H20 was a smashing success for a long time, even with many Moderators. The board rules were basically good common sense, and expressed some issues as to matters of law, such as not violating copyright, etc. I don't understand why H20 went down the tank.
In January 2001 H20 was still going strong. Then Rick was notified that his board was being bumped from their account and would have to find a new place to be hosted. This was fine I guess, and happens to a number of forums. When he got the new board back on line, the format was little more difficult - or at least required getting used to. I missed the older format where I could comment to a specific sub-thread. And when I read threads, the system kept track so I could see what I missed or what was new.
Now Enters Farkel: Sometime around February or March 2001 he posted on H20 that JWD was a great board. So, I checked it out, and registered. I fully planned to stay on H20 while I enjoyed being on JWD too. But somehow, as many of the H20 regulars moved over to JWD, it seemed that the H20 gang kind of didn't seem the same anymore.
Wars and rumors of wars: I heard of all kinds of nasty goings on with H20 after I got settled on JWD, with reports of Moderators running amuck, etc. But, that was not unusual, because H20 periodically had flame wars that involved Moddys, and then in the end everyone ended up apologizing, including Moddys.
March 2002: I went back to H20 to post there too, and see how things were going. Also, we had just finished the ugly wars on JWD and I was not sure how it was going to end, and was hedging my bets. ... not really, just kidding ... but I felt it was time to at least see how H20 was doing. Sadly, it was deader than a door nail. I was going to stick it out, but when I would see my old posting still on the front page after a month passed, it seemed that the lake had dried up. It was all so unnecessary.
Will JWD see the same fate? I read comments at times that JWD will face the same fate. Some recently believe that the addition of Moderators will cause JWD to end up as H20. I don't know, but it does not seem like Moderators are the problem, since H20 did well with them for a long time. Rather, I think change, of any kind, if it is drastic enough, has built in risks. If tomorrow Simon were to radically alter the board so that it was hard to use, and made lots of other major changes, it might be too much for a large collective of personalities to cope with ... but, so far, Simon has been very gracious and easy-going when introducing changes ... and so far, his formula has been a proven success.
What about H20 being resurrected to its former glory days? I think that would be great, and I would post there more often if it came back, but I would not leave JWD. Yet, I don't what the success formula is, other than observing what Simon has been doing. I feel bad for Rick, because I know he tried very hard to keep H20 running well ... nevertheless, when the majority of the regular gang moved on it wad hard for him to keep it on top.
What happened to E20, J20, NewSalem and NL2: These boards used to run fairly well, though somewhat slower than H20. Yet, if you look at them today, they are all virtual ghost towns. E20 just fizzled. J20 was taken over by Bibleman and his brand of teachings. NL2 was taken over by AGuest aka Shelby who wanted to speak messages of peace from God that no one wanted to hear, and New Salem just never seemed to get off the ground. None of these other boards were ever really Moderated ... so that does not seem to be the problem ...
The Success Formula: Whether a board is moderated does not seem to matter. People do fine whether Moddys are there or not ... though some Moderation is good to weed out the really nasty wicked stuff. So, I think the success formula is much more connected to something else ... but just what that "something else" is, I don't know ... but Simon seems to have it down well ... and so far JWD still has its MoJo baby, and I guess that is what counts.
Edited by - Amazing on 16 August 2002 23:59:24