I am totally convinced that we are our own worst enemies. If we can find a way to totally screw things up, without any help from outsiders, we’ll do it. What you’re about to read is a little story of what happened just today at one of the forums I attend. It’s not a long story, but there is a moral to it. I think you’ll want to read this.

One of the members of this forum, and a long time member, started a thread about how he had all these “interns” (whatever that means) and that he was going to be bringing them to the forum and he asked everybody to be nice to them and not to underestimate them. I found the post a little odd.

For starters, why announce that all these people were coming to the forum? I send people to this forum all the time and I don’t make a big deal about it. This got me to questioning what was going on. What was this person up to, if anything? Well, needless to say, a lot of the members, including a moderator of the forum, confronted him on this post.

To make a long story short, it was determined that this person’s ideas WOULD violate several of the forum’s rules and thus, it was not a good idea to pursue the matter any further. Of course, before it got to that point and the thread got shut down, it started to get a little ugly and I have no doubt that the member’s reputation had taken a hit, if only a small one.

Now, how could have all this been avoided? Simple. When you start a thread at a forum, leave out the mystery. Tell people up front what your plans are. Then ask if they’re okay. That way, at least you’re up front and IF there are any problems, the mods can let you know…end of discussion. But when you cloak things in mystery, good intentions or not, it puts people on their guard…even some folks who are normally very trusting.

As I am not the moderator who handled the situation, I don’t know what the exact intentions of the OP were, but the point is, it was the mystery of the thing that caused all the problems…not the actual intent itself.

If you’re up front with people, all they can do is say to you, “Sorry, you can’t do that here.” At least they can’t accuse you of trying to pull something devious, because you know how people can get. Many will suspect the worst.

So, in conclusion, before you post a thread at ANY forum, read it first and make sure it’s something that you REALLY want to show up there.

Sometimes you’ll be surprised at how bad your posts REALLY are.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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