Clan Warfare

[Don Hanley]

Please Delete me from this site.

[Bob C]

Well, that was odd. Kind of a drive-by trolling.

[Panache]

It would appear that X Marks the Scot is not a good fit for Don.

With his request I think it is appropriate to Lock this thread.

Cheers

Panache

[Mike1]

Panache, I hope you will not mind if I unlock this thread in an attempt to clear the air on this dead horse everyone is beating.

The 'feud' that was alleged is actually not a feud at all. But there is a story behind it, so let's examine it and then put the issue to rest.

On another forum, a couple of individuals (one a former member of X Marks the Scot and one a current member) have been carrying on an months-long rant against this forum, against the rules that govern this forum and against the individuals that oversee this forum and enforce its policies. One of these individuals has gone on and on about how relieved he is to be free of this forum, yet he generally follows that up with yet another ranting, railing post, protesting everything about X Marks.

His modus operandi is to suggest that we suppress freedom on this forum. And all I can do is agree with him. We do suppress a lot of freedoms here. We inform our members and guests that we do not tolerate the discussion of religion, of politics, of weapons, of racism and of hatred, just to name a few freedoms we suppress. We suppress these types of discussions because they have absolutely nothing to do with kilts. And kilts are the sole reason this forum exists. We've never tried to hide the fact that if a member wants to discuss religion, then it was time to find a forum that deals with religion. If you want to discuss politics, then Google the phrase 'politics forum' and find the forum that fills that desire. This is a K-I-L-T forum.

As the Welcome module clearly states on the portal page - "If you want to know more about kilts then you have come to the right place!"

There are a couple of very important freedoms that we refuse to suppress, however. When a visitor to this forum decides to register here, that individual is presented with a very clear choice of acknowledging and accepting the forum rules and policies or not accepting them. We don't take away the freedom to not accept the forum policies.

Nor do we take away the freedom to leave this forum if the rules and policies become unacceptable. If a member feels this forums policies are too much to accept, every single page of the forum has not one, but two opportunities to log out. As I have pointed out, time and again, we hold no hostages here. No member is forced to read any particular threads, nor are they even forced to visit this site. Everyone has the freedom to leave, whenever they choose.

There has been another allegation made that the moderators of this forum have somehow ganged up on Highlandtide and stripped him of his ownership. Well, however that might fit and spice up someone's twisted agenda, nothing could be further from the truth. Highlandtide owns the domain, Highlantide owns the forum software license and Highlandtide's name is on the hosting contract.

A few months back, a former member of this forum was removed through a democratic process. He had violated this forum's rules and guidelines and it was unanimously voted to restrict his forum privileges. His behavior here and in other venues continued to show that he was clearly unhappy being an X Marks member. As it was unanimously felt this individual could no longer be a productive member of this forum, a vote was taken to remove him. Once again, the decision was unanimous.

Highlandtide offered renewed membership to this individual, but when he became aware of this individual's actions on the other forum, that renewed membership was put to yet another vote. Unanimously, it was decided to not allow the renewed membership.

As you can see, Highlandtide was stripped of nothing. No matter how loudly people want to howl about tyranny, this forum is run via a democratic process. When we've discussed adding new forums, we've voted on them. When policies have been added or edited, we've voted on the changes. When new staff members are added, we've voted on the additions. When infractions have been issued, we've voted on the decision. I fail to see how a voting process can be seen as tyrannical, but I understand the allegations are made almost daily.

And yes, the staff members do have the occasional disagreement on various issues. There's no need to drag it out into the open forum (here or elsewhere), we simply agree to disagree and find the action that will best benefit this forum and its membership.

Now if somebody has a case of sour grapes over being held accountable for their actions, so be it. But sour grapes on that individual's part does not constitute a feud of any kind. The X Marks staff took the actions we felt were the best for this forum and its members, no more and no less.

To the charge of suppressing freedom, we plead guilty as charged. And as long as suppressing those freedoms allow this forum to continue to flourish and grow as it has been, we're going to keep right on suppressing.

Now, can we please stop beating this dead horse and give it the proper burial it deserves?

Panache, I'll go ahead and lock up behind me.