TES, you've had replies from moderators who written in ther normal self deprecating way regarding the work they do. So far this doesn't seem to have made the point adequately, at least in a way that satisfies you anyway.
They are simply editorial decisions and you accept these in every other form of media. What's different about PPRuNe is that most decisions are visible - you rarely get to see them in papers or on TV but they're made all the same. For the first eighteen months of PPRuNe we worked in exactly that way. Danny and I created each day's pages and decided what would be on view.
Editorial work is now post production because of the automated board but all the original principles remain the same. We provide the whole system for the readers of PPRuNe. We decide the direction it goes in and maintain a guiding hand. It's fast and flexible - that's the way we work.
If enough people don't like the decisions made then a publication will fail. With 100,000 individual readers per week there is little sign of that so far and I hope that you will accept that our efforts to keep the focus right for each section are our both our right and responsibility.
If that last sentence doesn't sit well with you it's because you've made the assuption this is a democracy. This is not the case. Further, PPruNe has never, ever advertised. As with everyone else reading you found us and not the other way around.
We do the work that makes the place exist. We make the judgements and take the flack that's associated with it.
If anyone has a violent antipathy to moderated sites I really would suggest a week in the world of the newsgroups as a reality check. Additionally there are an estimated 50,000 discussion boards out there. Everyone has a choice and it is our choice to run PPRuNe the way we do.
That's how it was when PPRuNe got its first 700 hits in three months and remains the same now that we get 700 hits in three minutes.
Rob Lloyd
[ 23 August 2001: Message edited by: PPRuNe Towers ]