[Qwntm]

A few years back I got "jumped on" in a few threads and quite frankly curtailed my participation in the forum by a lot... I love a good disagreement with both sides listening and learning and honestly trying to participate in a friendly manner. I don't like just getting crapped on to satisfy other peoples egos. Good moderation that strikes a balance between toleration of strong good faith arguments and exchange of ideas vs. the standard internet forums ego leg peeing is vital. I hope it succeeds.

[StiffLegged]

After reading through this thread it was instructive to re-read Adam’s original post. No change of the rules is mentioned. I’ll leave that there and say how generally civilised I find the forum.

[beholder3]

Can not agree with that. Any prohibition can't ever make the world better, just worse.

Humanity on this planet for millenia has shown to disagree with your claim. Any rule/law/order/norm inevitably is "prohibition". Without it you have anarchy and rulership of the strongest/loudest.

The ever unfinished question is only where to draw the line and this changes a lot over time and in cultures/communities.


On this forum the primary question is what do we want to achieve? I assume it to be somewhere around "enjoy photography with Pentax gear and communicate about it to create more enjoyment".

If you want to reach any goal you will have to set up rules and boundaries.

It is like a private wedding party. Same logic. The wedding party is to enjoy a certain event together. The aim of the party is neither to be "neutral" nor boundless "liberty".
If an ex of the bride shows up and starts discussions with every single guest about how the bride has slept around earlier, then what? Free speech? Or remove him? What is better for the majority of guests? Do they all really want to think "ok, the ex is stating true facts. let him go on with his criticism, even if the good mood of the party will be gone then"?
Or where is the liberty and free speech of a guy expressing his devotion to the devil in the middle of a christian church service? Will that community think "oh, fine, let's have an open discussion about the devil here and now"? Or will it be censored?

And for that very reason the internet since decades now has coined the terms "trolling" and "flame baiting" as unwanted, to be prohibited behaviour.

[BROO]

Why have a news and rumors section? News is reported in the main forum section whilst rumors are so baseless they are usually worthless. Ricoh keep such a tight ship there are no rumor coming from them. Rumors themselves(a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth) are unhealthy and buy having a rumors section the moderators are inviting unhealthy discussion. Pentaxforums should really take some responsibility here and remove the news and rumors section.

[BarryE]

Barry,

I submit that all of us, with all our various cultural differences, know and understand fundamental courtesy and respect. That's all that is necessary – courtesy and respect. It is not difficult. Discuss to listen and learn, not to attack. Discuss issues rather than attack individuals. With courtesy and respect, and discussing rather than attacking, all the rest with fall into place.

And, of course, as you said, SMILE!

Agree, Don. 'Listen' is a small world that should be close to the top of the list of attributes that would make the world a better place. SM/forums etc easily become shouty and it's often obvious that neither party has properly listened to the other. This, I feel, is often a physical limitation of the devices being used. A smartphone only has a small screen so the post that is being responded to is not easily referenced. Guess it manifests itself in the real world too, especially that unflattering attitude I have occasionally fallen foul of, ie mansplaining. I try and learn when I fail ...

[BigMackCam]

Why have a news and rumors section? News is reported in the main forum section whilst rumors are so baseless they are usually worthless. Ricoh keep such a tight ship there are no rumor coming from them. Rumors themselves(a currently circulating story or report of uncertain or doubtful truth) are unhealthy and buy having a rumors section the moderators are inviting unhealthy discussion. Pentaxforums should really take some responsibility here and remove the news and rumors section.

Just as a point of information, the moderators don't decide what forums and sections exist. Rather, they assist when forum rules aren't adhered to.

Whilst it's probably true that the News & Rumours forum is where much of the unwanted behaviour occurs, at least it's ring-fenced to some extent. Without that forum, I believe the same discussions would occur elsewhere (i.e. in the other available forums). IMHO, there's no reason why any discussion - news, rumour or otherwise - should descend into rule-breaking territory, given the clarity and simplicity of the forum rules. That much is entirely the responsibility of us as members.

