Okay. Time to put on my admin hat...

My feeling is threads like this and this do not lead to the high quality skiing discussion we are trying to achieve here. I also feel they are somewhat prohibitive in terms of making visitors feel comfortable enough to join and participate as some folks may not feel part of the "clique". Threads like these just don't happen on AlpineZone and I want to use the success of AZ as a model for this site/community. KillingtonZone has a somewhat hands-off policy in terms of what's appropriate and that site is more of a free-for-all chat room than a message board. I certainly appreciate the charter members here, but this is not the RSN forum. Please try to keep the posted topics/threads on topic and informative. Feel free to use private message for the other banter. I'll likely get somewhat harassed for taking this approach, but I have to go with what I know and what has worked for me in the past. Thanks for your contributions and cooperation.

Greg, I tried to delete it but it's now locked. Sorry. My 2 cents however: Please don't over moderate this forum. Everyone capable of posting timely, knowledgable things about WF will go away. Give the thing a chance to "self moderate" before dropping the hammer. There are people posting in here now that not only know every knook and cranny of that mountain but who also are capable of chasing away or otherwise discouraging any true "trolls" that may come in here. I may be wrong and I fully appreciate that this is your forum and you ultimately have the final say. FWIW.

Greg wrote:

Okay. Time to put on my admin hat... My feeling is threads like this and this do not lead to the high quality skiing discussion we are trying to achieve here. I also feel they are somewhat prohibitive in terms of making visitors feel comfortable enough to join and participate as some folks may not feel part of the "clique". Threads like these just don't happen on AlpineZone and I want to use the success of AZ as a model for this site/community. KillingtonZone has a somewhat hands-off policy in terms of what's appropriate and that site is more of a free-for-all chat room than a message board. I certainly appreciate the charter members here, but this is not the RSN forum. Please try to keep the posted topics/threads on topic and informative. Feel free to use private message for the other banter. I'll likely get somewhat harassed for taking this approach, but I have to go with what I know and what has worked for me in the past. Thanks for your contributions and cooperation.

Where's the moderator when you need him? Perhaps you could got some more mods in here (not me though sorry)

freeheelwilly wrote:

Greg, I tried to delete it but it's now locked. Sorry. My 2 cents however: Please don't over moderate this forum. Everyone capable of posting timely, knowledgable things about WF will go away. Give the thing a chance to "self moderate" before dropping the hammer. There are people posting in here now that not only know every knook and cranny of that mountain but who also are capable of chasing away or otherwise discouraging any true "trolls" that may come in here. I may be wrong and I fully appreciate that this is your forum and you ultimately have the final say. FWIW.

Thanks SOD and FHW. I value your opinions and comments. I have no plans to "overmoderate" this forum. I welcome and encourage a full range of opinions here, even criticism of Whiteface and Gore, provided it's done in a civil and respectful way. I don't feel AlpineZone is at all overmoderated, although some may argue otherwise. In reality, the number of posts that are deleted or edited there is relatively small given the number of members and posts that board sees everyday. Your comment about self-moderation is very much the case over there. The discussion quality has always been, what I would consider, very high. I'm simply trying to encourage the same thing here and I feel it's important to set this precedence now. AZ is currently the most popular message board for discussing Northeast skiing, and I've received far more positive feedback than criticism so I must be doing something right.

I've been the admin of a skiing message board in one iteration or another since 1999. I've also participated on various forums for just about as long. My preference has always been the ones with high quality content and a civil and somewhat more mature discussion. I've seen many forums with a lot of chatty banter that perhaps only a handful of members understand, with some of the posts being childish and sometimes pretty crude. Realize that a conversation you might have with the "boys" at the bar out of earshot is very different than the one you would have around your wife, or kids, or in general public. Please remember that this is really a public place and anything posted should be something you would feel comfortable saying in a public setting; and to someone face to face. Think of it as the entire bar being in on your conversation. I'm not saying anything that's been posted so far falls into a really questionable category, but I just want to clarify my position here early on. Of course, camaraderie is what make a forum a 'community' rather than just a message board so not eveything has to be totally serious. It is important to have balance however and always make it a place that newbies can feel comfortable participating in.

I also want to remind everyone again that we have received full support from ORDA on the forums. The link that went up this week on whiteface.com was the result of the folks at ORDA approaching me, not the other way around. Similarly I've received overwhelming support from the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce, Sugarbush, and Mad River Glen on the SkiMRV.com forums. I like to think this support is the direct result of the type of forum I run on AlpineZone.

In any event, I want to again thank everyone who has signed up initially and helped to get this thing off the ground. I'm sure this community will evolve over time, but I feel strongly that we should start out in this way. Again, I thank all of you for your support.

Son of Drifter wrote:

Where's the moderator when you need him? Perhaps you could got some more mods in here (not me though sorry)

I was skiing and just got back.

Here's the thing, I like Jack and am glad he's here. Jack doesn't really want to talk about WF cause he doesn't ski here, he wants to play and I get that.

I can't check here all the time and even if I could I wouldn't want to be the bad guy. I especially don't want to be telling people I know in real life what they can post and can't then have them POed at me when they see me. The only reason I'm doing the mod thing is so we can have this forum which I like. The year off from RSN I posted at AZ alot which was fun, but I missed talking to people who shared my love of WF. I bugged Greg to put this up for us and he was nice enough to do it.

I hope this all can work out. It gives me something to do when I have free time at work and a WF fix when I can't actually be there.

Greg wrote:

Okay. Time to put on my admin hat... My feeling is threads like this and this do not lead to the high quality skiing discussion we are trying to achieve here. I also feel they are somewhat prohibitive in terms of making visitors feel comfortable enough to join and participate as some folks may not feel part of the "clique". Threads like these just don't happen on AlpineZone and I want to use the success of AZ as a model for this site/community. KillingtonZone has a somewhat hands-off policy in terms of what's appropriate and that site is more of a free-for-all chat room than a message board. I certainly appreciate the charter members here, but this is not the RSN forum. Please try to keep the posted topics/threads on topic and informative. Feel free to use private message for the other banter. I'll likely get somewhat harassed for taking this approach, but I have to go with what I know and what has worked for me in the past. Thanks for your contributions and cooperation.

I'm with you Greg. I used to check and occasionally post in the RSN forums back in the day. I'd rather these forums not be loaded with inside jokes and off-topic banter like they were in those days. I think we owe it to ORDA to represent the mountain appropriately.

Greg: It's your show and your word is final.

HPD I'd never be PO'd at you for anything you had to do here. You lobbied Greg to get this place open and now you have to play by his rules. I get it.

Jack is a tool

freeheelwilly wrote:

Greg, I tried to delete it but it's now locked. Sorry. My 2 cents however: Please don't over moderate this forum. Everyone capable of posting timely, knowledgable things about WF will go away. Give the thing a chance to "self moderate" before dropping the hammer. There are people posting in here now that not only know every knook and cranny of that mountain but who also are capable of chasing away or otherwise discouraging any true "trolls" that may come in here. I may be wrong and I fully appreciate that this is your forum and you ultimately have the final say. FWIW.

couldnt have said it better willy (actually i could have, i wouldnt have misspelled knook) but anyway. everybody needs a little good friday funb with preacher now and again. i suppose if preacher came back to the forum, i would have to be nice and sensitive to him and tell him what a great skier he is. PUKE!

"nook"? Who knew? On the other hand, who cares? It's not even a real word anyway. It's like a Dr. Seuss word.

highpeaksdrifter wrote:

Son of Drifter wrote: Where's the moderator when you need him? Perhaps you could got some more mods in here (not me though sorry) I was skiing and just got back. Here's the thing, I like Jack and am glad he's here. Jack doesn't really want to talk about WF cause he doesn't ski here, he wants to play and I get that. I can't check here all the time and even if I could I wouldn't want to be the bad guy. I especially don't want to be telling people I know in real life what they can post and can't then have them POed at me when they see me. The only reason I'm doing the mod thing is so we can have this forum which I like. The year off from RSN I posted at AZ alot which was fun, but I missed talking to people who shared my love of WF. I bugged Greg to put this up for us and he was nice enough to do it. I hope this all can work out. It gives me something to do when I have free time at work and a WF fix when I can't actually be there.

ya, HPD...im feeling the luv i have to disagree w/ your WF comment. i enjoy reading about WF w/ the boys. granted i don't have much inside info to offer w/ regard to the hill but my general lack of knowledge in skiing is quite insightful if i must say so myself just because its a WF board does not limit the conversations to WF specific topics (atleast imo) if it were that way this site would have fewer posts than it already does. the topic should be about skiing and riding.

i spend a lot of my time at tgr because the posts are very informative, especially the tech forum. limiting a forum to a specific area is kinda crazy imo...isolation baby. i understand greg's feeling that he doesn't want a 'howard stern' forum and it shouldn't be. but, if you limit the discussion to just WF u will end up w/ a very quiet place.

-im out

jackstraw wrote:

ya, HPD...im feeling the luv i have to disagree w/ your WF comment. i enjoy reading about WF w/ the boys. granted i don't have much inside info to offer w/ regard to the hill but my general lack of knowledge in skiing is quite insightful if i must say so myself just because its a WF board does not limit the conversations to WF specific topics (atleast imo) if it were that way this site would have fewer posts than it already does. the topic should be about skiing and riding. i spend a lot of my time at tgr because the posts are very informative, especially the tech forum. limiting a forum to a specific area is kinda crazy imo...isolation baby. i understand greg's feeling that he doesn't want a 'howard stern' forum and it shouldn't be. but, if you limit the discussion to just WF u will end up w/ a very quiet place. -im out

Other ski related stuff is fine, WF or not. I'm pretty sure other things like (Example Yanks v. Sox)wuld be ok too since we don't have a misc. section like they do in AZ. It just can't get into the old RSN free for all stuff. You know what I mean Jack.

Since the forum link went on WF's home page there have been a ton of "Guests" coming here; hopefully, they will start posting.

I would like you to post here Jack, you have alot of skiing insight to offer.

highpeaksdrifter wrote:

Other ski related stuff is fine, WF or not. I'm pretty sure other things like (Example Yanks v. Sox)wuld be ok too since we don't have a misc. section like they do in AZ. It just can't get into the old RSN free for all stuff. You know what I mean Jack.

I would say that this forum is a skiing forum with a focus on Whiteface or Gore. Any general NE skiing topics can/should just be posted on AlpineZone.com. The guys at SkiMRV opted not to have a Misc forum like AZ. Some felt it would dilute the discussion of Sugarbush/MRG and it seems those guys have endless energy to discuss just that. I'm not opposed to creating a Misc. forum here if there was enough interest. Perhaps let's wait and see. If the non-WF to WF topic ratio gets high enough, a Misc. forum is one option.

highpeaksdrifter wrote:

Since the forum link went on WF's home page there have been a ton of "Guests" coming here; hopefully, they will start posting.

Likely the "guests" are search engine spiders that are crawling this site and as they index it. I'm sure there are a few actual people too and they are certainly encouraged to register and participate.