I think it's time we revisited this thread, now that we have some new mods. I don't think we have any written rules in here. If there are, they are hidden in a way the CIA would be proud of.
I joined this forum 12 years ago this month. I had also joined the Alizee Forum at the same time, which last year shut down. I preferred this forum because they were very strict about staying on topic. Alizee America was more laid back. Now when you have a lot of members posting, it's important to keep on subject, especially for when in the future, you look back for something, you pretty much know where to find it. But when you don't have many people posting, we've seen good conversations broken up because they were off topic, huring a 'current' situation that wasn't good to begin with.
Merci Alizee was appointed by Ben to run this forum years ago and he's done a great job of it. He was very level headed, not getting into any arguements. Then Aaronius31 came along and helped out. I believe he was 14 at the time. He had very good values, probably coming from his strict upbringing. After one of my trips to Paris, I sent him an ActuaAlizee magazine I had found there along with an autographed cd. He tried to intercept the package before his parents, but they got to it first and asked "Who is this guy in Boston who sent you this package and what's in it?". He explained who i was and that the package contained stuff relating to a beautiful French singer named Alizee. Surprisingly, his father was alright with it. Just an example of that strict upbringing, but it shaped him into a great young man.
Back then, there were battles in both forums. As far as the ones in here and sometimes in there, I was often in the middle of them. I was always too eager to do battle and that is still true today. I recently told Ben, even though we don't have a lot of active members, I felt we needed to have 2 more mods to try and have as much coverage during the week as we can. I did not ask to be appointed a mod 'again', because of that 'too eager to do battle' flaw.
Our forum has improved over the years with fewer and fewer battles. As far as the Alizee Forum, in the last few months of their operation, they had the same old battles day after day and I think it just became a not very pleasant place for people to post.
It's easy to sit behind a keyboard a thousand miles away from someone and tell them what you think of them in unpleasant terms, it's harder to respectfully disagree with someone. I often make comments about my religous inclinations in here. A member in here who could've just said I don't want to hear that crap, sent me a pm about it. Our views were quite opposite, but we both stated our views in a long pm to each other. We didn't try to change each other's views and we respected each others stance and that was that.
One of my biggest problems I have is I see a post that bothers me and on more than a few occassions, it's something I read the wrong way and I'll reply in haste. I tried to make it a rule that when I see something I don't like, wait until the next day to respond, but unfortunately, I seldom listen to my own advice.
As far as Alizée, this is a forum and not a fan club. It's okay to be critical of her and that criticism can be harsh at times though at times, it's been too harsh and again, I've been one of the worst offenders. But I feel those around her are off limits. We can disucss them, but should be very careful about what we say about them. I think she can put up with criticism of herself, but not her family and that I feel is something we shouldn't allow.
If you have a problem with what someone else says, reach out to them or to the mods. We have 3 now. I can always be reached through the forum. Though my pm box is often full, my e-mail address is a valid one in the forum. There are a lot of conversations here that go on in pm.
So others please speak up on ways you feel we should run this forum.
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