blonde poker forum

Come on lad's tell us whats in the secret club!!!

Jane noticed it when she was on full on lurker mode!

seen it loadsa times lately, also a lot of private convo's going on

i reckon reading thru our pm accounts

we are working on guidleines also fixing problems that arose where moderators couldnt see this board or attachments etc etc

its nothing serious and nothing to worry about and all things will be fixed and back to normal as soon as the first fox is legally hunted in the UK again

Ever since the Forum began, I have occassionally seen that message "nothing, or nothing you can see", usually attributed to Rhow.

I think it's when Rhow, or any Administrator, is fiddling with the software - "make Members aware of new posts", or doing "Maintenance".

There is a Moderators Board, so that Moderators can communicate with each other when a contentious issue arises. But as that's only been there just over an hour, it's hardly likely to reflect that!

You are a suspicious lot, eh?!

And to put everyone's mind at rest, NOBODY can see anyone elses PM's, unless they know that persons Password. And the passwords cannot be seen by ANYONE except the owner.

i just thought it was funny!

Oh, & there is no facility for anyone, Admin or not, to have a Private Conversation. Just the PM Service. Of which I get scores, & answer dozens. (Sorry about those I don't answer, but this week has just gone crazy).

why does this need bumping?

ian i was fixing the smiley thats what you couldnt see

also disscusses some minor changes with the mods

have a look, they are all at it!!
secret society, dodgy handshakes and ritual sacrifice (can't find a virgin though)

say again Ironside?

the board has a away for all the mods to talk about stuff that effects them which was recently activated this is only availabe to mods and admins and therefore when its going on the members cant see it

the only thing that is disscussed is should we delete that thread is that spam and general mod stuff

That was accurate on that day but I had agitated for an easier method of communication rather than individually addressing a number of PMs saying "wtf is ironside up to"  ;D . Oh and we keep our lists of virgins on it, if we could find any.

I have no interest in virgins BTW :)

So you told me, I was disappointed

I like my men more....experienced  >:D

I don't mind if a girl has lost her virginity, as long as she still has the box that it came in

i have to be honest and say it makes me paranoid, you lot all wanna chat amongst yourselves then you do it but it only adds to the clique myth.
i am constantly asking people to come and have a look at blonde (have done from day 1) all i seem to get in reply these days is it's a clique!!
now i never ever thought it to be true till recently, but if i am frank i am starting to feel the same way.

Its exacly the same as chatting via PM, but saves typing the names of several peeps in all at once

I don't think it's a clique :(

We have loads and loads of members, and it's a good place where newbies and old hands alike are welcomed.

IFM - I've only been around since late August..

How do people define a clique?

A group of people who have similar interests and have a laugh together and talk about the thing they are interested in?

I'm honestly interested, cause I always thought of myself as a bit of an outsider :)

I don't want anyone to not feel welcome :(

If this place is seen as a clique, how do you suggest we unclique it?

Heid
xx

ifm certain things have to be done in private, when i was changing the look of the boards and adding smileys etc etc whese would all show up as nothing you can see, also to solve the problem of misscomunitcation between the mods and admins we have decided that its better to keep the mod team (of which i am one) uptodate BEFORE the blonde staff annouce it to save problems like the titan freeroll where tonyg had said 1 thing and tikay had said another and i had said another and nobody knew where we stood

also with 1600 member the forum has the high risk of spam and flaming 2 things blonde wishes to keep track on mods/admin make mistakes and we might delete things we shouldnt in hindsight so we need to talk behind the scenes about the spam we delete or the flames we have deleted to insure that mistakes are kept to a minimium

we have a rule that no disscussion should take place behind the scenes that should take place in the open forum so all red dogs jokes are banned

its simple we have to use this form of comunicating so that we dont ruin blonde with too many cooks

how many posting members from 1600?
how many single posters?
how many people are the core?
if we are honest there are only about 30-40?

That is generally quite normal for any forum online - you do tend to have a core of posters, a larger circle of occasional posters, then registered users who lurk, and then a lot of people who just lurk.

