[Peter Ansoff]

Dear fellow forum members,

As you probably know, the folks who originally set up the AFF have not been very active over the past few months, and have not been responding to inquiries from us members. This has caused a number of problems. The most serious are that there has been no way to delete spam postings, or to move threads that are posted under the wrong topics.

By doing a bit of research, I've been able to contact the management of the forum. They've agreed to give me limited access to the "keys," so that we can clean things up a little. Eventually, I hope that we can convince them to empower other members to police specific parts of the forum. Until then, I'm asking for everyone's help in trying to get things back on course a bit.

The first thing I've learned is that the forum software has an automatic "moderation" function. Basically, it screens every incoming post for objectionable material. If it sees something it doesn't like, it puts the post in a moderation queue, where it sits until a (human) moderator either approves or deletes it. The moderation function is actually pretty good -- it seems to catch a large proportion of the spam that people try to post. Unfortunately, it also snags a significant number of legitimate posts (including some of mine!!).

When I first got access to the moderator function, I found that nobody had been reviewing the queue for quite some time. Over the last few weeks, I've gone through the entire queue (several hundred posts at least), and either approved or deleted all of them. If any of your posts seemed to disappear into a "black hole" over the last few months, check the applicable thread or sub-forum again -- they should be there now. I also have deleted a number of posts that made it through moderation, but contained obviously objectionable material, as well as some duplicates, etc.

Now, here's where I need everyone's help. If you see any posts that you think are objectionable, send me a private message with the name of the forum and thread. I'll either delete them altogether or edit them to get rid of the bad stuff. Also, I could use your suggestions about moving threads to the proper forums and sub-forums. I've done a few just to see how it works -- take a look in the "Suggestions and Comments" section and you'll see some examples. I've done it so that there's still a listing in the "old" section, with a link to the new one.

As a long-term project, I think it would be good to reorganize the forums themselves, so that they better reflect the range of topics that people are posting here, and make things easier to find. Some of the current ones duplicate each other, and the overall structure is rather confusing. I don't currently have the ability to make changes like that, but I hope that we can convince the forum owners that it would be a good thing. Any suggestions and comments along that line are welcome.

Enjoy the forum, and please let me know your thoughts about what we can do to improve it!

Best,

Peter Ansoff

[JLange]

Peter, I think that you will do a great job as moderator; the level on input you provide is invaluable.

I will do anything I can do to help out, don't be afraid to call on me.
JOhn ><>

[american_flag_uk]

just wondering if the USA flag forum admins will get in touch with me?

im ready and waitin to help moderate the site along with Peter!

[Landon Bailey]

Hey guys!

...you should add that song by Rick Roark called, "Remember Me."

It's one of the best patriotic songs I have ever heard.

Thank's,
Landon

[Peter Ansoff]

Dear fellow Forum members,

As you may have noticed, we're making some additional changes to the layout of the forum. We've created two new sections, one dedicated to discussion of half-masting the flag, and the other dealing with flag specifications and design, including the ever-famous "fringe" issue. Also, we've changed the description of the "Other flags" section so that it now includes threads about displaying other flags with the US flag.

We've also moved a number of existing threads from one section to another to line them up with the new organization. The idea is to make it easier for both new and experienced members to find the topics that they're interested in. When moving an existing thread, we've left a temporary record in the original section to make it easier for you to find your old posts. The temporary links will disappear after a month or so.

We hope that you like the changes. Please let me or american_flag_uk know if you have any comments or suggestions. You can post your comments right here in the "Management" section, or you can send either or both of us a PM offline.

Flaggily,

Peter Ansoff
Administrator

[american_flag_uk]

lol @ flaggily