Membership Moratorium

Membership Moratorium

 

Congrats to Steve Gorrell who became our last member approved before our membership moratorium takes place on GMS. As with anything, there is a tendency for folks to abuse a tool. On GMS, we have seen an uptick in posts that don’t exactly encompass what GMS is meant to be. So, starting today I will begin to analyze who we want our fellow members to be and how to deal with those who we don’t. In the meanwhile a membership moratorium will be put in place. Once I feel confident in the new membership policy, the moratorium will be lifted.

 

At 14,000 members we have a nice group of folks who are largely considerate of others. But, as often is the case, there are a handful of people who will abuse it. In order to make sure GMS continues to be a useful place to visit, we will get a handle on it.

 

With that said, non-members are welcome to continue visiting the site to read the posts, but membership will be reserved for those that have proven themselves to be valuable and considerate members. Of course, there will be disagreements on a host of topics, but the goal is to keep things productive and largely civil.

 

Please send any thoughts, concerns or opinions to admin@gomarcellusshale.com.

 

Best,

Keith Mauck

Publisher

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kathleen on July 10, 2012 at 6:17am
I too want to say thank you. This board is to educate and some people may even wonder if fracking does cause issues due to media hype and want to ask questions to find the truth but with the current tone they would be blasted away quickely. Education does not mean berating someone into your way of thinking on any subject, it's about an adult conversation and the facts.
I monitored a board and one way we dealt with this problem was everyone had a trial period. That board had a monitor that had to approve the posts of any new member until they proved they were behaving. Sometimes you can just tell who is behaving quickely and their posts only were monitored for a day or so while others were booted quickely. We also moved misbehaving posters to this system if they failed to be curious to others so no real offensive posts got through from them any longer. After 3 warning they were removed. We also had a way to see the ip address if we really wanted to see who was just coming back on under a different name.
One hard decision is where was someone just pushed to far and behaved badly but normally did not post this way.
Thanks again since I too was thinking of looking for another site since I was worried about posting anything without being berated, but it would have been hard to find people with so much knowledge anywhere else. I love reading about what's going on just around the corner from me, Utica shales well updates and all the news in the Utica play.
Kath
Permalink Reply by Robert A. Young on July 10, 2012 at 11:43am

The leadership of Keith Mauck is self-evident with his regulation of negative information on this wonderful site. 

 

I will always remember my english/journalism professor at Rutgers University, Queens College, New Brunswick, N.J. in the middle 70's informing us students and aspiring writers that not everyone is going to like your stuff, as your proud mother does, however, with the advent of the computer, there seems to be inappropriate comments allowed at many sites, especially the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Naples Daily News. 

Keith and others at GOMARCELLUSSHALE.COM are doing the right thing, calling for changes at the site which are designed to stop such nonsense for good.  

I was recently repeatedly berated in cyberspace by very inaccurate posts in response to a  piece I published in the NAPLES FLORIDA DAILY NEWS in January, 2012 and if you go to my personnel blog;  ROBERT A. YOUNG's Blog For Social Responsibility, via internet search, you can access exactly how I handled the unnecessary personal attacks. 

Relative to my writing on energy related issues, as a writer, I have experienced some negative remarks in the Daily and Sunday Review Newspaper website comments section, Towanda, PA Bradford County, PA, Northeastern PA.  One individual has since backed off of his negative, provincial and weakly proposed verbal remarks against me in the Daily Review and on GOMARCELLUSSHALE.COM.  Another former police officer tried to politicise one of my pieces for reasons unknown to me to this day, but he ended up choking in print compared to my response.  He couldn't compete.  In turn, reasonable readers understood loud and clear. 

This is one reason, a few months back, I decided to include a piece that was published in the Review and on GOMARCELLUSSHALE.COM titled;  "The Virtue OF Kindness, Found", which I will re-issue on my GOMARCELLUSSHALE.COM Blog as an example of the correct protocol for handling unwarranted and unnecessary posts and verbal attacks in cyberspace. 

.

Hats off to Keith Mauck for raising the bar on such issues.     Keep up the good work everyone...And don't get discouraged if a troll contacts you.  Handle it professionally.   Knowledge and tact always succeed, instead of lowering oneself to the basal levels of some of these people.  By responding to them academically and philosophically, using assertive facts and evidence, we can ultimately beat them at their own game and provide some great information to our rational membership at the same time.  My late father, God bless his soul, always said;  "Cream rises to the top, Bob..." So true....Take care....

 

Robert A. Young, freelance writer of energy and public affairs, pensioned Philadelphia police investigator and instructor currently living on his family's land at Mile High Meadows and Young's Return Farms;   Bradford County, Pennsylvania in the heart of the Marcellus Shale Play.      

Permalink Reply by George J Boggs on July 10, 2012 at 5:09pm

Keith we welcome knowledge and respect

Permalink Reply by Jim Henderson on July 11, 2012 at 5:42am

Hi Keith

I also think it is your right to limit conversations on your site.  Have you thought about allowing us to help you with that task?  Some sites have a way that members can rate a particular entry  (like or dislike or find offensive) or another member such that when enough points are accumulated,  that entry or person is automatically removed.  Without all the fancy software, you may be able to just periodically scan for "dislike" or offensive scores and just dump the high ones.   

Thanks so much for this forum.

jim

Permalink Reply by Drill Pipe on July 11, 2012 at 6:22am
Top notch consideration!

Kudos Keith!
Permalink Reply by Stan Smith on July 12, 2012 at 3:14am

Great Keith,  I don't mind open minded discourse, however members will not always agree on every point and sometimes emotions will get out of hand... that being said, a prudent cooling down period may be indicated for those that "cross the line" .  Even those with alternate points of view can provide us with perspective which can be useful when discussing our topic.

 

Like the banner "landowner" on your thumbnail - thinking of identifing all members in that way? 

Permalink Reply by William A Thorman Jr on July 12, 2012 at 4:28am

I joined to find information and to find folks who were helpful and collegial. I am and probably will be for some time a novice in the world of mineral rights and exploration but I have found some folks on this site who never treat a question as frivolous.  Those who might be less helpful and understanding, I simply take their comments with the proverbial "grain of salt."  I appreciate your efforts , Keith, to maintain a respectful and informative venue.. Bill Thorman, Batavia

Permalink Reply by Richard T, McFall on July 12, 2012 at 5:04am

Kieth,

Keep up the good work.  GMS is a wonderful group.  

Best Regards,

Richard McFall

Permalink Reply by Larry Weaver on July 12, 2012 at 9:50am

A great idea would be to make everyone sign up with their own identity, and not some screen name. Most folks have a tendency to get bolder when they can hide behind a different name.

Permalink Reply by Frank Nesmith on July 13, 2012 at 2:58am

Thanks for doing this. We need a space to discuss our own issues and ideas. The others that came here just to fight took away from the good discussions.

Permalink Reply by Bob Moran on July 13, 2012 at 6:07am

Frank - That was brief & on target.     Keith - Thank you.

Permalink Reply by mespo man on July 13, 2012 at 12:07pm

WELL SAID WE FOR ONE SUPPORT THIS ACTION.

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