[Wolfie]

I agree. It's not that big a deal, really.

You folks know me... I can be as impolitic and irreverent as the next. And I don't give chronic complainers much conference. I try to read between the lines and have made many friends in this crazy biz.

Yup, I do mod and admin duty at USODJA. We don't remove members unless their emails bounce back. Members are free to speak their minds on the forums as long as it doesn't get personal. If a thread gets personal, it's edited. I can't recall the last time that happened at USODJA. But then again, we're non-profit. We don't depend upon post counts and Hurrahs directed toward our sponsors for support.

The thing I have always found sad about many of the old-line DJ-related bbs forums: new members ask serious questions and are often stomped on by the renegades. This is unnecessary and just plain wrong.

Several prominent people in this business have been banned from, or chased out of DJ Chat over the years. Some deserved it. Others did not. All it takes is one especially notorious member to break the proverbial camel's back and an overzealous moderator decides to clean house. I have seen it happen. Herein lies the difference between action and reaction.

Some were removed only to return under new monikers. It never ends. I know of one cantankerous member at DJ Chat who is on his third login after being removed from the forums twice before. He's still as ornery -- and still as useless as ever. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

A few dissatisfied DJ Chat (and ProDJ) members have moved on to start their own online discussion forum sites. As Matt mentioned, it's capitalism. Some have flourished, some have failed. DJSO has flourished because Jim Casey is not politically connected to the corporate aspect of this industry. It's called DJ Idea Sharing for a good reason.

Jason, a few words from old Wolfie:

You've had your rant and it's time to move on to better things. If you feel that you have a market, build a decent site, schmooze with the sponsors and promote it. Carl Greiner did much the same with DJ Gold. You can do it, too.

I hope it helps.