I hope this will be the last of this sort of entry for a good, long time

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

The goal of this community is to give people the tools and knowledge they need to seek out images and news about Elijah Wood, and to provide a place for them to post those items to share with the rest of the community. It is not and never has been a place to debate any aspect of his personal life. There are other and more appropriate forums for that.

Having a negative opinion is not against the rules. Making an occasional negative comment isn't even against the rules (as long as it's politely put). However, stating that negative opinion at every possible opportunity, over and over again and in a negative fashion, and seeking (whether intentional or not) to provoke reactions and arguments from others is against the rules.

If you can't see the harm being done to the community by such behavior, and its potential for ruining a pretty darn good thing that we've got here, then I'm sorry, but you don't belong here. If your comments, by their nature or tone, are making those who are contributing content to the comm either want to delete their entries or not post at all, then they are not welcome here. Fair or unfair, I can't allow anything that is interfering with the goal of the community; if there is something that is making people wary of posting their "finds" here, then the community can't succeed and I need to try to find a way to repair it so that it can.

The rules are there for a reason. You may not like them, but if you can't follow them, then you can't be a part of this community.

I know there are those of you out there with opinions that differ from the majority of people here, and I appreciate that you have been taking them elsewhere to discuss them rather than putting them here where they are likely to spark conflict. I know it's hard to hold them in check, and it isn't fair to you, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for following the rules in order to keep the community running as smoothly as possible.

It really is impossible to be fair to everyone, without either disallowing comments entirely or letting them run rampant, and I believe both of those options would ultimately harm the community. All I can really do is try to keep the disruptive elements to a minimum, and I'm taking steps toward that end. A few people have been banned from commenting (membership hasn't been removed -- yet*), and a few others are on probation. I'm sorry that it's come to this, but there you are.

* Turns out I did accidentally remove you from membership (I think -- I'm new at this), and I have no way of reinstating you on my own. If you would like to request membership again, I will add you back in. Terribly sorry about that!

Comments

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

I was told about this by a friend and I haven't read all of the comments, just some and that's made my migraine worse ;P

But I wanted to say something after reading your comments in this post. You said:

If your comments are making those who are contributing content to the comm either want to delete their entries or not post at all, then they are not welcome here...if there is something that is making people wary of posting their "finds" here, then the community can't succeed and I need to try to find a way to repair it so that it can.

And I agree with that. But I think it's very important that this be administered fairly if you want it to succeed.

As you know I left this community because of comments from you and a couple of your friends. The way you all behaved made me feel unwanted here and because your comments were carried over to elijah_daily I've been wary since then of posting anything anywhere, and now I don't post anything at all. Last year after it happened I deleted every post I'd made in this community and left it, and I did that solely because of the way I was treated by you and the other two people. I'm not saying any of this to bring up old stuff because, for anyone else who might read this Bunnie and one of the other people apologised to me when I confronted them about their behaviour, I'm not doing this for any reason other than to say to you Bunnie that I think it's important to hold yourself and your friends to the same standards and rules that everyone else in this community is held to. Bad/rude/negative behaviour is not a good thing, but it's not just limited to the people who don't like Pam Racine (though obviously that's a big part of it), it also relates to any kind of bad/negative behaviour and I think that it shouldn't be allowed.

As far as I know no one was given any 'warning' or threats of being banned from commenting after what happened to me. The people who apologised only did so after I confronted them about their behaviour and I think all members of the community deserve to feel like they're free from attack even by the comm's owner and their friends. Maybe you disagree, and it is your community so you're free to do that, but perhaps the other members need to know that.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to have a say on anything here in this community since I left it, so by all means feel free to tell me to sod off, but I felt that the reason I left was pretty much the same issues you were covering in this post so I hope you don't mind me giving my two cents worth.

Good luck with it all, I don't run any communities and I'm pretty glad I don't because it must be a lot of extra stress for you. I hope you can see though that on the whole the majority of your community members are good people who don't give any grief, so don't let the vocal few get you down! :)

[maddeningpadme.livejournal.com]

"As far as I know no one was given any 'warning' or threats of being banned from commenting after what happened to me."
wait what happened?? what do you mean?

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

Bunnie and a couple of other people were...not so nice...to me a while ago and I left this community because of it.

In this post Bunnie said "A few people have been banned from commenting (membership hasn't been removed -- yet), and a few others are on probation". She did that because those people were behaving badly, yet when people here behaved badly to me nothing happened to them as far as I know...so I'm just suggesting that if anyone behaves badly they should all be treated the same way, not have some on probation and some not. :)

[maddeningpadme.livejournal.com]

I wanted to post a comment to you in your LJ but I'm not friended so it won't let me

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

Well I'll friend you then pumpkin! :)

[maddeningpadme.livejournal.com]

thank you! I posted you a comment there btw, in case it's not showing up or something :)

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

Thanks :) I answered, I hope you got it!

[lips-and-rouge.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what happened to you, in what context, so it is difficult to take your comment seriously and respond with any real sense of who was wronged or not wronged, or whether there was in fact an injustice and how it relates to what Bunnie is attempting to do here.

I hope there is some relevance otherwise your post just serves to muddy the waters.

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

When Starlit was posting here under another username, I felt deceived and hurt when I found out that they were one in the same because of some incidents that occurred between us in the comm that I felt sure would never have happened if I had known who I was really dealing with. Instead of confronting Starlit directly, I tried to provoke a response with an anonymous comment. It was childish, and I really should have just asked about it, but I made the mistake of acting in the heat of the moment. Like Starlit, said, apologies were made, and we've since let it go.

