New NSS Discussion Board is up again...

[L Roebuck]

Well the shoutbox feature is sort of cool. But cavechat.org (The National Speleological Society Discussion Board) looks like a clone of that pinecam.com and that just kind of creeps me out so far.
Did any one else notice the "Ask the BOG" no longer exists? That was one of my favorite topics of the last board. Humm...

[Sharon Faulkner]

Yes, I liked the Ask the BOG section also Lynn. I remember that some of the directors were not fond of that section though. I also liked the Internal Organizations section, but maybe a change was needed, I don't know.

However, I'm glad that the new NSS DB is up and running and I'm hoping that the BOG will put their attention and directives into running the new DB and allow this forum to proceed in peace.

I see new threads taking place and participants enjoying themselves on both CaveChat.org and the U.S. Cavers Forum and that is the most positive and productive outcome that we can hope for.

I also like the Colorado Cave forum and visit their site frequently.

[Rick Rhinehart]

Thanks for the kind words regarding the Colorado Discussion Board, Sharon. Tom Dawson, our board administrator, has done an excellent job in building a discussion board that generally welcomes free discussion.

As a moderator for the board, I must admit that there's been some instances of angry words between cavers during the last eight months, but all in all, the moderators try to let the "free marketplace of ideas" run without undue censorship.

The website itself is loosely "owned" by the Williams Canyon Project of the NSS, the Colorado Cave Survey of the NSS and Rocky Mountain Caving, Colorado's journal of caves and caving. I suspect other such discussion boards could be established across the country.

[Sharon Faulkner]

Tom has done a good job with the Colorado forum.

I expect this forum will allow a liberal amount of free exchange of ideas and expression of thoughts also. It has been my experience that cavers in general are an outspoken bunch of folks with strong personalities, I suspect that is a needed trait to have the drive and ambition to explore the underground anyway. ;D

There will always be some differences of opinions between cavers on various topics, but for the most part, I've found that cavers participating in discussion forums do pretty well at policing each other with little interference needed from moderators.

I personally would rather err on the side of providing too much free speech, than go too far in the other direction.