xnoddyx wrote on Aug 4
th, 2012 at 7:11pm:
Praise and Feedback is still open to new members for valid criticism of YaBB
Let's not conveniently forget that posts in Praise and Feedback have been deleted for no valid reason (
even in the Talk It Up section posts have been deleted in the same unprofessional way).
But that was then ...
very recently ... and this is now. Let's see if YaBB has actually gotten past this. Maybe I'm fooling myself, but I'm always trusting that it will;
get past it that is.
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What happens in the effectively sealed off portion of The Lounge directly affects YaBB, arguably much more than anywhere else with the exception of staff only areas, and email trees.
It's what I would call an inconvenient truth.

Nonetheless, I still support this means of moderation as long as new members, and existing members can post what they want about YaBB, good or bad. I simply pointed out that I hope threats of probation and subsequent banishment are now part of YaBB's past. There are better ways to handle
"negative" posts.
In practice throughout YaBB's existence, what's happened is that relatively small groups of members who become YaBB's leadership end up operating this forum as if it's their own private forum.
As such, anything that doesn't conform to their small world view ends up being trashed;
sometimes literally, and that's included the banning of otherwise good, and well intentioned members of YaBB's community at large. Even some of YaBB's most ardent supporters have left in disgust.
So to date, whenever things have changed, the more they've stayed the same. The only real difference is that the names of YaBB's leadership have changed from time to time.
What's fascinating to me is that some of YaBB's current leadership are the very ones who have vociferated their own frustrations about YaBB, and quite harshly I might add. Not here, but in other YaBB forums.
Interestingly, as it's been publicly stated, these same people haven't wanted to post their negative comments in this forum because they didn't want to be branded as a troublemaker (
I've paraphrased).
In any case, the only way that YaBB will change for the best is when a group of leaders come along who realize that YaBB needs to operate this forum as a public forum versus a private one. Unfortunately, only the most talented of professionals know how to do this, and they are obviously hard to find.
What happens here doesn't stay here. What happens here in this forum, even when attempts are made to hide various comments from the general public, is a mirror on how YaBB itself operates as an open source project.
Think about it. Please. Really think about it.