State of the Forum

The Original Idea behind the blonde Forum

The seed of the idea to start this Forum - my idea - back in late 2004 was that I was uncomfortable with the tone, flaming, rudeness, & general insensitivity, of the un-Moderated Poker forums as they then existed. I felt I wanted, and there was a demand for, a different sort place & that's what I, & then others with me, set out to build.

So it began. "Poker With a Smile" was the theme. As far as I, & my now collegues are concerned, (and we all agree on, & accept joint responsibility, for what follows), the goal, & the maxim, remains the same -

1) A fun place

2) A debating arena for subjects as light or as serious as can be.

3) A Forum which our families & children can peruse if we so desire, without fear of expletives, insensitivity, or plain rudeness. An outdated dream, perhaps, but that's what I wanted.

4) The Forum is designed to be free & independent, anyone can mention or discuss any Poker Site. Clearly, though, we planned & hoped many, or some, of our Members would migrate to our own Cardroom. It is, after all, the Cardroom which pays for the Forum. Or should.

Where we are now?

Well let’s look at those items 1 to 4.

1) Yes, it's still, in the main, a fun place, the angle of the Forum remains mainly humorous & good-natured. There are of course a small minority who moan & groan about everything we do. This minority are tiresome to those of us who run the place, & contribute little or nothing, to the Community or Finances of blonde. The Members and stakeholders (such as moderators, staff, shareholders, updaters, sponsors/partners)are becoming disaffected by it.

2) It remains a good debating arena, but some Members don't know the difference between debating robustly, & arguing offensively. It is not necessary to be rude, or shout, when debating.

3) Family Forum. It's failed completely in this area. It's become rude, aggressive, & insensitive. Some days, it's just dreadful, & even I can't bring myself to open up the Forum. I'm not alone.

4) Does the Forum help with migration to our Cardroom - which is designed to pay for the Forum that we all use? No, not much. Furthermore it just happens that most of those who cause us the most grief don't currently use the blonde Cardroom at all.

What do we plan to do about it?

1) 95% of the Members understand it's a fun place & a civil place, & their Posts reflect this. Those who don't, who can only moan & groan, & contribute nothing except to lower the tone & spoil the atmosphere, will be reminded that they are not obliged to be Members, & we are not obliged to have them as Members. We owe each other nothing. They can feel free to cease Posting, & we will feel free to remove their Posting rights.

2) This inability to hold a civil debate is perplexing. If I want to have a natter with my neighbour or a debate, I do so, over the garden fence, openly. If I feel he's out of order on the way he conducts himself, I have the convo in private, indoors, not shouting down the street. Right now, the amount of open aggression on the Forum to the way we run blonde is not acceptable. If you don't like how we run the place, fine, either Post about it in a civil manner, or, if rudeness is your chosen weapon, PM us. Plastering it all over the Forum via rude &/or snide remarks helps nobody. The open insults recently to Members & stakeholders who are members just the same are a disgrace, & we will not allow them any more. If you want to insult any of the Members or the Mods Team on the Forum, as it now happening almost daily, often with side of the mouth smartarse comments, you will not be around for long because we will remove your Posting rights. We don't need to give further warning, or notice, this Post is the warning. Nobody has to be a Member of blonde, & blonde does not have to accept anyone. In the last 48 hours alone, I've counted a dozen gratuitiously offensive remarks to Members & stakeholders. I remind you that in amongst those stakeholders the mods are voluntary. It has to stop. Now. On that note Mods are held to higher standard than other members, fairly by the other Mods, but sometimes unfairly by other members. They still have the same right of reply as other members, but usually refrain to keep the peace, this does not give anyone the right to use the clichéd "unsuitable behaviour from a Mod" if they do exercise their right to reply.

3) Family Forum? Right now, it's not. It's slid a long way down a slippery slope. You may not wish it to be a Family Forum, but we do. We have winced with embarrassment at the insensitivity of some recent Post, & threads. We plan to do whatever it takes to restore those values. It's almost predictable that we'll be challenged, hard, on this, & guessing by whom won't be difficult. Bans will follow, sadly, & there will be collateral fallout, & martyrs, from friends & allies of those Banned. A shame, a great shame, but too bad. We'll probably lose a good few Members. So be it. That's the price we have to pay. We pay for this Forum, we know what we want it to be, & we intend to go that route, even if it means significant downsizing. The storm will rage for a few weeks, but it will pass, nobody will die, & life in blonde will return to normal, albeit in better spirit & heart. And minus x% of the Members.

4) The Cardroom. If those who cause this grief were currently major blonde rakers, it'd be a right headache, especially for Tighty & Kev, who have the responsibility to make the Cardroom pay for the Site. Rich also has to monetise blonde - it costs a six-figure sum per annum to run it, & that money has to come from somewhere. So that would be a right dilemma. But It's a price we are prepared to pay though. Fortunately, the trouble does not come from current blonde rakers, so we won't miss them, financially or otherwise. Those who do not contribute positively to the community, or the finances, seem to think they have the right to say what they want, & how they want. They don't.

So, in summary.......

OK, there's the problem, the reason, & the solution.

Now we shall implement the solution, immediately. Bans, if needed, will be 7 days, 1 month, 3 months, 12 months, or permanent, as we see fit.

I can see some of you bristling with anger & rage about all this. We ain't too happy, either.

But we could, all of us, draw a line under the history, the bad blood, the sniping, the rudeness & insensitivity, & agree to a fresh start, & do a bygones is bygones thing. We are prepared to, & I hope you all are, too.

All you have to do is, before you Post, think carefully about those 4 points.....

Thank you to everyone who has supported blonde, & to the stakeholders who have had a torrid few months.

If you feel some or all of this concerns you then please think before you post. It is not the start of a witch-hunt, just a warning that things need to change to keep this the place we like to post on. We're not going to get in a nitpicking argument about acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

To those who move on, enjoy yourselves, wherever you go. We'd prefer you all to stay, the loss of any Member saddens us, but please, just respect our values, & we can move on, together.

Enjoy.