One sceming member can bring down a forum. Put up members against eachother, spread distrust and angst. Especially if it is done behind the scenes via pm and email, a lot of damage can be done. Has happened, and the less open a forum is, the easier it can be done.
Seen it done, been there when it's being done. Nasty thing.
How is it done? Can the member go around speading the word saying bad things about the place so no one joins?
WP is such a big place so I doubt she can tell everyone in the world to not join it. All they have to do is look up "asperger forums" and WP pops up and they will join it anyway.
No, it's done internally - an established and respected member can put a sly word here, a cunning post there, a few PMs, and within a week or two of starting to be a cunt, they can get parts of the membership hating either another part, or a specific member. Ever read a post and come away feeling offended, but you've no idea why - there's no specific point, phrase or sentence which is offensive, but the whole thing just makes you want to punch them in the face?
Of course, it's worse when you've got two of these people, working one against the other, as we did at AFF - it's even worse when you're taken along for the ride and you don't realise it.
Over time, the "feel" of the forum becomes.....nasty. New people are chased away, anyone who steps out of line is dogpiled. From that point on, it's just a matter of time before the forum dies, unless some major, major bannings take place - and even then, it might not do much good.
And seeing how in-transparent WP policy is about banning and such, WP looks like the perfect candidate for this to happen. All behind the scenes. Here, the talking about WP happens in the open, but not all members will be venting in the open, too afraid to be banned maybe. The fear is already there. The lack of trust too. Plus the knowing that you are not allowed to ask questions. Things can go putrid in no-time. Just takes one or two manipulating members with some online social skills.
All bolded where I fit.
Hey ever since sins has been demodded, there has been more suicide threads. Sinsboldly had a thing against them and would send them PMs and accuse them of trolling or drawing attention, etc. and ban them by changing their passwords or whatever. She did that too Preater. He was unable to login his account.
I'd rather the suicide threads there than at AFF - though truth be told, if we think they are serious we just call the police in their country , pass on IP and ISP information, and talk to the poster until they either go offline or it becomes apparent that they are lying bastards.
Hyke is correct - because there is zero transparency there, and the TOS are rigidly adhered to with little or no leeway, it's ripe for abuse - I like to think that the moderation at AFF is quite open (though I don't really know), and it's open at Spectrumites -the admins and moderators there will explain why they've done something, and any inconstancy is explained and justified (with...a few exceptions, but lets leave that aside). If it got any more transparent here, stuff would start falling out
<------- the guests who keep visiting this forum, yet somehow they don't register an account.