This is a great forum full of differing points of view and those differing points of view are the reason swaylocks continues to be an influence and not just another blog full of kids popping off with sly remarks. Many of the post are well thought out and informative and I personally enjoy posting here and expressing my own points about this crazy and wonderful world as it relates to surfing and the industry.
However, in my opinion the nice factor here on swaylocks is damaging what this site once was. Post appear to get locked because they are either offensive to the owners of swaylocks or that the mods are afraid someone will be offended. I am all for the mods not allowing personal attacks on individuals by calling names, using foul language and making unfounded rumors ect., but the audacity and in your face approach of some of the writers here is what always made this forum interesting and a leader not a follower. It’s about an exchange of ideas or so I thought and to me, I don’t mind some of the more direct post. This is not a rant, The swaylocks crew have a right to run this site anyway they see fit and I will continue promoting the good informative quality of the site, but I do miss some of the more challenging post.
If folks get their feelings hurt on a debate and don’t have the ability to defend their point of view, then they shouldn’t post. If adverstisers don’t like the post and can’t defend their point of view, then they shouldn’t adverstise etc. etc.
I have not seen too many post here on swaylocks that needed to be locked, with the exeption of some of the political non surfing post which tend to go nowhere.
The thing that drew me to swaylocks orignially was the audacity found in many of the post and great informative content laid out straight forward by a variety of writers. (some of whom bordered on the point of rude)
This is just my own opinion and I hope it does not ruffle and feathers, but I miss some of the old post that went on for awhile and died, only to come back again with new information. Just a suggestion, not a demand. Less locking of post.
First off, I am speaking for myself. Second, I’m sure that none of the moderators are perfect.
As I have said on a number of occasions, there are, to my knowledge, no sponsors that we are “protecting”.
If you can recall the Stewart days, the Penguin days, the Noodle days, and above all the Gross/Ames/Duncan days, the spew and venom were embarassing to read and quite hurtful to the people involved. In most cases, several good people and great sources of information chose to leave because of the personal nature of the attacts. While the free for all days had more fun than vile, the balance, in Mike’s eyes, was tilting to the dark side pretty quickly. I do miss those days. (Coral grew up too fast…)
I do not read every thread but when I notice that a discussion turns into an argument, I will watch fairly closely. When the argument becomes personal, a few posts may be ok in my mind but when the thread has been hijacked, I will give a warning or discuss a “moderation” with the other moderators. In my opinion, the number of “moderations” is astoundingly low. I really try to be fair handed, but I am human and admit to personal bias on occasion. Feel free to PM me, as several “victims” have, to vent or complain. I will always give you honest reasons for my actions.
The passion of the pu/pe vs EPS/epoxy contoversy is a bit baffling to me, but I chalk it up to stress given the circumstances.
Bonta Magwai??? was that the person…man must be years since that name appeared.
hey at least Herb still kicks in a few posts every now and then.
Sways will constanly evolve. You’ll have both good and bad. New posters who ahve vauluable information on new technology (good), new posters who have been here for a month and are telling peiople that they cant do this or that (bad).
Regardless…Sways is a community above all else. You need to take the bad with the goood, and it’s mostly all good. But like any community, it aint perfect, not will it ever be. But it’s those imperfections that give it character and charm.
I did not mean to give the impressio you guys are protecting sponsors. That was simply an example of some who may complain. I understand that you have to take charge on personal attacks. I am all for that, unless of course, someone is simply being an idiot. Then they have a couple of personal attacks coming prior to being shut down.
I just miss some of the old debates, where lots of knowledge thrown around, along with the junk.
Solo, a thread was recently locked because it had devolved into a public display of two people who obviously don’t get along making ugly remarks and thinly veiled threats.
If you can think of a better way to avoid such things, we are all for it.
If you can recall the Stewart days, the Penguin days, the Noodle days, and above all the Gross/Ames/Duncan days, the spew and venom were embarassing to read and quite hurtful to the people involved.
Hello Lee, as you are no doubt aware, the “Stewart Days” are still here, and apart from keeping certain controversial opinions under my hat, I haven’t changed a bit !
Although I might not make often make it apparent, I do have respect for your surfboard design knowledge, and am very happy to be back, thankyou very much indeed Sir !
but at the same time , we have to keep things civil …
i have seen a few threads get locked down almost a little prematurely i thought …
i have seen threads turn around completly by themselves , just from the calming influence of other posters , so even if 2 people should vehemantly disagree on something or not see eye to eye (because the other guy is a foot shorter) things end up simmering anyway …
i know ive been in threads that got heated and when someone has highlighted that my opinion may have been a bit extreme of unfair , ive thrown in my apologies or excepted my views wernt reasonable …
so it would be nice to have the chance to recognise ones own mistakes and make amends , before a thread gets locked and you feel youve been denied the opportunity to even clear the air …
so maybe we could wait till its obvious there really out of hand before we act ???
Do Tell ! Of course it is always true that any particular moderator is always a perfect example of themselves, I can see that very clearly, so why only THREE ? Please excuse me for being eminently disagreeable and deeply pedantic.
Yeah I know what you mean - I appreciate well informed debate, and vitriolic slagging matches are boring but some funny stuff comes out in the flaming threads. There was this one between the penguin guy and
KR with lines like “don’t threaten me, I’m just as psychotics as you are” and “Are insults the best you can do - how about some wit” reply “alright - fuckwit!”
Like I read Gregs loehr’s “feel the change” post - which was stirring stuff and obvioulsy for our American brothers - but I wanted to reply to what Greg said about the US being the greatest surfing nation on earth - I wanted to say - “how about we make that the greatest surfing nation in the northern hemisphere”. But I didn’t cuase I knew some people wouldn’t see I was taking the piss and would think I was making light of a tragic situation. Was I being too nice?
If you can recall the Stewart days, the Penguin days, the Noodle days, and above all the Gross/Ames/Duncan days, the spew and venom were embarassing to read and quite hurtful to the people involved.
The solution is to not be so worried about people who get “hurt” by a few words on a computer screen that you restrict the activities of the rest of the people who aren’t so fragile.
I’m not advocating childish behavior and name calling and bad language and baseless accusations or any of that. I’m just saying that in the great scheme of life, none of these things should bother us one bit and we should just ingore them and let the rest of the conversation continue. I’d rather have a thread with 10% useful information and 90% crap than have people be so afraid of being banned or the thread locked that we never get to the 10%.
