Matt asked: The trouble is, Matt, we don't see every post on every thread on every board...

...so I don't see a problem in members raising an issue publicly, as long as it's not done in an offensive manner. Moderators have been accused of being too heavy-handed, and not getting involved enough, but we do what we can, when we can, and simply try to keep the wheels turning smoothly - which, mostly, they do! :)

All the members, including mods, have jobs, families, etc, and we're also spread across thousands of miles and several time zones, all of which impinges on everyone's input here.

What Quincy said is spot on.

Jayne

Yes, thank you Ann. I mst have. Man in the Long Grass'. David, if you see this, sell me a signed copy. Amazon is a last resort.

Ah I see I should have persevered with Ann's post. Moneywinging its way Margatewards, David.

Hi Jayne,

I do appreciate that mods can't see everything and that they have a limited amount of time available. I wasn't suggesting everything was left to the mods, but more that it might be better if members referred grievances and accusations of misconduct against other members to the mods rather than trying to sort them out themselves.

I don't mean things like politely pointing out minor infringements or points of information "did you notice that you've posted that poem 6 days after the last one" or "by the way did you know you can't post your first poem until you've posted 15 crits and you've only posted 10", "please can you show the original poem as well as the revision" and so on. I'm more talking about members telling each other off, making accusations of misconduct, of wrongdoing: members standing in judgement over one another. That just doesn't seem like a great idea to me. Lots of potential for ill-will, arguments etc., with no one actually having the power to enforce anything. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are positives to it too.

In the guidelines it says this:

I had always taken this to mean that public confrontation/accusations by members about other member's conduct was to be avoided. Quite possibly I've misunderstood this, or it no longer implies.

All the best,

-Matt

You're not wrong, Matt, and members often do tip us the wink when there's a bit of trouble brewing or something needs dealing with.

But it's impossible to stop those who are outraged by something and can't hold back from saying so to the ''offender''!

Inevitably, we also get the deliberate trouble-makers (trolls) once in a while; they aren't always readily identifiable, so it's necessary to be a bit circumspect sometimes...

All in all, though, regarding the ''State of the Sphere" I find it a great place to be, where I've made lots of really good friends. :)
Long may it continue.

Jayne

I should also mention that thread reports are pretty uncommon. We get maybe one per month. While I don't want to outright suggest that members use the "report" function more often, it is a good way to catch a mod's attention in the span of (usually) a few hours.

Jayne,

Yes, I like being here too, the majority of the time, and I'm very glad the Sphere exists and persists. Perhaps we should occasionally have a thread devoted to what we like about this place? :)

- Matt

It occurs to me that another advantage of a password-protected forum would be that there wouldn't be a need to prune it -- though possibly people would want their work pruned at some point anyway.

Matt,

No, you haven't misunderstood. That's how it's supposed to be. But it's a universal truism that those most zealous in wanting rules enforced tend not to follow the rules themselves. Just today, I heard about a case of a legislator a couple years ago. He'd zealously led the fight against medical marijuana. Then he got busted with an ounce of his own. By his own state's police. While driving... ;)

Best,

Bill

We can overdo the negative. Here's some high praise for Eratosphere in the Swarthmore Phoenix from Ian Hoffman:

"Is the fact that [Hoffman] emailed the poem via Internet, instead of writing it out with his hands, more important a gesture to analyze, in historical terms, than the fact that Hoffman credits Internet forums such as Eratosphere and the broad community of published and amateur poets he found there as being inherently crucial to the development of his craft?"

http://swarthmorephoenix.com/2014/09...to-the-poetry/

On a separate note, we recently kicked around the journalism vs. poetry theme across the fence on Jake Sheff's 'Ode on Christmas' Keats' here.

The Sphere is exhausting.

RM