Not loving the PSAs

[Kontact]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Hi Kontact,

I've thought about your postings lately and i would like to offer a genuine, constructive response:

First off, if I offended you personally by calling your original posting philosophy "laughable", i do genuinely apologize, it wasnt my intent to insult you or treat you crummily. I said that in absolutely dead pan serious fashion.

if you and i were having a drink in person following a ride and you said to me: "Hey Nick, you know, i think we should ban PSA listings because i think they may artificially inflate the price of rare, sought after items that some members may be interested in, and who may have worked hard to find on their own" - I would have chuckled a bit, and told you you were probably right, but we cant ban PSAs because of that.

The next thing i'd like to mention is that it's difficult to moderate a forum of this size. we have members from their teenage years to their late 70's, maybe older. from minimum wage workers to millionaires, and in all walks of life and everywhere in between. the vernaculars are different, the common practices are different, and what may offend you is just fun friendly "ribbing" to someone else. you say that if you could change anything here it would be "how crummy people are treated". Gosh, that sounds easy, but it is NOT!

just like my example from myself above, i was joking with you, or i thought i was calling your idea laughable, but you were offended. it was just a difference of intentions, how do you moderate that?

on the topic of PSAs, i think they are more a benefit here than a detriment. yes, sometimes they clog the forum, and yes, sometimes they are worthless, but they have done a lot of members a lot of good over the years too. i know for certain there are a few retired folks here who have sizable bike collections and surf the net for deals and interesting frames daily. if they find something interesting to them, they post it here as a PSA. it's part of their daily routine and their hobby - is it right to tell them that they cant do that here anymore?

the mods here have been at this for a good long time, and we do take a look at how we do things regularly to see if there are any changes that make sense for the bulk majority of the forum. i think we also try very hard to make it a comfortable, safe place for everyone. it's not easy, we're not perfect, and we cant police every posting though.

again, if i offended you, i'm sorry - not my intention, but if you took it that way - my apologies to you.

Angry, it's fine. Had your comment been the only one along those lines I would have simply let it pass.


And I don't expect the moderators to remote control the behavior of the membership. Paceline has a certain standard of maturity that is largely self imposed by the membership. And because of that the trolling that is common on other forums is largely absent.

However, on those other forums that trolls are clearly treated as such, and anyone who peppers their posts with personal swipes is not going to have 3 other members sticking up for them.

So we can all be mature and collegiate, or we can throw the veneer of politeness away. But I don't think we should be nasty and then congratulate ourselves on not being as bad as brand X.


So in the spirit of the self regulating forum Paceline is supposed to be, I'm pointing out that making this stuff personal sucks, is rude and causes benign topics to go into multiple pages of equivocation.

[AngryScientist]

Originally Posted by Kontact

So in the spirit of the self regulating forum Paceline is supposed to be, I'm pointing out that making this stuff personal sucks, is rude and causes benign topics to go into multiple pages of equivocation.

i agree. we are the first line of defense in keeping the forum great. self moderation and holding ourselves and our postings to a high standard is the best course of action and everyone can pitch in.

since this thread is no longer about the merit of PSA postings, it is closed. as always, good discussion.