As we get bigger, the number of posters who post will increase...to be honest if it's 40 - that's a high percentage for 1600 members :)

nearly 800 members have made a post over 350 members have made double figure amount of posts


but its the the regulars that need watching it the people that join up just to spam
or people joining up under false id to flame etc etc

also blonde is a newish site and the  growth is enourmous

in febuary we had under 1000 new posts
in july we had nearly 8000
in august just under 10000
last moth 18000+
this month (only half wayu thru) close to 13000

in the last 4 months we have had 1000+ new members of those a large number are fast becoming hard core posters

the blonde forum is no longer the small friendly group we once were we are now a large friendly group where everyone is welcome but someone has to make sure it stays a large friendly group

quoting figures i can look at if i wanted to doesn't help.
you missed the point i was trying to make

I missed the point too mate, what do you think we should change to make it better?

ifm let say next month we grow another 50% and another the month after then another

and tikay doesnt have any moderators in place it will be too late

act earlier enough and insure that the moderators are trained well enough

so in the future there won need to be so much disscussion

there is no clique othewise tikay would have picked his close friends rather than
7 people he thought would be good at the job
if we dont help the forum grow in a friendly manner then critise us
but please give us a chance to learn and grow as a moderating team

ifm, I'm becoming offended by your tone


there's a lot of hard work going on, some on the forums, some behind the scenes. Everything is to ensure one of several things

a) that people know that they can log on and not find spam/flaming etc

b) that Blonde can continue to develop...there are a lot of potential improvements to the site and projects being worked on. In our spare time.

c) Moderators need to work together so that the forum doesn't become a mess of people tripping over themselves

Before we were able to talk to each other as a group we were PMing which took ages as it is not possible to set up PM groups.

The moderators section has no cliquey element of jokes etc...It is all business related

when did i criticise the mods?
i give up, you 7 will never understand what i'm saying simply because you will think i'm having a pop at you personally and i'm not..........at all.
picking my closest friends is what i'd have done too.

Tight end..........you are offended by MY tone??

yes, but I'm not going to fall out with you over it.

If my tone is inappropriate in that post above or you are implying my tone is inappropriate in general (I'm not sure which), well of course I respect your view and I am sorry you feel that way

I didn't think you were having a pop at anyone, and I asked about how we could uncliqueit :)

Please tell me your ideas - it will make my real life job much easier if someone can tell me about how to unclique places :)

sorry tikay didnt pick his closest friends

junior or thewy or rob yong

infact none of his notts crew

tikay has met me 3 times he only picked me cause he thought i knew my way round a pc (i am a good bluffer)

the fact the mods and admin occasionall go nothing you can see is because we are doing something you cant see some UNPAID work if we want to have a chat we chat on this board with everyone else

sorry but if work needs to be done then it needs to be done

Srewth alike.......it really IS hard to keep everyone happy on a Forum!

By contributing to this thread, I risk pouring fat onto the fire. But I've always been open with everyone. Confessed every "conflict of interest", explained commercial deals (Poker 425 blonde Forum), new arrivals, (Tony G), explained controversial decisions with total honesty & in great detail (UKPoker), been 100% honest when things appeared to go belly up (Titan), etc. 

So lets try & allay these fears.

A clique? I'm not in a position to comment, I, of all people, would not see it, from where I sit. One or two folks have thrown stones at me, & this Forum. They sting a bit, but I have to view the overall state of play. I ask myself, continually, is this place the sort of place we had in mind when we began it? So far, from where I view it, yes, it is. The new Member sign up rate has accelerated rapidly from July, & has shown no signs of slowing down yet. Every time a new member signs up, I kinda say to myself - well - that person must have been viewing as a Guest, liked what they saw, & decided to join. We don't advertise, so nobody is persuaded to join by any means other thsn their own choice. And they do keep joiining, thank heavens. And the number of posts is increasing at an astonishing rate, a rate which any Poker Forum in Europe would be delighted.

But as it got bigger, inevitably, problems started to arise. Spammers, free-loaders, peeps with self-interest, started to take advantage of our lack of Moderators. EVERY Forum of any size has to have Moderators, unless it's prepared to have a "free-for-all".  Dave & I were NOT. We wanted a comfy place, where Members could feel safe, not be insulterd, not be anonymously attacked. Where we could have a laugh.

I refused to accept the need to have Moderators for a long time. Partrly because I felt I couild cope. Partly because, no matter how many Moderators I appointed, & who they were, I'd offend some by not selecting them.

But things started to get away from me. Spammers started appearing. I'd get phone calls whilst I was playing a comp, & it'd worry me to death for the rest of the night. Then someone joined with, it appeared, the deliberate intention of causing problems. He set long-standing mates against each other. It was awful to see how quickly the atmo on here changed. Put simply, I could not deal with all this alone any longer. So I relented, & appointed a team of Mods. The best decision I ever made, but I made it a month or even two, too late. Never mind, we all make mistakes.

