Negativity is a destructive force....

People like Gordon and Don and others who post here in order to GIVE something of VALUE for FREE to ENRICH and HELP OTHERS are so often victimized by people who simply have no motive other than to destroy and devalue their gifts of wisdom and experience.

Therefore, it will always be a risk for the Gordons and Dons of the world to "spill their guts" and expose the treasure they hold, for the benifit of those who can truly be enriched. It's sad irony.

Dien, do what you have to in order to make this forum as safe as possible. Delete posts. Ban isp's. We appreciate all you have accomplished with this forum, that has given me, for one, so much life-changing inspiration. I hope Gordon will continue to bravely share his stories and that Don will be persuaded to come back and amaze us with his ingenious ideas. Yes, often they are casting their pearls before swine. But there's a lot of us here who are truly appreciative of all they have to offer. I'm sorry there's no fool-proof way of separating the wheat from the chaff of those who respond, other than to make the forum private.

I hope it won't come to that.

Anya.

> I re-read Gordon's story, of the girl in the
> red plaid flannel shirt....

> Like Jesse said, it's amazing that what some
> people get from such a wonderful, true story
> is negativity....

> But let's move on.

> There's a certain automatic reaction of
> wanting to put others down, usually to make
> yourself feel good. By putting others down,
> you can feel superior to them, and therefore
> raise your own self-esteem a little....

> But it is a sad way to have to do it. It is
> totally destructive.

> Anyone who has been on these online forums
> for at least a few years would probably
> agree, the general quality has gone down. In
> this respect, Gordon and I have tried to
> keep Sowpub as an "oasis" in the
> midst of this trend....

> Why has the quality gone down? Let's go
> through some examples....

> Bill Myers used to run a top-notch FREE
> forum, like this one. It was full of very
> high quality posts - the ideas were
> incredible!

> But then, these attacks came about. As a
> result, Bill sold his forum.

> Now, he still runs a great forum - on his
> private, members-only web site. You can
> still get great discussions - if you pay $87
> per year. (And it's worth every penny.) If
> you break the rules, you'll get booted out.

> The point is - negativity killed a great
> FREE resource.

> More recently, Don Alm has been posting many
> incredible, blockbuster ideas. But, he found
> the same thing - attacks from the
> negative-minded. The result? Don's not
> posting his great ideas any more - another
> excellent resource, wrecked by
> negative-minded people.

> And finally, we come to yesterday.... I hope
> Gordon will keep posting, but now I'm not
> sure he will. Yet another "victim"
> of the negative minded.

> What I have to say about the negative-minded
> folk is - we really don't want them at
> Sowpub. They are destructive. They wreck
> things for everybody.

> I'm going to be much tougher on deleting
> such negative posts from now on, and tougher
> on banning people too if they violate the
> guidelines.

> Sorry to have to get "tough" - but
> I see no other way for this forum to survive
> as a high quality free resource.

> - Dien Rice