I'm getting so incredibly fed up with the bullshit I find each and everyday on the forum, in my PM and in my mailbox, I'm seriously wondering why I keep the forum alive.

Some of you simply don't seem to understand you have the choice not to read some messages, but instead they must mix themselves in a discussion, creating a mess, and then leave it to me to try to clean it up. A lot of you suggested moderators. Well, moderators will not get rid of the problem, they will not change the attitude of the people.

I've requested several times now to keep it civilised, if you see something that you don't like, ignore it, or email me and I'll have a look at it.

But that hardly happens. People expect me to read every single message on the forum. Well folks, I don't. And I'm not going to.

But something has to change. And it has to change fast because like I said, I'm rapidly loosing the enthousiasm and patience I once had running this forum. So this is what I'll do:

1) From now on, as soon as I spot a thread which has the potential of turning into a flamewar, I'll close it immediately.

2) If that doesn't help, I'll close the T/OT section (because that seems to be the source of a lot of flamewars).

3) If flamewars still persist, I'll close the forum.

I'm very sorry if I'm "pulling rank" here, but if you just saw the total and utter BS I receive daily by email and PM, perhaps you would understand better.

Sometimes we can all get a little immature and childlike. Me definately included . Other times, people will start an innocent thread, however, within the wording, it opens the door to others (again, me included) for a potential twist on the topic that leads to the unnecessary flame wars.

Sometimes, I feel we don't see the negative impact that could have or how others may jump on it further down the road.

The more people that join and become active on the forum, the more likely there are going to be arguments, disagreements or not seeing eye to eye with another/other member/members.

Add to the fact, we do not have the ability because of the internet to see the others body expressions, hear their emotional content (whether to take it serious or funny), tonal pitches, a twitch of a smile or that of grief, etc., and it add's inadvertently to the problem. Something innocent gets construed by the wording as something as an attack when it wasn't.

I myself prefer and attempt to be funny when ever I can and sometimes, I do get serious, or twist a comment to accomplish that (sometimes with the wrong effect). And sometimes, yes, I can be an a$$. I believe we all can. Instant a$$hole, just add a good topic.

I hope that you will not or will never come to where you have to close down the forum, especially OT. It would be a loss to those who don't get into the wars. I have gotten to know a lot of great people and who they are by how they communicate in OT that I feel I could easily talk to now and who know me enough as I do them to be easily approached.

All and all, I feel we are still a close knit family, except sibling rivelary with the occasional wrestling between siblings does occur. Yet, they may argue one point and help them out the next.

But this is your forum and you have the right to do what you feel best. Hopefully, its not done in haste or out of frustration.

Ummmmmm? By the way, what channel does your "Film's at 11" occur on as I do have satellite? Kind of interested in the news report!

Hopefully somebody (IT people) will be able to help me out in OT on information I need on an IBM AS400 system that I was getting ready to write. NO FLAMES PLEASE!

I hope nobody feels I'm trying to censor stuff here. I still feel everybody is entitled to their own opinion and to voice it. And it's still your forum. But, IMO there's a good way to voice your opinion and there's a bad way.

I'm not the big boss around here. You are. I hate it when people write "Cliff should ban you for that", or "Cliff will take care of you". No I don't. You do. I hardly ever ban people or close/delete threads just because I want to. I do so because I look at the number of complaints a certain person or thread is getting. Not complaints buried in some thread, but PMs and emails. If I don't receive (m)any complaints about a person, I will not ban him - no matter how much I dislike the person. If I don't receive complaints about a thread, I will not close it - no matter how disgusted I am with its contents.