Communicating with the Mods is very awkward on PM's. I don't find the PM service user-friendly. (I apologise to those who await replies to PM's to me - I have 29 in there right now, unanswered. I always tried to answer PM's immediately, but the Forum workload has just overwhelmed me of late). So someone suggested a Moderators Board. as a result of that Miods Board, all sorts of little improvements have been made to the Forum recently. These will continue. We are trying to make a better product. Better software. More smileys. More sections. Blonde bashes. Weekly blonde tourneys. A blonde Tourney league. And much, much more - watch this space.

It was suggested in this thread that "I too would have appointed my friends". But I never. I have a number of close friends in poker. I never appointed them as Miods. I like to think, in my naive litle way, that all blondeites are my friends. Yeah, that's siily. But I DO think that.

So let's look at these "friends" it's been said I appointed.

Administators first. There are a number of shareholders in blonde, & all of them are granted Admin status. They do own the place, so that seems reasonable. Plus our previous Webmaster, & our current Webmaster - they have to be Admins, obviously. Beyond that, let's take a look.

Ironside (Administraor). I can't imagine anyone could object to Iron being an admin. I'd guess that hundreds - literally - of Members have used Iron to set up their profile pic, or avatar. He solved a thouand problems for me as a regular Member. I never asked him, he just volunteered. Is he a friend of mine? I've met him 3 times. Once at The Vic, in 2003 I think. I particularly recall recoiling with horror when a very famous player described Iron as "a lucky bastard", as Iron, with a wheelchair that would not allow him near enough to the table to scoop his chips up, struggled to stack them. And Iron was laughing. I next saw him in Blackpool earlier this year, & then in Walsall, 3 months later. I've always respected him. I have a relationship with him via blonde - nothing else. I may ring him up & wish him better if he's unwell. I'd do that to anyone who I knew, if I had their number. I do it to regular blondeites all the time. Spends a whole heap of time sorting out passwords & stuff for blonde tourneys. I've just asked him to be the blonde Tournament Manager. A thankless task, if ever there was one.

Heid (Moderator). I've met Heid once. At Gutyshot, maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago. She is a Moderator by Profession, that's what she does for a living. Damn good at it too, in my view. Her outfit has over 300 Moderators, so that's big-time Moderating. Her job these days is to train Moderators, & she's trained hundreds of them. Surely, an asset to bonde. A friend? I hope so, but hardly close, given I've only met her once.

Robert HM. Met him, I dunno, 4 or 5 times, always when we happened to be in the same casino. Had dinner wth him, & 7 or 8 others, in Newcastle, after the P4C do. A legal chap, we needed legal help. He's invaluable in that respect. I don't know his phone number, where he l9ves, nothing else about him really.  But a great Mod, in my view, very supportive. He offered his services as a Miod, I accepted his kind offer.

snoops. I know snoops & his bro, Jammer. I never know which is which. I THINK Jammer still lives in Notts - I saw him 2 months ago, at the Notts £100-er. I used to know snoops via Notts, we'd see each other once or twice a week. He moved to Birmingham, I think, 2 or 3 years back. I may have seen him twice in those 2 or 3 years. If I saw him today, I'm not entirely sure I'd recognize him. I don't have his telephone number.  Our relationship is blonde only. I think he's an incredibly clever guy. I adiore reading his posts. And he's about to become a contributor to the blonde site as a whole, though he's refused payment for the articles he's written for us.

Red-Dog. Red has become a friend over the last 2 years, but I really don't feel a need to apologize for that. He's seen grief in his life like you'd never imagine. I have a weakness for folks who can overcome adversity in the way he & his wife have. Probably everyone's favouirite blondeite, due to his incredibly funny & insightful posts. A "natural" to be a blonde Mod.

Tighty. Been So helpful in so many ways, with advice, time, & support. There is no amount of work he can't get through. Met him, I dunno, 6 or 8 times, but only because we played in the same comps at the same venues. No idea where he lives. We share an interest in business & the Stock Market. I discovered a month ago that he was on Mastermind, & got 17 out of 19, & 19 out of 21, in his specialist subjects. We NEED him.

