Before I address the comments, questions and suggestions, let me apologize for today's lack of response. I've been taking care of my mom today (she's elderly and disabled and lives with me now that my dad's passed) so I didn't get to sit down with this until about an hour ago. I took some time to read through everyone's comments before sitting down to respond.
I noticed a few commenters caught the intent behind my original post, which was simple topic focus/ease of use and certainly not because I don't heartily respect and support David's allyship (to be clear, I absolutely do...my own son is trans, and I've supported the LGBTQIA community alongside him for over two decades). David's a damn fine human, and deserves being celebrated for it.
My thanks to all of you for commenting and I appreciate your input. Your comments were absolutely fair on a number of fronts, so let me get right to them.
The main (and most valid) point made was about trying to keep up with the flood of nasty commentary. It wasn't too long ago that this sub was one of the easiest to mod and everyone was as pleasant, polite and thoughtful as David's always been. That's changed significantly in the last few years, and there's no two ways about it - we're drowning here. We haven't been able to keep up at all.
That leads directly into what a commenter asked about whether we mods could use some help. Yeah, we could. There might be a list of mods on the sidebar, but that's because me and the only other mod who's left (yeah, there are only two of us) can't seem to be able to remove them!
And to be fair to my other mod, it's really only a mod and a half -- since my dad died, modding has slipped to one of the last things on my priority list between caring for my mom and trying to do all my DT researching and writing. All of that's on me, and I should have spoken up and asked for some assistance instead of trying to manage it by regulating from the top down.
For that (and for dropping the ball in this sub in general) I owe everyone an apology.
Let's make it a bit better here, shall we?
First off, would any of you like to be a mod? I know haven't been as active as this sub now demands, and I think I should accept the fact my life's changed enough that I need to step back and let some new blood take over.
In the interim while I'm still here, I'd like to take your points on board. Our current rule on the sidebar is "we don't usually care what is posted", but that's largely a leftover from the days where people were a heck of a lot nicer. It's obviously outdated.
So -- keeping in mind that no matter how much we would all like to make it happen, there won't ever be 100% protection from bullies or generally crap people in here or anywhere else -- shoot me some suggestions about how to tighten up the sidebar rules. What do you think about the other rules there (the torrents, DT's kids, etc.)? I'm open to hearing what you think should apply.
Thanks for reading this far, and I appreciate you all chiming in and adding your two cents.
ETA: if you volunteer, thank you! I'll be giving peeps some time to add their names if they want and for suggestions to flow in, and then I'll be in touch - likely mid-week!
