I would like to for once, have the opportunity to voice my "own" opinion about a recent event that took place here on the forum. So be WARNED: I am going to vent and not worry for once about who's feelings I hurt. I do APOLOGIZE in advance for any one I offend. Sometimes even us ADMIN have to get things off our chest.
Some of the members here know exactly what I am going to talk about, others won't have a clue as I deleted out the threads pertaining to this.
I, along with some of my very close friends, became a member of this forum over 3 years ago. At that time, there was 1 admin, NO moderators, 3 rooms, no photo's & 1200 members, most of which were
inactive. One of us Ceasarsdad, quickly became an admin, and soon after he started adding a few moderators. After some time, I also became an admin. Ceasarsdad & I worked tirelessly to clean up the forum, add rooms, run contests (in which he used his own money to pay for contest winnings), post video's, air a forum address for the members, we paid out of our pockets for conference calls to the moderators, and most importantly worked very hard to create a FAMILY FEELING.
A FAMILY FEELING in which everyone was to be treated with care, respect & dignity. We share in our members milestones both in their personal lives and their birds lives, we love and care for every bird as though it was our own. We show the deepest concern for every member of our family here. We except others differences, their ethnic backgrounds, their language barriers, their different opinions, we may not agree, in fact, we may feel very strongly that they are WRONG & we are RIGHT, however, we have always managed to share our feelings in a kind & nice way. We ACCEPT and WELCOME everyone regardless.
We have always been a family that could debate in a healthy way. Recently, that has not been happening. Our FAMILY FEELING is gone. We seem to have lost our way. We all come here for advice, help, answers to questions, to share stories, events and thoughts that non-bird owners just don't understand. We worked so hard over the last 3 years to build this forum up from the small forum it was. It is now one of the biggest and well known forums for African Greys. We have the highest of standards for a forum because of the way we have always made EVERYONE feel so special and welcome.
NONE OF US (MODS OR ADMIN) OWN THIS FORUM, NOR DO ANY OF US GET PAID FOR THE COUNTLESS HOURS WE SPEND HERE) We built this forum to what it is now: 3 admin, 1 super moderator, 8 moderators, thousands of photo's, and over 5000 members. I will not let that Family Feeling, that Family Forum go away. Ceasarsdad & I have worked too hard.
The recent flaming that went on here in the 2 days I was away was appalling to me. I will not tolerate that from any member or moderator again. I am as Jayd recently posted, "Ashamed" of our members behavior. I wished that our Moderators had been doing their job.....
Some of you may feel I am 'reprimanding' you, as a member recently complained, but I REALLY don't care if you feel that way or not. My advice to any member, is if you don't want to agree to our code of ethics, then LEAVE and find some other forum where you can have your fun.
This member that was verbally abused is FredGrey. FredGrey recently joined after being a 'lurker' for a long time. He has over 20 years experience with birds. He owns a conure and was lurking here to learn as much as he could about greys which he wants to adopt. He finally decides to join our FAMILY. He saw the thread where a member complained about a company and not receiving their order, (more on this to come later) he was only trying to help that member in explaining that 'Processing" can take time......well that member went off the deep end, and decided that FredGrey was the owner of that company. Other members jumped on that band wagon and took off with insults and accusations aimed solely at FredGrey. No where did FredGrey EVER say he was connected with the company. I had read that thread numerous times. I never could understand WHY members would think that. You sided with a member who had 244 posts without even using your own mind to decide if FredGrey was or was not the owner of the company. Why? Because it was his first post and didn't post in the Welcome Room first???
Well, I will tell you, that that is a HORRIBLE way to Welcome a new member! Just because he didn't post in the Welcome Room?....well BIG DEAL....SO WHAT??? Many don't post there first, or at all. IT IS NOT A REQUIREMENT TO POST IN THE WELCOME ROOM WHEN YOU JOIN!!! :mad:
Now you chased away a member that had years of experience that he could share with us. I am sure he has much to offer in helping us based on his years of owning birds. What a GREAT asset he would have been to this family. Of course, you can only imagine how upset and hurt he feels. His first impression of us is one, in which he feels that if your opinions or beliefs don't match ours, then your not welcome. I don't blame him, that's how he was made to feel.
How do I know all this? Because I have been in contact with him. I have had to apologize to him numerous times for YOUR behavior. I am trying hard to convince him to reconsider us as his family, but unfortunately he has reservations at this time.
If you bothered to read this post in it's entirety, then I thank you. But this type of treatment on this forum as long as I am admin is unexceptable....
Sincerely, Talon/ Penny