Are the US sites still running SP Lounges?

If anyone believed the Canadians are very friendly, they may have to rethink that if they ever decide to participate on a Canadian review board. It might be quite a shock.

I made an attempt to run my own review site earlier this year but decided to shut-it-down after the endless chaos of people bringing non-stop drama from other people's websites. It was difficult to get people to work together to build something new.

A lot issues actually came from the SP lounge. There were about a dozen SP's that decided to bring their personal wars from the other websites. They came in with expedition that we were responsible for solving problems and conflicts from SP Lounges on on other websites.

3 review sites and one advertising website all decided they had enough drama and all 3 shutdown their SP lounges. The admins of those sites felt it was impossible to get the situation under control and opted to do away with their SP Private Lounges rather than trying to resolve any of the issues between their advertising SP's.

The intention of the SP private forums are intended to provide a space for SP's to exchange safety information and references. The admins in Canada have difficult time keeping personal wars (disputes would be an understatement) from undermining the lounge. Groups of SP's would try to block other SP's from participating in the SP lounges. The outcome of those fights spanned across websites all across Canada.

Here's the questions I have:

- Do any of the sites in the US have SP private Lounge forums?
- Are the US sites having more success with managing their SP private forums? If so, what are the US sites doing differently to keep their SP Private Lounge forums running professionally and with minimal drama/chaos?

They are hosted off shore, AFAIK there is very little moderation on TER anymore, so maybe the ladies police themselves. Maybe they can answer better...

We just saw a mod shut down a discussion on another board that got way off topic, a lady was posting under many handles, posing as a guy, trying to slam other ladies, and gathering info on competitors, so yeah, it does happen in the US...

Three answers

We have them on this very site, and admittance to those areas are on a qualified basis
We have lady moderators that handle any messes in there
We have a very strong set of site guidelines that all members of the site agree to follow. When they don't we are forced to take action

http://www.eccie.net/announcement.php?f=5

Our staff is here to assist you and to help you to get the most from your experience here at ECCIE. Those who conduct themselves in accordance with our guidelines should experience little to no direct interaction with our staff other than to guide you in the right direction when you're in need. It's also our goal to prevent members who adhere to our guidelines from becoming distracted by those who do not. In keeping with this, we are committed to guiding the flow of discussions and preventing disruptions when they exist. We hope to avoid disciplinary actions against our members, but we also understand their necessity when warnings or written directions have proven ineffective or disregarded. In such cases, we will use progressive measures (warning point system) with the intent of correcting inappropriate behaviors and educating our members on acceptable conduct.

Some that deal with the specific issues you mentioned

#1 - Avoid cases of unprovoked rudeness to others. No place for it here. Yes, with the dynamic nature of the threads and topics, tempers will flare and things will become heated from time to time. You may often encounter individuals who become passionate or emotional when expressing one's opinion or point of view. That's all understood and perfectly acceptable within reason…….but, start slamming or bashing another member and be met with consequences.

#3 - Disrespect to others, IN GENERAL, will be considered an item of low tolerance, especially when posting in our coed forums. Follow the Golden Rule and treat others as you wish to be treated yourself. This applies to fellow members as well as staff. We do not require that you have respect for us, but we do require that you treat us respectfully in the public forums. If you feel the need to vent, gripe, or blow off some steam regarding a staff member's action or decision, we ask that you keep it private. Email, RTM, or the PM system would be the appropriate avenue to take in such cases. In cases where you would like to request additional clarity about a staff decision, you are free to pursue an answer in either a public forum or private means of communication. If handled publicly, post your inquiry in a respectful manner.

#14 - Our moderating staff monitors the forums with the goal of keeping threads on track and on topic. Occasionally we may issue specific instructions or direction to a poster and we ask that you respect those instructions and follow them. Disregarding a moderator's written instruction or repeating a violation for which you have been warned will most certainly result in penalty.

#20 - The men and women of our board each have their respective private areas in which secure content is posted and a greater freedom of expression allowed. Each member is responsible for keeping the information in any of the private secure areas (Men's Lounge, Provider Powder Room, The Rest of the Story, posts which have been tagged as private) 100% restricted to the members who are intended to have access to that material. Revealing ANY content which was posted in one of the men's or women's private sections of the board will result in penalty, up to and including loss of your access to these areas. Full cooperation may result in a less severe penalty, and each violation will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Repeated infractions will impact the severity of punishment.

#27 - ECCIE policy regarding the discussion of competing websites is intended to exhibit a straight-forward and simple approach. We do not disallow mention of other sites here at ECCIE, however we ask that you limit those discussions to the "Other Hobby Sites" thread located in the Member Suggestions and Feedback forum. This is the area that we have designated as being an appropriate outlet for these types of discussions. Posts of this nature made in other forums throughout the board will be merged into this location. If you find these types of posts in your local forums, please use the RTM function to report them to staff.

#31 - Often times in the hobby arena, members may display a tendency towards bringing their conflicts with other members to the board. This will be strongly discouraged and swift effort will be made to put it to rest. Additionally, staff will make every effort to stay uninvolved in conflicts and disputes between members off the board except in such cases where the board becomes directly affected.

#33 - We ask that all members who participate here acquaint themselves with these guidelines and familiarize themselves with the location of the RTM button (white triangle with exclamation point, outlined in red) Our staff are not on duty 24/7 and unfortunately are not always readily available to right the ship, put out fires, or address rule violations when they occur. We need to work together, staff and members, to maintain a comfortable atmosphere in the forums. It is vital that you bring inappropriate posts to the attention of staff using the RTM function when it appears that a staff member has not yet become involved. This will greatly help in our mission to provide the ideal environment for our members to interact with one another.

The problems we have Canada are due to Admins other group not really enforcing standards or providing special treatment to specific advertisers.

If they have someone they perceive as having higher credibility they provide them with special treatment under the rules even when their doing something wrong.

The outcome of "playing favorites" is pretty big mess that's hard to manage.

It's good to see your site is being very strict about it's rules. It's actually the cleanest and most well managed site I've seen in the US.