The only other incident I can think of was an argument sort of thing between Starlit and someone else, and it got a bit heated and there was some attacking. Sometimes it's hard to know when to step into something like that (sometimes I do it too early, or too late, or not at all), so I sort of let it go after it stopped. A one-time incident (as far as I can recall), not like some of these repeat offenders I'm dealing with right now. I guess I just need to be more consistent about warning people, so that things don't escalate and banning doesn't become necessary.

[maddeningpadme.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what went on between you guys, but

also. i mean. if apologies are made, why on earth should "action" be taken?
I don't really want to go into it much here because it's between me & bunnie, and something I have/will again message her privately about, but last year a poster attacked me & some other members who were trying to defend me, a completely undeserved unprovoked attack. she made some incredibly rude & condescending comments to me & the others. I messaged bunnie about it, and I was shocked & quite disheartened, because she didn't appear to have given that poster even a warning. this rude poster had first given me a half-assed apology, and once she saw that I wasn't having any of her rude behavior, she immediately fought/pounced on me again. she didn't once apologize to others defending me, those of which she was incredibly rude to as well. it was a weak apology at best. my point is: her attempt at making a slight-apology should not negate the fact that she made rude attacking comments that she never should've made in the first place. she was vile, and frankly I was hurt that bunnie didn't seem to give her even a warning. this happened JUST after she had made the #5 rule:
- Rude behavior, bullying and attempts to intimidate others will not be tolerated and will result in being banned from the community

so I was baffled as to why she received no warning, when her rules clearly state otherwise. that poster's weak apology meant little to me considering she never had to make those foul remarks to myself & others in the first place.

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry there are still hard feelings over that altercation. I just spent about an hour in digging up the entry and trying to remember exactly what happened. I still have copies of the private correspondence between both you and the other person, and the reason you didn't see me give her any sort of warning was because we dealt with it in email. When I spoke to you last about it, I pointed out that she had apologized to you (and it sounded sincere to me), but she also spent a good deal of time apologizing to me and explaining why she was so short tempered about the whole thing. She also said that she would be leaving the community, and to my knowledge, she hasn't been back since.

I'm sorry if you felt like things were left hanging, but as I only saw the conversation after the fact, when it seemed like all the dust had settled (though it's too bad she never felt it necessary to apologize to the other two people commenting) and I'd had private conversations with both of you, it seemed to me that there wasn't anything more to be done or to be talked about.

I'm answering your email in a sec, here.

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

Well I can see Bunnie's answered you so now you do know what happened. I'll just add that the only reason I posted under a different username was because a member of my family had just died and I didn't feel like talking to anyone, so I created another lj my_lj_name so I could just post Elijah Wood pictures to share with everyone and not have people ask me how I was doing and what had been happening in my life, etc, when I was grieving and not feeling up to talking about personal things.

I never thought my comments would be interpretted as muddying the waters and I just assumed that the people who know me (which is a fair number of people) would know I was telling the truth and that my comments to Bunnie were just meant as constructive.

[bunniewabbit.livejournal.com]

The only people who have been banned so far are those who seem to repeatedly disregard the rules and can't seem to see the effect that they're having on the community. I'm not going to go back and ban people for isolated incidents, and I haven't been very consistent about warning people when they've crossed the line in some manner. At the moment, I'm mostly concerned with trying to get the comm back on an even keel, and that means dealing with the people who cause most of the problems most often.

All I can say is that I'll try to be more consistent about warning people in the future, but I do have a tendency toward leniency when people push the rules. Probably what got me here in the first place.

[maddeningpadme.livejournal.com]

"I haven't been very consistent about warning people when they've crossed the line in some manner.
All I can say is that I'll try to be more consistent about warning people in the future, but I do have a tendency toward leniency when people push the rules. Probably what got me here in the first place."

hey, I just want to say that I really appreciate the fact that you said this ^ about yourself. it takes a big person to admit that :) I'm just very glad that you are aware of this, because I have felt for a long time that your inconsistency with enforcing your rules & your leniency with your own rules has been the very thing that the trouble making repeat offenders (who hopefully you banned, because they were only here to start trouble) can *hide* behind, when people try to call them out on their ways. they try to test your limits; don't let them. at the same time, your inconsistency also makes it hard to figure out just what *is* ok to post, and what is close to crossing the line, but not quite there yet. this must be especially hard for newbie members to try to figure out what you consider the grey areas (members who aren't trying to start trouble at all but honestly just don't know where you think those areas lie). I think you just need to be a tough enforcer hardcore moderator sometimes. sometimes that's for the best (even if it might hurt a few), because otherwise... all this madness ensues.

I must admit I did not expect the pam issue to get even more heated than it did last year.

btw I sent you a msg privately. please get back to me when you feel up to it. thanks again because I am really happy that you are keen on what you just said up there :)

[starlit-woods.livejournal.com]

Oh I wasn't meaning that you should go back and ban anyone at all, as I said that's all been settled and apoligised for etc so no worries there! I was just trying to offer a friendly suggestion in case a similar thing happened in the future, though hopefully it won't, because sometimes it can be hard to see things as infringements when it's our friends doing it. We're all only human and probably most of us would give a bit more leeway when it's someone we know doing something wrong and I just thought sometimes it's a bit hard to see a problem when you're too close to it, if you know what I mean, and that sometimes can lead to others feeling ostracised. But no complaints here on how you're handling this situation, I think you're doing a great job and my comments weren't meant as a criticism but as a friendly suggestion :)