Not knowing if this will be removed.....

I have thoroughly enjoyed contributing to this forum. It has got high on my daily to do list. I have both learned a lot and enjoyed the complememts when posters responded with a kindly thanks. And that's what drives you on to keep assisting.

But what confronts me now is really hard to stomach, is demotivating and is frankly sickening. In exasperation but most of all sadness I reflect on what happened as I logged on the other night and scanned the list of members online for I could not believe what I saw. One nickname jumped out. Now a supposed wrinkly but therefore broadminded too I still cannot equate this forum's rules with what confronted me - affronted me - assaulted my senses both then and now even more so.

After some thought I wrote to 5 mods (my limit in 1 PM) but more than 12 hours later I have not had the courtesy of one reply. This is unusual. I cannot believe they don't care so can only conclude they can't do much, if anything. But what really bothers me is the lack of any response whatsoever. But we have all experienced what it's like when ops don't respond either - there is a vacuum. Now the forum mods are educated people and collectively must have huge experience of the public at large, they are not daft, so what gives here?

So continuing this train of thought and knowing I have no up-front support... this lack of re-action perplexes me for it poses a paradox when you read the rules - things which are usually keenly applied - and rightly so.

The paradox...
By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.
and...
Avoid coarse language (meaning any words you didn't hear in Sunday school)....
Of course the mods may well have to reply 'but a nickname is not a message so the first rule cannot be applied'. But surely in this case the second rule applies and I now ponder which Sunday schools tolerate such language and what is not vulgar with nicknames which doubt parentage and the worst of all, which quote female lower body parts. Remember these are nicknames, they are there up front for all to see time and again, not some tactless remark hidden in a thread which will disappear into the archives.

It may be these members set out to shock or amuse (oh, how we laughed) which serves only to show imo their lack of sophistication and or intelligence. Then again they may not have in which case I truly despair for them.

For goodness sake we are in the midst of a worldwide forum read by people of all ages and faiths where mebership is not necessary to view content. It is not some closetted seedy site of consenting adults. Would you like your children to log on and see this stuff? What would your partner think knowing how long you spend on site? There can be repercussions for pete's sake!

I have every right to log on to a worldwide public forum expecting to see normal standards of decency upheld. Should I be made to feel awkward or tense when logging on wondering what I might find?

To repeat the title of my PM to the mods - Decorum on the Forum! Please!



Sincerely,