't been in months and tuned out quite a while ago. Worst time suck ever
The utter lack of civility, the venom, and all the other aspects of POFO were leaching into the relationships on the sports boards. Those are why we exist. And not to put too fine a point on it but we could not find a MOD who would stay in that forum.
. This. I never came here to talk politics and getting dragged in to that bs is just not how I care to spend my time on this forum. I come here to to talk Dolphins or at the very least football in general and I think that's how most of our posters feel. That forum makes good people dislike each other and creates friction where nine should be necessary. To be honest, it's been a long time coming.
I respect that. I'll miss the very informative posts and conversations there but I can truely understand why the decision was made.
Very good idea to close POFO. I was the last Mod to attempt... It's not possible. I may suggest, and should it ever be opened in the future would even be open to doing it.. But I think you have to Mod POFO and that's it. Meaning not taking part it any of the debate.. Just delete posts and hand out warnings. But really a site like this... We've all become friends through the year... Imagine we were to sit down at dinner and talk politics.. We'd probably disagree.. But we would certainly be civil and respectful to each other. When you aren't face to face.. It DE humanizes the discussion, you forget there is a real person with feelings and opinions that you are debating with. This place is thephins. Com not "eat the heart of someone who disagrees politically with you. Com" I didn't think POFO should be yanked until yesterday and I walked out of there going.... Stringer and Boik were right...shut it down. Let's get ready for training camp! " Sorry wasn't able to do a better job modding for you guys... But I'm much happier now that the focus is on our Phins.
The only way for the pofo to exist is to have it unmoderated. Politics are inherently personal, and can't coexist with the site's TOS. Doesnt belong here. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
I would say the opposite. I think the mods have been too lenient with everyone. There was too much baiting and too many personal attacks. It's the reason I cut back on going in there. It's not fun being called names simply because you have different ideas. I'm not knocking the mods. It's hard work moderating and generally a thankless job. However I do think if they gave out more warnings and short vacations to those who did not heed those warnings the tone would of been different in there. In any case I respect the decision to shut it down. If the board activity isn't worth the headache that comes with it than it should be closed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Dude, ive been modding this place since it opened and i found pofo to be a miserable cesspool. You tried, you have nothing to apologize for. Appreciate the effort.
The issue is also that no one wants to visit a football board to moderate pofo bs nonstop. We tried your suggestion at one point...i would have had to quit my full time job that i actually get paid for lol.
Well, I certainly understand the reason to close the PoFo. I don't think the moderating was bad, I think politics are inherently flammable. As was mentioned earlier in this thread, the only way to have a PoFo is to just not mod it and if people get their feelings hurt they can either leave the discussion or fire back. After all, it's a choice to get into a discussion, not mandatory.
Except a free for all does not work within the TOS.... And it's very important to fit within the TOS... I think the search engines.. Google.. Etc are very strict with that kind of stuff
Truthfully we should not even need mods. We are all adults and have read the tos Nobody should need to policed it's kind of sad how out of hand things are in there. I apologize to everyone for my part in it because I know I was guilty of doing those things too. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Soon, you'll see guys breaking out in cold sweats. Yelling at their kids that sharing their toys is socialism and punishing their dogs for only messing on 1% of the yard. Sent from my OnePlus 3
I'm going to miss it. I like(d) reading most people's posts, and the community was perfectly sized to get debate with differing views, without being spammed out by the number of users. One of my favorite forums. That said, no way in hell would I want to moderate there. I got hurt feelings at times, and had to edit some posts once I had a cooler head, and I think of myself as a pretty calm guy. All of the mods did a great job, so thanks to all of you! I'm going to tip a glass to the memory pofo and another for the former mods of pofo tonight.
How about making it a pay to enter area and make it unmoderated? We can police ourselves as far posting nudity or copyrighted info etc. we can make a list of stuff not allowed and if any of that shows up a mod can delete it when member points it out.
Just don't moderate POFO besides porn and spam. I don't think there would be any difference from how it currently is besides the mods being less aggravated. Unless a moderator is an active POFO poster, the majority of the "you're an idiot" stuff doesn't get deleted. I'd assume that this is because it isn't actually being reported, and no one cares, and the thread keeps going on its own merits. I don't think I've ever gotten points for anything that a mod wasn't already involved in as a poster, and I don't think I've ever reported anything except for all intents and purposes in retaliation for my own posts getting involved. I haven't really noticed POFO leaking out of POFO, either. I'm generally surprised by the civility that I've had with posters who I frequently argue with in POFO outside of POFO. The one instance I can relate to personally is pretty much the opposite- one of our distinguished general forum posters leaking unsuccessfully into POFO.
