Whats Happened to Brent Street

I share the concerns expressed by others when discussion occasionally degenerates into acrimony... for the many that frequent the site on a regular basis or that have been long term contributors, it's disappointing to find our positive contributions being tainted by the careless and disruptive behaviour of a very few individuals. The community around the site has been, if anything, tolerant to a fault of disruptive and abusive behaviour - I believe that this reflects a broader tolerance for diversity within the performing arts community. I don't believe that it's my role, or any individual's role, to cut off discussion. Experience over the past eight years has shown that attempts to restrict or stifle discussion and debate often create a disproportionate backlash. However, there are actions that, as a community, we can take to limit the impact of some of these abuses. Register, login and moderate worthless comments down. I note that a number of members have been doing this; well done! This is our way of defining collectively what we consider to be appropriate standards of behaviour. In this way the standards are not an arbitrary judgement by an individual but a democratic process in which any member can cast a vote. Arguably, if you want to protect your investment in what we're building here, then it is your responsibility to vote. I'll do my bit by tightening up the moderation routines still further so that comments that have been modded well down will not appear at all on the home page and will disappear from discussion threads. It's probably worth noting that I regard my actions on the BBM thread as calling "timeout" on abusive behaviour - not moderation. Everything that person contributed prior to timeout is still there to be read. The length of the timeout was dependent entirely on the individual; who has never asked for their access to be restored and to my knowledge hasn't returned. I'm happy to discuss this further. So do let me know if you think I'm getting this all wrong! :-) Cheers Grant