Although I do not condone slanderous comments made just for 'the H..l of it' I do take a slightly jaundiced view of the Mod's comments regarding other Forums. Now it may be that other caravan Forums are full of gentle messages but most certainly Forums across the spectrum are anything but. Many of those attached to national newspapers for instance sometimes get totally outside even normal street language and often describe the newspaper itself as...well I won't go into details. Names of people and Companies are regularly mentioned in usually a very negative light. I have also seen messages finshed with the comment..'sue me if you dare'.
Now I am not suggesting a total free for all, but a totally sanitised Forum will die the death very rapidly through boredom. I gather from comments both from Mods and others, that the Forum mechanism is so old it has Alexander Graham Bell written on it, sorry Alex no offence intended. So if PC Magazine is serious about keeping the Forum then they should update it as soon as possible and include mechanisms to prevent 'trolls'. Use some of that advertising revenue, there is plenty enough in the magazine. At least then if messages are posted from genuine people if the message is a bit out of hand, it can easily be stopped and the poster barred for good if need be. Instead of using just an e mail for registration the form should show name and address, then substitute e mails can easily be spotted. Other Forums happily use this method and if you wish to participate, then you accept the rules.
I think the one thing most people enjoyed about this particular Forum was its variety of subjects and the fact that a lot of the 'gizmos' were not present. Ok, if means making it work better, then get the gizmos. I also fully accept that when I first started I thought some of the messages, particularly in 'chit chat' a bit silly, then I gradually realised that they were being submitted from people who were very genuine and I began to enjoy, and appreciate them more and more. Some subjects I accept do nothing for me, for instance I am not a dog lover, but to each their own. I also accept that there are subjects that are considered 'sensitive' But these are the subjects that are probably most important to everyone, and refusing discussion does not make them go away. So there has to be a way to balance all these objectives. It is stated by many, Mods included, that we live in a PC world, (no pun intended) but I think I would prefer to go back to the very un-PC world where I stood on my own 2 feet and survived quite happily, plus the lawyers were not so rich. As many members have probably spotted I currently spend a lot of time in Hungary, which is very un-PC indeed, EU not withstanding. It is very refreshing to go back to what we used to have, where girls were girls and boys were...,well what they always were. Oops, am I being un-PC again??
So PC Mag, as holders of this Forum the ball is pretty much in your court as to how things progress.
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