Colchester Kev. When blonde was a 1 man band, & I was failing manfully when trying to do Live Updates, Kev was always there. Gave up night after night tio help me, weekend after weekend. One of THE most popular guys on blonde, & not half as daft as he makes out. I've met him 15 or 20 times, but only at Casinos.

I rejected the notion of appointing several Mods, simply because they ARE close personal friends. jbsc7769 would have been PERFECT, but because he's such a close pal, outside of poker as wel as in it, that disqualified him.

I also drew up a list of the next 6 Mods. But lets keep that out of it for now. I am the only person who knows who thry sre. Even they don't know.

So, I appointed my friends? I dont think so. They were all selected for a reason, & NOT because they are friends. But they are friends now, I'll gladly admit that. Llike I said before, I consider all blondeites to be.

What do they get paid? Nothing, zero, zilch. Not a button. None of them. We offered payment, they all refused. So they give up hours & houirs of their personal time for blonde, & get nothing for it. Except criticism from time to time, & very occasionally, thanks. They must have spent the equivelant of 8 or 9  man days on blonde last weekend alone, after the Titan do.

So, I have to reject the notion I have appointed a chummy bunch of mates. It's simply not true. Or that we are cliquey. The Forum' growth suggests otherwise, no matter how much some would seek tio deny it.

I owe it to them to defend them against unfair criticism. I will. I owe it to the Members to be fair & honest with them. I always have been.

I hope that's allayed your fears. I'd like to think that you'd reconsider your views now.

OK, I'm out of here, it's 0415. Night all.

Looks like its gonna piss down folks. hope you brought a brolly ;)

beautiful day here all though it might snow later

bit cold here, rain unlikely.

Sun is shining brightly here. Ddoes every day.

tikay there are several posts and a poll that says he not ;D ;D

True Dan, I just made it up - thought I'd give him a break today, it's his birthday.

Accusations of cliques are normal for forums of this size and poster count.

I am a regular poster on numerous forums and have over the years administered and admined my own. Briefly, gaming clan, UK gaming ISP forums, MMORPG gaming group come gaming community, and general interest forum (populated mainly by posters from the earlier forums and ISPs we had been gaming on).

When you have a large number of posts mostly filled with people having conversations, in-jokes and what not will appear to be cliquey to those not "in the circle jerk". It is quite comical at best, and downright annoying at worst.

Well I found it quite distressing to be so accused, but you seem to be saying I gotta expect that. Guess that's the price (apart from one helluva lot of time) of running a Forum. Hey-ho.

As it happens, there is a lengthy & interesting post from "cybertim" on this subject in a thread entitled "can you stll feel the love". He sorta says the same thing - these accusations are gonna be thrown our way, like it or not.

oops, i upset the boss :-[
firstly, i should appologise for my inability to read.
I had scanned Ironsides post and in my slightly agitated state i thought he'd said you had chosen your friends and what was an actual agreement (i thought) became an accusation.
You have explained things every step of the way and that in itself leads to problems, oddly enough myself and another blondite were talking about exactly that only a few days ago, both thinking maybe you were too open!!!
The side effect is of course that when something is obviously going on you will get questioned, for some reason i have always felt that everything that goes on in here is my business when of course it isn't at all.
I do seem to end up as a sort of spokesperson lately (i'm easily led you see) and i wish people who pm me would step up and give an account of theirselves.
The whole clique thing is not a new thing as you well know, i just didn't buy it.
I guess when you are on the outside looking in you can see that, though obviously from the inside things look very different.
dunno what else to say

Apology not needed ifm, but thanks anyway. It musta took courage to say that openly, & I think you are a big man.

Are we, to use your words, "too open"? Some would say yes, but I see no reason not to be. It's a "look, my hands are squeaky clean, nothing up my sleeve" way of earning trust. My whole business career was based on being totally open with everyone. They could see the company accounts, everything - why hide anything is my view?

"....when something is obviously going on...." Well, I guess that's the nub of it - what COULD be going on? We have nothing to hide from anyone, there is no need for anything to be "going on"! But things DO get said between the Mods & I off-forum. Today, we had a big problem with a legal matter, we had to sort it out before the post in question could be published. That HAD to be off-Forum. And after the Titan thing, things had to be said between the Mods & myself in prvate - I had to give them the message, & assure THEM  - "look - EVERYONE will be paid", etc. And we are trying to make things better - we discuss new ideas, better ideas, etc. Anyway, enough of that.

