This clears up all the confusion and certainly makes us feel safer. Thanks so much for posting this.

Thank you for replying Jesse, you have answered all of my questions anyway. Its just the issue we had that someone ASSUMED the position with consulting members and I think that this is the worry
The Organiser

No problem.

I've gone ahead and closed the other posts surrounding this issue.

I'll do my best to get back to this post a little later on.

We appreciate you taking the time to reply.
Thanks for clarifying!
Lucy

so thats it closed topic and all those members that didnt want a moderator - seems the posts were moderated anyway - thank you for the information jesse but was quite aware that no CL per se had been officially appointed and that there is a report abuse button - i do hope you will enlighten us further as to whether the group will have a CL if someone chooses to apply for such a position - as I guess that is the main question - people discussed and basically applied for CL positions that somehow others didnt know they could apply for as well - this is the main issue i saw anyway. with thanks jd :-)

Jane, you are mistaken. The issue was not if you could apply to be CL of this group but rather whether or not the members wanted a CL. We were told by certain members that they had Doug's permission to Moniter or Oversee this site and that they had indeed been doing so unbeknownst to most members. This is what the issue was about. They also claimed to have the right to close posts etc.. It has been cleared up now. We all can watch out fore one another to whatever extent we wish and can report abuse directly to Doug through the abuse button. That is what Jesse is saying as far as we understand.

7Jane,
The board and posts weren't moderated.
It was me who, at your suggestion, notified DS of the problems here on the board. I notified the community that I wrote a message to DS asking for clarity about moderators under the post "Mod Issue-DS Questions"
Lucy

We never had CL's, we never applied for CL's, we never had the ability or desire to close any discussions, nor have any of us claimed that right.

OK,
So, maybe if Jesse checks back he could answer a few more questions for us? Here are a few that are on my mind:
1.)Does DS even have Moderators?
2.)If so how do Moderators get chosen?
3.)Is there a difference between a CL and a Mod?
4.)Does the community get a vote or do a few members decide for themselves moderators are appropriate, or does DS make this decison?

I was told to moderate the board by Doug, way before there were CL's, I have no ability to ban members or close discussions. It was simply a matter of looking over the boards, welcoming new people, watching for trolls, etc. That is ALL. I did not announce myself to every person because as you know people come and go on this board with regularity. That is all. Very simple. Now I am going back to lurking. thank you very much.

Catslave you said that you was told, but why wasnt the remaining members asked? thats our issue. I have been a member on this forum on and off since 2006 and I just find it an issue that people are assuming its okay to do this. Then those that express there opinions are getting treated very unfairly. Thanks to silvers accusations of my friend being an abuser (which she really should know better) she doesnt feel comfortable coming on this board without letting it rip.

As we have said before we really should have been asked this is our issue

Listen I want to say this also, I really really like this forum, me and my littles have found some really worthwile friends, its just really ashame that all this has come up. We just have a problem with the assumed athority in this forum

Thanks catslave,
Now that things have changed, and it seems DS has new protocol for CL's and maybe moderators (? don't know abou that one) I would still like a response to my earlier posted questions from DS. That way we can all have a clear understanding of how these things work.
I trust DS and prefer to follow current protocol where the rules that I consented to when I became a member are clearly stated on the site, rather than the protocol created by a few of my peers without my knowledge nor consent.
Lucy

Cl's, Moniters, Moderators, whatever you want to say, is it not just semantics? And of the three claiming to be Mods, there was mention of banning and deleting posts as part of what they would do. We do not want to waste DS's time but they have all the posts if they choose to read them. We do not think that is needed though as Jesse cvleared this up yesterday.

we weren't going to post any more on this topic but realized today we didn't post this so our apologies - we wrote to ds and requested someone poke their head in here and clear this up. don't know if that's why jesse dropped in but want to say that's what we did.


we still feel it was wrong for people to assume positions of authority w/o saying anything at the time they did it - that has always been our issue - nothing else.


we think it is vital to the safety and welfare of everyone on this board more than anywhere due to the abuse issues that anyone in a position of authority, w/or w/o the official ok of ds to say that is what s/he is doing. anything else is underhanded and infantilizes us all. we all need to be supported but that support needs to help us find our voice and to stand up for ourselves, individually or collectively.


the fact that this has become such an issue underscores how important it is to many here. we are weary and do not know how to make our point more clear, it is not about what was done, it is about how it was done. we felt as if we had gone to bed in the US one night and woke up in a dictatorship the next morning.


even if we were the only one who felt that way we felt it important to speak up because when we were small we could never speak up and we vowed we would never let that happen again.


we hope no one is upset that we didn't post this earlier, we thought we had. but to make it clear, we did write to ds and ask that someone visit the board and help us.


the people