Nominally, I was put in charge a while back, as whoever was in charge of it at the time didn’t want to be involved any more, and there was a need for something to be done related to the software/server (I can’t quite remember) - which is where Joerg was involved.
There was a LOT of controversy at the time, as I put in place a team of (volunteer, non DD) moderators and admins - some of the community decided that this was a restriction of their free speech, branded me a nazi, and split off to make their own “competitor” forums. I didn’t want to be particularly involved after all of that, and made this clear to the team and those involved. I did ask for assistance in various places at the time, but to no avail. I’ve voiced my opinion on multiple occasions that it should be taken down, or taken over by someone with the will to work on it, but whilst no ones been willing to step up and take it on, the general consensus was that it would be better to exist than to not. Last I left the forums, it was being led by a small team of admins and mods who cad proven themselves as competent and capable, and I had left them to manage this on their own, with a request to reach out to me if they needed assistance. The forums are a “community” forums, not official “Debian” forums, so it’s hard to lead - those who are toxic within the official community get dealt with via DAM or similar, but minuscule actions on the forums have previously led to “outcry” (threats of brigading complaints to DAM/DPL about me, for example). I honestly don’t think that the forum is worth it, and I think it would be safer if there were more DDs involved, rather than just the community. > On 29 Mar 2021, at 16:04, Steve McIntyre <93...@debian.org> wrote: > > On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 07:58:33AM -0700, Felix Lechner wrote: >> Hi, >> >>> On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 7:34 AM Steve McIntyre <93...@debian.org> wrote: >>> >>> It's better to do something about >>> that up-front (ideally by provoking people to step up) than wait for >>> bad things to happen. >> >> I agree with that sentiment, but in light of other efforts to limit >> public discourse—such as shortening the discussion period on a >> controversial GR—it seems poor timing to shut down a public forum. > > Is that you volunteering to be an admin, then...? > > -- > Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. st...@einval.com > "I can't ever sleep on planes ... call it irrational if you like, but I'm > afraid I'll miss my stop" -- Vivek Das Mohapatra >
