I'd be willing to be a moderator.

I do agree. It's been a cold bath for us when we realised mersar had been kept busy with other things for such a long time. I don't know mersar's story, whether it is his workload ratcheting up or family life consuming more of his time, but it is an embarrassment for us here.

This used to be a daily part of my routine since 2001. Nothing too new to add to the discussion, but in case it helps to show some consensus, here are the reasons I personally rarely visit here any more and have moved my attention to the other forum. The economy has zero to do with it.

1. There were 2/3 posters on here who were allowed to created an absolutely toxic environment. Any attempt at actual discussion was quickly derailed with drive-bys, or trollish "questions" meant only to stir the pot. With zero moderation, these trolls were allowed to flourish and killed the good vibes.

2. Because of this toxic environment and zero moderation, the posters who added the most insight and had the deepest connections to the industry left or rarely post. There was less incentive to visit because of this.

3. Surrealplaces left this forum and took his fantastic updates...to be replaced by shitty and poorly sized cell phone shots taken from cars. There's no more eye candy.

He's a lot different. O-tac is one of the biggest trolls here. He'll carpet bomb this place with attack posts and then turn around and blame others for ruining the forum for being off topic.

Not trying to pick on you specifically, but I think this is one of the problems with the forum. There's a misconception that there's nothing at SRC but photo updates and therefore the problem here has to be trolls that cause off topic debates. That's certainly part of it, but not all of it. If it's regarding construction or development, there's actually much more discussion at SRC than there is here. There isn't as much debate, but there is constant difference of opinion, and it tends to be civil for some reason. It's one of the reasons I like to go there. I don't think folks realise how many people have left to that site, and are contributing there.

I came to this site originally because SSP was the only site in town that had construction and development info. I didn't come for the all the other topics, and the lively debate, civil or uncivil. Because SSP was the only place around town, you had members ranging from Suburbia, to Josh White, to Rusty Van something, to Corndogger to Fusili. All kinds of people held together because they had no other choice.

SRC came along and it was more what I was originally looking for, and I know that's the case with a some of others. SRC has a few members who were lurkers here, and lurked because they only wanted specific info.

I'm not trying to convince anyone to switch to SRC, those who like SRC became active there a while ago, and I doubt those still here will switch, it's not what they're looking for. For those here it might help to understand why some of us left. Part of it's because of trolls and off topic debate, and part of it is because there's another site more focused on what were interested in. I respect that SSP has a large variety of topics and for those still here, that's what they want.

I wasn't going to say this before because I know he was well liked, but I always thought SP leaving is one of the reasons for the fall of the forum. Part of this is on him.

To sum it up. IMO, reasons for why the forum's taken a dive.
Lack of moderation
A half dozen trolls and useless personalities
The economy being slow.
Surrealplaces

Stop talking about SRC, you, yourself said that no more people are likely to switch over, so it’s a non-issue. Let’s stick to what’s happening at SSP.

That’s rich coming from you Dogger.

Great plan as long one of the moderators isn’t one of the following
Suburbia
Deepstar
Corngigger
Bad Grizzly
Geotag
Octacular
Suburgatory
Northern

Judging by all the arguments in the past those guys are too biased to be a moderator.

Nm

He was trying to make some points, and IMO he did. If this forum is going to improve it wouldn’t hurt to look at SRC and see what they are doing right, because from what I can see they are doing some things right. I just spent an hour there and there’s plenty of discussion. I also noticed plenty of disagreements but somehow it stays civil so it can’t hurt to see what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.

Those who want to be a moderator should put up their hand so to speak, and if there are multiple people maybe there can be a poll? I'm not going to name names, but there are some people who shouldn't be a mod. Rather than appoint someone people don't like, let people vote in a poll.

You made a good point about SSP being the only site in town. Back in the day when you had good contributors, a lot of that might have been because it was the only site. Most of what I would call the good contributors are at gone, but I think only one of those people (Surreal)is over at SRC the rest of all just disappeared. SRC might be part of the reason for the downfall here but I don’t think it’s the only reason it’s just one of many.

Define contributors. Are we not all contributors? Everyone who posts is contributing in some way.

BlaineN is willing to be a moderator, geotag277 has endorsed.

Is there anyone else that would like to be a moderator?

Perhaps some of you could ask the forumers that migrated to SRC if they would willing to come back as a moderator.

We're all technically contributors, but I meant members who actually bring something in the way of photos or info, etc.. Info that answers questions or generates conversation. These are the members I would've considered the prime contributors.

Josh White - general all around info
Fusili - zoning and planning info
Surrealplaces - photo updates, renderings, permit info.
Bokimon - renderings
Unibrain - permit info
Dizzy Edge - historical background info
Malcolm Tucker - numbers man
Chadillac - photo updates

Just so everyone knows where I'm coming from on this. I'm interested mainly in keeping the main threads (construction, aviation, Green Line, roads, New Arena) on topic. Threads like politics or the art debate will be more open. I don't have any desire to censor posts unless they aren't part of the topic of those main threads, or they are a personal attack on someone.

I for one welcome our BlaineN overlord.

Honestly just moving offtopic posts to the appropriate threads and deleting personal attacks is pretty much all that is needed.

:cheers: hahaha Kent Brockman never gets old!