I noticed the moderators at CPF had stopped posting so much
they stopped enforcing some of the rules, such as posting links, mentioning blf, talking about where to buy…
here is an example of the top 5 threads a few moments ago… maybe that will give some perspective on the different personalities of each board
CPF, imo most hostile moderation, the main reason I left for BLF:
BLF, imo very flashlight modding friendly, very little moderation, lots of leeway about posting links and info that CPF forbids:
Reddit, I know little, have not gotten comfortable enough w the UI to participate
The problem with CPF is it was bought by someone who wanted to use it to earn profits from advertisers, so after that it was never a real forum and was geared towards giving positive testimonials for certain companies.
BLF has been an oasis of minimal moderation although I notice that seems to have changed since the lockdowns began.
I’m pretty new here, and only joined CPF in November, but have lurked both sites for years. My observation of BLF is that of a much more laid back and inviting atmosphere. Regardless of an individual’s knowledge level, seasoned posters here seem to be far more willing to share their experience and opinions without alot of judgment or egotistical background noise.
Being new, I couldn’t even name a moderator here, and don’t recollect having seen a thread where one has had to ‘step in’. The crowd here is pretty good about self-policing.
Me being an old grump notwithstanding, I’ve always stepped in when people start to argue in an unfriendly way about anything. It’s pretty obvious that people are more touchy and uptight since the pandemic started, and that’s understandable. But that has led to more blatant rule violations, and so to prevent users from getting more aggravated and eventually banned it’s best for me to step in more quickly when any given topic starts going south or is likely to do so soon.
Is that a bad thing? By creating an account here and continuing to use it you agree to adhere to the BLF Rules, which are enforced. Think about the alternatives: 1) a wild free-for-all with everyone getting mad and making this place miserable for themselves and everyone else, or 2) many moderators that all “lock threads faster than the speed of light”, but each with their own biases and criteria applied inequitably to different users.
Reminds me of a parable about an old man in a small town, and one day a traveler who was considering moving there asked him “What are the people like here?” and the old man replied “Well let me ask you first what’s it like in the town you come from?” The traveler replied: “Oh it’s a really nice place, everyone is friendly and generous.” The old man replied: “Here it’s just the same, you’ll get on really well if you move here.” Later a different traveler asked the old man the same thing, and he got the same question back, to which the second traveler replied: “Ugh it’s unbearable where I come from, everyone is mean and stingy, that’s why I’m looking for somewhere else to move to.” The old man replied: “Well imagine that, you’ll find that people here are just the same, better keep looking elsewhere.”
Users can delete their own posts, as long as it’s not the first post that starts a thread. They can also report spam and the spammer’s post could get automatically deleted and possibly the account could be automatically blocked, all according to a fairly nuanced algorithm. Users can also report posts that violate the BLF Rules, and according to a different algorithm the post could be removed.
Please don’t let this thread turn into a CPF bashing thread. Thanks in advance.
And as for Reddit… this isn’t a rule, but it is an observation based on fact— Reddit stinks. And we all need to continue to work hard to prevent BLF from becoming a toxic cesspool like Reddit.
I was mostly referring to the free speech thread where everyone was civil and then you just shut it down for some reason. I guess civil free speech is controversial as well now, but I also understand this is a flashlight forum and you really want to keep it that way, so alls well that ends well.