Not moderating it is not an option. There are certain terms and conditions with our advertisers that force certain terms of service.
Unmoderated, no. But I'm not sure that AdSense cares that a post insinuates that someone didn't quite distinguish themselves academically in high school, or for that matter the overwhelming majority of the things that get moderated in POFO either. I would also note that there are people who seem to post primarily, if not entirely in POFO, and that in the off-season it seems to get more posts than most of the sports forums.
I think you'd have to have a moderator that does not participate in the discussion. Personal attacks deleted. But alot of the posts ended up just being bait posts... My personal issues with POFO is that many are just unwilling to even consider the other viewpoint. We retreat to our particular corner, and stay there. There's no middle ground.. Everybody has to be right. I don't think that's discussion, I think that's yelling from a soap box.
Sad to see it closed, pofo definitely caused me to question and evaluate and reform my own ideas. It was anot intense but fun break from offseason Tannehill post 13 or another Dion Jordan as savior thread. I have visited more for pofo, baseball, gaming and draft insight than Dolphins lately.
The quality of a discussion in a place like POFO has much more to do with the informational content of the argument than it does a vague sense of civility. If there's a good, informed argument regardless of passions, the thread isn't going to get derailed and low-quality comments generally speaking are going to get ignored more than they are igniting something that needs to be handled. If I've got any complaints about the rules of POFO, it's "baiting". How does that even work? You are for all intents and purposes asking the moderator to make a judgement on what is politically provocative to them, and then punishing people not for the content of their posts but for the potential of other people to break the rules in response to them. That's incredibly subjective, and pretty much encourages people to over-react in bad faith. How many points were given out for incidents involving a certain now seemingly permanently banned poster who couldn't go into the salary cap forum without a huge meltdown? I know I got multiple baiting points for dealing with him.
I honestly think the tone was kind of tame in the POFO compared to a lot of other political social media avenues I read. I mean seriously the comments section in some of the sites makes you wonder how more people aren't in jail. The discussions got out of hand at time and I for one probably launched an insult or two....but really this sort of stuff was very tame compared to a lot of other places I've been to. I've only put one or two people on ignore because of stuff in there in all the years I've been on here. There is the aspect that a lot of people pay to support the site too so removing content might make people rethink that. I get that this is a sports site and that there are advertisers, etc. to consider so I'm sympathetic but I don't like it.
Agreed, it was a really good source for current news as well. Went there to see what our members had in the new wiki leaks drop, now I have to sift through BS "news" sites. We have a very educated bunch of posters that brought a lot of good discussion. I for one will miss it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Would be nice to discuss news... current events again... without politics coming into play. But I don't think that's possible.
I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did, to be honest. However I think it is a real shame to see it go away in such an important election year. It was a valuable space, where I learned a ton from people who had a different political perspective than me. I found it to be more civil than the rest of the site, especially the day after a Dolphins loss. Liberals and conservatives in the real world are supposed to fight, but fans of the same team are supposed to get along. I gained more respect for people who disagreed with me politically in that forum than I have anywhere else. I mourn the loss of it, but I understand the decision. I was asked to help moderate the PoFo way back in 2008, and I wanted no part in that. Thank you for keeping it going as long as you did. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Part of me is definitely sad to see it closed. I read there a lot to gain insight from others and see what was being considered big news, and found it generally more enjoyable than other political comment sections (though I often had a different view than most people who posted). With that said, I did find it difficult to contribute anything at times, so I never had all that many posts there.
well there goes some unintended entertainment. But to be honest, this Pofo was MUCH smarter than 99% of comment sections or forums online. I quit contributing there due to signing contracts that in essence strip me of my first amendment rights, but I sure missed it. (well, I lied....LOL)
I personally think there's so many topics going on at the moment in politics, that we're missing out on a lot of discussion right now. I hope the admins changes their mind soon. Perhaps, if possible, have two separate PoFo forums, and a member can only enter a section based on their profile settings, something that they set on their own whether youre Blue or Red. Or a password/invite for either of the two sections. But I understand if it's too much to handle, I've read a lot of the posts there and I can see why it's closed.
If people used the same temperament in the pofo as they have in this thread I don't think they would of closed it. Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk