I shouldn't really get involved in this being a mod, I love this place (I've been here long enough) and wasted half (if not more) of my life posting here. I feel almost like I'm risking my reputation and the respect of guys I respect in turn here, but I have to say something because I'm nothing if not honest. I'm guessing a few people will be offended and I apologise, the last thing I want to do is offend anybody, but I can't help but say it like I see it.
I think DJ has raised valid points, if not in the most endearing way. I can't get apples from Tescos because they've got a pesticide on that isn't suitable for vegans, and I don't like the idea of having a piece of fruit that isn't suitable for vegans - I think it's ridiculous. But if I run in there screaming that I can't get apples and that everyone needs to wake up and smell the organic coffee, only the most understanding people are going to see my point, whereas most will think I'm a headcase and shield their children in-case I've got a suicide vest on.
I have good relationships with the people who run Evo-Web and there isn't anyone I don't get on with, and I'm betting people won't like me as much when I say this - and that genuinely saddens me, because I respect almost everyone I've met on here, and regardless of what I'll say I really don't want to be seen as or treated any differently. But I have to say, I have seen some of what DJ talks about and I don't agree with it. If he was told not to say Greggs or Baker's Oven all the time, which I admit I found annoying, then where does it stop? If posts were deleted based on how annoying they were I would only have about ten posts to my name.
I won't name names but I've seen people say things that are against rules and get away with them, then once someone else does the same thing in response their post is deleted, then ten posts are deleted at once to cover it up. I don't think that's right, especially when people get away with it because they're part of a certain clique. Now I am the last person who should say this, because I've said things I regretted and I've deleted them immediately, but to my credit (whatever credit I will have left this evening), I have apologised straight away to the people I have offended. I haven't turned my back on it, I have approached the guys (and there's a fair fucking few of them) to apologise for being a dickhead.
Saying all this, out of every forum I've ever been to, this is the only one I've ever kept coming back to, because it has so much going for it. It's laid back, it's a cool place to be, and although I have seen things lately that I don't neccessarily agree with I understand that everyone is doing what they think is the best solution, and that nobody is setting out to be an arsehole. If I personally have ever appeared like that as a moderator, I apologise again to anyone I have offended.
But as much as I love the place, and as much as I disagree with a few things that have gone on, it is just a forum after all, and I think we should all just get along. Perhaps (or perhaps definitely) it's because I've just managed to get a job I will enjoy for the first time in years, even if it doesn't pay much, but I've realised things I've taken so seriously and taken to heart really truly don't mean anything. I've had a laugh here and that's all that does matter. I've had a real laugh.
I've been really, truly wound up by things said on here in the past but now I genuinely think, what a waste of time it was feeling like that. Nobody here knows anybody anyway, apart from a few friends, and guys like Proxi and Yana who really know eachother. *Cough* But I just think it's a shame that things have got so serious and so negative.
Anyway, there you go, that's my two cents, and then some. Expect the thread to dive-bomb now because nobody can be arsed reading that.
(I do think it's a good idea having this thread though, if it gives people the chance to get things off their chest and get things resolved rather than clogging the rest of the place up with little digs and knocks, it can only be a good thing.)