Something needs to change or everyone is just going to stop coming on here all together. Everyone I know has pretty much stop using the forums because of all the negativity. I feel like these forums have always been so informative,entertaining and engaging. It would be such a shame if one lame duck brings down the whole thing. I don't think paying would work, but linking your profile to your Facebook account would. Secondly, this isn't a democracy, it's a business and if I owned this website I would ban a couple users for sure. Eventually this guy is going to start effecting your pocketbook and why would you want that? I say trim the fat.
Agree with this. I think the idea of having a forum for discussing MTB on the North Shore is fantastic. But as a DNV resident who rides a bike on the shore, I can't participate in this forum very much if at all without getting a really bad taste in my mouth.
I wouldn't lay it all on 'Uncle Scrooge' as I got really turned off this forum around the time of the Lee/Woodro slappy fight. Once that had died down I started going to nsmb.com a bit more again, as the content on the front page is generally great and I enjoy the writing. But if I'm on the site I'll eventually click the forum link - and now the really nasty tone of trolls like 'scrooge' is giving me an even worse taste than the ridiculous Lee/Wood thing did.
As someone who has participated in many different internet forums for years, I find that while people bitch about a heavy handed moderation strategy, at some point it becomes necessary. I appreciate that the NSMB mods are staying true to an original vision for the forum, but this place isn't 'big' enough to survive that kind of hands-off approach, especially when it's become the vehicle of choice for some really fucked up peoples' weird agendas.
Eventually enough people get turned off and give up and the forum goes dead. It basically already has in my view. I'm sure there are traffic stats that could prove or disprove this.
tl;dr would love to read and participate on these forums more, but can't until the trolling is reduced. Hope that happens soon.