Michael, I am sorry it has come to this.

This board started very well, and has a strong history of self-management, in the main.  The membership here all recognise the amount of work you put in to setting it up.

However, I can't agree that things recently have been well run.  The decision to move IGI's poll off view can't be justified.  This did the reputation of this board no favours, although you seem to have a bucket over your head about this?

I remain here as a member in the hope that things can be returned to normal.  I certainly have no wish to post on the board which has actively set itself up to clone all the sections and topics of this board and steal its traffic.

My strong suggestion is that this board needs impartial moderators (optimally more than one to ensure a multiplicity of views) who are not simultaneously involved in discussions.   The current "maybe we do, maybe we don't" policy on threads with a political content isn't satisfactory,  and leaving this in the hands of moderators and how they feel on a particular day is not the way to run a message-board or support an online community of members.  It cannot escape your notice that the number of messages posted, and number of active members, has plummeted since this catastrophic decision was taken?

I am not putting myself forward as a moderator, I ought to add - I would not be the right person for this job.

I honestly feel that further in-public bickering is detrimental to this board and its membership,  and plays into the hands of a group of former members who publicly hope for this board's demise.

Michael

Thanks again for the work with the board. It was a most enjoyable eight months for a substantial number of people and that is something you have a right to be pleased about.

Michael, I'm sorry but not surprised to see that you've had enough. You provided us with a wonderful haven to post in when we were unable to continue as we wished over on Radio 3 and this is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks for so generously setting up this board for us, it's been fun posting here. Whether or not it now continues, you started something which has been very successful and has given many of us a great deal of pleasure, providing some excellent company and friendship.

Best wishes,

MJ 

Thanks from me too Michael. I think that people have forgotten just how dreadful the BBC board was in February. It's not much better now, even though they allow more topics.

Can I ask that you don't just close this board down, as appeared to happen on Monday morning, since we will then lose all that we've contributed over the last 8 months. I don't know whether it's possible to transfer ownership to someone else within the myforum365 set up. At the very worst, can you leave all the boards as read only?

best wishes Andy

Thanks from me too, Michael. A quite extraordinary and unique community came to life here after the awfulness of the Beeb board. That would not have been possible without all the hard work from you behind the scenes.

Michael

Thank you for setting up this board.  It was very kind and generous of you, and many of us have enjoyed contributing and learning from it, as well as the chance to interact with others who we would never meet in the normal course of events.  It has been a privilege to contribute.

You mention religion and politics.  There has been a considerable amount posted on religion, which was never stopped by moderators.  I posted a lot there and had the experience of communicating with people with diametrically opposed views to my own.  This would have been quite impossible face to face.  As it is I have been listened to with respect and listened in turn to others, and clarified my own views as a result.  I am very glad this happened.

What should be stopped is personal abuse, not the subject matter.

Thank you again for your trouble.  I wish you all the very best in the future.

Michael,

I'd just like to join in the chorus of thanks for the wonderful refuge you and r3ok have provided for us since the BBC Boards fiasco. I can well understand that the events of the last week or so must have been very dispiriting for you, but nevertheless should you have a change of heart, I'm sure there are more than a few who would be very happy to see the continuation of r3ok, even (if needs be) under new management: though hopefully with a separate forum for the flashpoint stuff it might perhaps be easier to keep this site on the straight and narrow in future.

Ron