[zzeitg]

The ever unfinished question is only where to draw the line

Yes. And while I'd support much more the way of self-responsibility, others might vote for firm hand policy and directivity ordered from above. If majority is satisfied with shrinking freedom, then that's the way to go. (It's regress instead progress if you ask me, but that's just me. Anyway I'm talking more about common principles now, not necessarily in relation to this forum.)

[Rondec]

I think it is pretty clear that there are only a few things that get you banned.

1. Attacking fellow members personally. This should be obvious, but if a member posts in a thread, even if he/she doesn't have good points, they shouldn't feel personally threatened or attacked.

2. Bringing politics/religion into things. Back in the "good" old days we had a P and R section of the forum that people could joust over these things and it wasn't a good situation. Constant attacks that turned pretty personal. People didn't really come there to learn, but merely to argue. Adam in his wisdom got rid of it quite awhile ago.

3. Constant advertising of other brands in Pentax threads. The worst offenders aren't around, but there have been those who brought up Sony or Fuji really routinely in Pentax threads.

I am sure there are other things. But those feel like pretty clear issues. Probably most of us have stepped a little too close to the line one time or another and a simple Mea Culpa will be enough to take care of it. At the same time, if we want new users to feel comfortable here, it is paramount to welcome them with warmth and kindness.

[Ben-G]

Sincerely... there are two reason [ apart, and at the first, my love for photography ] because I've checked Pentax : the FA limiteds and ...

the marvellous and useful Pentax Forum .

But this is my subjective ( and poor ) point of view.

Now ... , in this post-covid moment, is crucial to estabilish stunning strategies to further increase the communicative qualities towards/against / together the socials channels ... here in Italy a lot of people, from ten years now, are massively on Fbook, wApp & Telegram groups and use them also to land on TV ... and the most used devices are smart-phone and tablets.
The notebooks and tablets are even replacing pc-station on working-offices, ... the work also is tranforming itself in home-working ...
The process of technological evolution is intimately linked to the forms of communication ... and viceversa.

In marketing terms "Pentax/Ricoh Imaging" can and must distinguish himself from other brands through the public offer of a pervasive, useful forum for direct and short communication; in close contact with all international sales and technical assistance points.
Strongly interconnected with any other information channel and capable of promoting and organizing educational and cultural activities within them.

Desolate for my english ...


[Without flattery]

All the best

Ben

[Lord Lucan]

Why have a news and rumors section? .... rumors are so baseless they are usually worthless.

Rumours can be entertaining. There is the one that the British Royal Family, Bill Gates, the Clintons and others are lizards from outer space. I'm glad I heard that one, it made my day But I think members of PF are generally intelligent enough to be capable of weighing up and reading between lines of both news and rumours.

Then again, companies' publicity departments sometimes release rumours through unidentifiable channels to gauge public reaction to their future thinking. It is worth hearing both the rumours and the reactions.

[gatorguy]

Then again, companies' publicity departments sometimes release rumours through unidentifiable channels to gauge public reaction to their future thinking. It is worth hearing both the rumours and the reactions.

This.

[bladerunner6]

Adam and his staff have every right to moderate the content on this site. It is not an infringement on anyone’s liberty or personal freedom.

Every venue has the right to decide what content it wants to present. For example, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc control what is presented in their venues.

Same here.

If you don’t like the content here you can spend a few minutes to create a blog about your perspective on Pentax. Several services such as Blogger make this both free and easy.

[mwilky55]

I just want to pile on to the expressions of support and appreciation from so many other forum members. I'm grateful for the work the moderators do and have benefited tremendously from the insights, sales and purchases of so many fine members. Thank you everyone.

[normhead]

Like Qwintm, my current practice is to just limit my participation.

That will be great news to the mods.

[Larrymc]

Here's a suggestion just for the News and Rumors section and no other area of Pentax Forums. Why not have a thumbs down just like the thumbs up for each post. Doing this would allow someone to express their disagreement with a post without getting into endless back and forth exchanges that eventually end up in the closure of an otherwise good thread discussion. Just a suggestion.

I too think that outside this section of Pentax Forums the discussions are very civil and often enlightening.