Finally, let's remind everyone of something. ifm is in the top 6 posters, & top 6 in time spent on blonde. That means he means a lot to us, he's not just a Member, he's a salesman for blonde, & a spokesperson too. He continues to be very special to blonde.

yeah but he is from the midlands do i have to talk to him?  ;D

Even Birnmingham is better than Scotland - surely?.

no chance

That was a good post by you Tikay, as I was also guilty of feeling the forum was getting a bit clique.
I really appreciate the openess of your character, but I do not always agree with telling all about everything, I have learnt to my cost in buisness that this is not always the best option, whatever the good intentions.

At the end of the day Blondepoker is yours to do what you please with it, but the way people are made to feel  welcome on the forum, we can sometimes forget and get a bit posessive about matters.
I will admit the selection of Heid being a moderator was puzzling to me, due to the relatively short time she had been a contributor to blonde, but your previous post has described perfectly why she is a good asset to blonde as a moderator.
I was equally surprised when IFM wasnt a moderator, as he would equally be a great asset. But like you said there are going to be 6 more in the near future, I hope hes one.
Sorry if ive over stepped the mark with the last statement but i just wanted to add my two pence worth.

Thanks my man, I hope that the debate on this matter has put things in better context for everyone.

Heid? Interesting case study in "person management". I selected her as a Mod BEFORE I ever met her, & I'd never spoken to her, either. Her inclusion was as shock to many, but for once, I think I got it right.

From her earliest posts, I recognized something in Heid that we badly needed. I did not know at the time she was previously a Mod by trade, & that now she actually trains Mods for a living. By now, I would think she has won most Members over - she's vey specail, & I feel lucky to have got her on board. She's a lovely person, too.

ifm as a Mod? I can't comment, obviously. I have the next 6 clearly bookmarked in my mind, but it woud be wrong to comment any more at this stage.

Your support is very much appreciated.

Just as an extra about me... I was lurking on this forum as a gues for ages - since April time really, and I grew more and more attached to the palce, but felt I had no right to post - everyone seemed to know more about poker than me. So I sat and watched and learnt, and sat and watched some more.

I was off work sick from March until August this year, so due to the fascist nature of my work sick pay meant I had no cash flow to use to play poker. I had to have a very big operation in June - a hysterectomy (stop crossing your legs ladies, and you men don't stop reading!), which meant I was pretty much housebound for a number of weeks.

I survived a fair few weeks of pain and mind blowing boredom by reading this forum, getting to know the people on it, and applying my newly copied skills to freerolls - I made $200 on a Stan James freeroll, and I was off!

Simply put, I wanted to join in the fun on here in the end - I do know a damn good forum when I see it, and this really is one.

I don't know an eighth of the amount that some of you do about poker - I haven't made thousands of posts, and despite some finishes lately that I am proud of, I am still in the fish league in terms of skill on here - but with any luck if you lot keep spilling your secrets the way you have been I will catch up!

I think I have made at least a couple of good friends on here, and I feel a debt of gratitude to the forum, for keeping my mind off what I lost in June, and keeping it firmly on what I could win, if I could be as good as you guys!

I didn't want to make anyone feel that I have spannered me way in here - I don't think I have. I Moderating is a bloody scary thing when you have the eyes of a forum on you, and if I can help the other mods to help the forum, then that's gotta be a good thing innit?

I am sure this place has been a comfort to us all in one way or another at some point - even if we don't realise it - that's what makes it special, and that's what makes us protective of it :)

Anyway I have to stop waffling now - I'm getting like the old codger (who BTW if no-one has met him is a fantastic guy - if slightly myopic in the TChip department) :)

If you give me a chance, I won't do any harm, and I do occasionally speak some sense :)

Heid
xx

Well, I have just learned a lot more about Herid. Amazing.

But forget it's Heid - look at that Post, & you see a number of my pet themes in there. Lurked for an age, liked the atmo. Got no money, somehow nicked $200 to get started. When I argue - as I do day after day - to keep buy-ins low, for online or Live events, I have the "typical" blondeite in mind.

Heid is a typical blondeite. That is to say, she's specail to all of us. Of our 1600+ Members, I bet there are 1400+ Heids out there.

God I hope not, poor cows!

bump lol

sometimes i wonder if you ever think before you post

What's to think about?

about was it worth bumping a 2 year old thread for no reason other than to stirr

It was a follow on from another thread sigh.........

Ifm stir..... ???????????

Nothing changes around here, does it?