Bob Roberts
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2002
- Messages
- 2,334
- Reaction score
- 8
What are your views on a decision by the Barbel Society to restrict visibility of its message board to members only? Previously you had to be a member to post comments on there but any visitor could read it however I see that Steve Pope has posted the following message on BFW:
?After much discussion yesterday at a committee meeting attended by over a dozen people, the decision was made to make our forum a members only benefit.?
Well, I can?t say exactly how many ?over a dozen? is but had it been 17 then Steve might well have said, ?over 15?. Let?s be generous and say fourteen, nay let?s make that 19. I guess we can safely say that it wasn?t twenty. So it required less than 10 votes to implement such draconian decision.
Ten anonymous votes out of supposedly 1400 members is deemed enough to influence the Society and shut out the eyes of the world.
Four questions:
Will this increase awareness of what the Society does?
Will it provoke an upsurge in membership?
Is this democracy in action?
Are they trying to hide something?
Ironic, isn?t it, that Chairman Steve is quite happy to post on an open site about the actions the Society has taken. Ironic too, that the Society will look to make announcements here and on other sites to promote the various meetings they hold up and down the country and also to promote the Annual Conference.
Do not be put off posting your views here because a few vocal members of the Society will inevitably try and shout you down with cries of, ?What?s it got to do with you??
It has everything to do with you. You are their target customer. The Society wants your pounds in it?s coffers, be that as a guest at meetings or actually by joining.
Please tell me if I?m wrong but wasn?t this veil of secrecy initially mooted after a few poachers appeared on the riverbank opposite a certain River Trent fishery?
So we now have a secret society and all the mistrust that will generate. Should a decision as potentially damaging as this have been put to the entire membership? Or at least to those who are registered to post on its web site? Or to conference?
Act in haste and you will repent at your leisure. Sorry guys, I think this was a bad move, not so much for what you have done but the way it was done.
?After much discussion yesterday at a committee meeting attended by over a dozen people, the decision was made to make our forum a members only benefit.?
Well, I can?t say exactly how many ?over a dozen? is but had it been 17 then Steve might well have said, ?over 15?. Let?s be generous and say fourteen, nay let?s make that 19. I guess we can safely say that it wasn?t twenty. So it required less than 10 votes to implement such draconian decision.
Ten anonymous votes out of supposedly 1400 members is deemed enough to influence the Society and shut out the eyes of the world.
Four questions:
Will this increase awareness of what the Society does?
Will it provoke an upsurge in membership?
Is this democracy in action?
Are they trying to hide something?
Ironic, isn?t it, that Chairman Steve is quite happy to post on an open site about the actions the Society has taken. Ironic too, that the Society will look to make announcements here and on other sites to promote the various meetings they hold up and down the country and also to promote the Annual Conference.
Do not be put off posting your views here because a few vocal members of the Society will inevitably try and shout you down with cries of, ?What?s it got to do with you??
It has everything to do with you. You are their target customer. The Society wants your pounds in it?s coffers, be that as a guest at meetings or actually by joining.
Please tell me if I?m wrong but wasn?t this veil of secrecy initially mooted after a few poachers appeared on the riverbank opposite a certain River Trent fishery?
So we now have a secret society and all the mistrust that will generate. Should a decision as potentially damaging as this have been put to the entire membership? Or at least to those who are registered to post on its web site? Or to conference?
Act in haste and you will repent at your leisure. Sorry guys, I think this was a bad move, not so much for what you have done but the way it was done.