Im already seeing - on statements that are quality content...just because people dont agree they reflect it negatively. like in the forum change....i get marked negatively by a member that obv is above everyone else. its gonna be a popularity contest. there are old school members here that dont understand forums and realize it is a gathering of people discuss whatever the forum is about. i can say this now...i wont be apart of this if its gonna be like "scientific knowledge only" or topics about "why dark rocks make a certain snail produce more offspring". everything doesn't have to be so serious all the time...people need to chill out. look at martin. he has a sense of humor..makes joke posts....thats the way it should be. people need to get with the times...
The old school members are the ones that created this forum, volunteer their time to maintain it, moderate it, and have slowly begun throwing their arms up and walking away from it and the organization. It has nothing to do with how to function within a community,or how some people think an internet forum that has had a relatively clear direction since day one should work. This isn't a bunch of dinosaurs lagging behind in social media, emoticons, slang, and random 140 character or less thoughts about native fish. Those members never even joined the forum in the first place. The fact is many of us don't NEED the forum to enjoy NANFA and native fish. If I want to talk to Todd, I send him an email. In fact, most of my communication with NANFA members exist solely outside of the public view of forum.
I personally like the suggestion of changing the distinction between forum members and NANFA members to make a little more explicit distinction, so I'm giving it a positive vote. That certainly isn't a popularity contest, that is giving kudos to a valid point. If it does turn into one, I'd imagine I'll recieve many negative votes or have somewhat of a nuetral rating, since I rarely contribute things to vote positively on like identification assistance and inverts anymore. If my reputation is tarnished so be it, no sweat off my back. It's the internet. This has been a great way to spend parts of my paternity leave while my newborn son sleeps; pondering why I come here, not coming here for days, since after all it was assumed I'm wasting tax payer dollars with my ample "free" time by visiting the board to rant while on the clock.