A Lost Cause?

[Eltu]

This is something that has been troubling me for a long time now. The unofficial ToS Skype channel, any other ToS relates skype channels, and ALL kind of conversations with all of you outside the forums. I have never visited the Skype channels, I never will, but YET they are currently breaking me down.

People here have been complaining of drama, of tension. But is it all because of what is happening HERE, in the forums? No.

For a while now I have been told of COUNTLESS occurrences of insults, trolling, attacking each other, and creating large amounts of unfriendliness and tension amongst ToS members, over Skype and other kind of IM protocols. And the problem is, these conflicts then CARRY OVER to the forums!

I mean, I watch every single thread that's made here. And I KNOW that the threads alone cannot POSSIBLY be the cause of all this tension.



I can't go on like this, if it continues this way. I'm completely serious. I spend almost ALL MY AWAKE HOURS on this forum, I dedicate EVERY DAY into making the forums as good as I possibly can. I try to solve conflicts, try to act a diplomat, I try to make sure that nobody is offended, insulted, or attacked.

I do this as a FULL TIME JOB right now. And I can't and WON'T put down EVEN MORE time into checking out an UNOFFICIAL Skype channel constantly to make sure there are no problems occurring there. And currently it feels like all my efforts into making the forums a close and friendly place to be in, gets constantly crushed by tension occurred from THIRD SOURCES!



And it's... it's over the edge. If this keeps happening I cannot go on any further. I won't spend time doing things that in the end does not matter at all.

I am not saying that ALL of the discussions outside ToS are bad - FAR FROM IT. But what I do know, is that there are enough conflicts to spread a bad feeling over to the forums.

I write this to you as a cry for change. I KNOW what amazing people you are, and I know that you can avoid these situations. I do all I can myself, but it is not enough. If this keeps happening, I might leave everything altogether. I don't want to fight for a lost cause.

Again, to clarify - I am sure that most of the things occurring in Skype, Live Messenger or any IM applications are perfectly fine. But not everything is - and this needs to be changed, for the sake of everyone.



Call me self-pitying if you want. Go ahead. But please...to those who do... stop fighting. If you won't do it for me... do it for the forums. For all of us.