<p>The entire Moderator Team at CC would like to explain a few things to our members who participate in the Musical Theater Forum. </p>
<p>CC is moderated by volunteer moderators who work as a team and consult one another regarding any moderator actions that need to be taken. We moderate all of the forums on CC, not just this one. Fortunately, the Musical Theater Forum rarely has required much in terms of moderator action because 99.99% of the posters on this forum abide by the rules. The only time we step in to moderate is if there is any violation of our Terms of Service. The moderators document and consult with one another regarding what prompted the moderation and what actions need to be taken.</p>
<p>Moderators do not edit/delete posts due to opinions stated. We do edit or remove posts if the poster breaks the rules. Depending on whats involved, that often is all that happens and an explanation is provided. Often a member will get a warning. We begin with the assumption that TOS violations are accidental or unintentioal. Occasionally, posting rights are turned off temporarily or indefinitely. Thankfully, this is rarely needed.</p>
<p>Until recently, I can only think of ONE MT-oriented member had posting rights suspended indefinitely. Lately, we've had a few more fall into this category for intentionally and/or repeatedly breaking the rules, personal attacks, attempting to identify members publicly, discussing moderator actions on the forum, continual promotional posts, using profanity, reposting deleted posts, posting as proxies for already banned posters, re-registering multiple times with new names once banned, posting personal identification, and ongoing behavior that is detrimental or disruptive to the forum community. </p>
<p>While we never discuss mod actions in the public forum, any concerns can be addressed to me by PM or forum email.</p>
<p>Yesterday, some readers posted that they are now afraid to post. There is no need for concern, as virtually all of our members focus on the topics at hand and would never intentionally violate the rules; when something does cross the line, we always communicate with the member to resolve the problem. </p>
<p>It is unfortunate that two valued members who have followed the posting rules have chosen to leave the forum. If one wishes to leave the forum, they can, but we have taken down farewell threads. We want to keep the discussion in each forum on topic and focused, and while we have no problems at all with any member who prefers to stop posting we don't want to create a situation where every time someone makes such a decision they feel a need to launch a thread. With tens of thousands of members at CC, we'd soon be inundated in "hello" and "goodbye" threads. We are grateful for the contributions of departing members.</p>
<p>Finally, all of us at CC feel that our Musical Theater Forum is a successful forum and the best web resource available on this topic. All of its success is due to our valued participants who support, advise, share with, and inform one another - indeed, that's what makes CC great as a whole.</p>
<p>Our mission is to ensure that CC is a place where all members are welcomed, regardless of their knowledge and experience, and where every member can post without fear that they will be mocked, be subject to personal criticism in other posts, etc. We discuss topics, not other members. </p>
<p>The Moderator Team cares about the integrity of our forum. We hope to see you all continue to participate as we value your being part of our CC community. Hopefully, we can get back to what we love about the MT forum talking about drama, not creating the drama!</p>