Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Well I hope he is okay. Thanks Charlie.

Regards, Martin.

He is fine, I've deactivated his account. I'm not sure how much more I want to say about it at the moment. Suffice to say, one doesn't deactivate the account of one of the biggest forum contributors for any simple differing opinion or the like..

Surely Shoalhaven has been sorted out by now
Hopefully we'll see Rupert back soon , a great contributer to the forum always ready with critique and encouragement but always with enthusiasim

im glad to hear that charlie.
he certainly will be missed around here.

I really think the forum/community needs some sort of explanation of what has happened.

One of the great things about this forum has been its dedication to freedom of speach and the transparent way it has handled problems in the past.

I would hate see that changed. It would reduce my confidence in the moderating team and erode my sense that we are a community that despite our differences can work through them.

Obviously something has happened and such drastic action wouldn't have been taken without perceived cause but as a community we need to understand why such action was taken.

At the end of the day this is Joels forum and if he doesnt want to share reasons then its obviously quite private. This has nothing to do with the moderating team and its not our business either.

The question was asked where is he so I answered that he is no longer a member here, Joel confirmed this. It then seemed members were worried that he may be very ill or worse and so as far as I know he isnt in hospital or anything so I didnt want people to worry for him.

Thanks for all your contributions Rupert. I will miss having you around.

You are correct that it is Joel's forum but one of the attributes of this fourm is that despite his power over membership and what is and what is not posted that power has only been exercised when absolutely necessary and for the good of the forum.

The only exceptions to this that I can think of was when a number of members who were using the forum to advertise their own commercial activities in competition with Joel were asked to leave if they were not willing to stop or pay some sort of advertising fee if they wished to continue spruiking their own commercial offerings. Since the site is Joel's and his business pays for it I think everyone thought that was fare enough once it was explained to them.

You are incorrect when you say that this has nothing to do with the moderating team. The mods are a team that is responsible for helping to managing the forum. As such a decision by one especially when explanations are called for is the business of the entire team. Just as the expulsion of a member of our community is the memberships business.

Joel is free to exercise his power as he sees fit but to not explain what has happened is a departure from previous conduct by the management team, would undermines a fundamental difference between this forum and others in the AP sphere and leaves questions to fester and linger rather than be dealt with and laid to rest.

Stuart you are not involved in this, I am not involved in this, it is between Joel and Rupert.

I'll miss his contribution, though Stuart it seems that he has gone from other forums as well, indicating that this may not be an issue with this forum alone and may be a personnel decision on his part. I think he has his right to privacy and Joel is entitled to honour that.

If you really need to know stuart, he is still on facebook, you can ask him there yourself.

Its not about wanting to know the ins and outs and pushing myself into others business.

When someone gets expelled from your community it is perfectly natural and reasonable to want to know why.

I'm sure Joel will respond in time but since whatever happened was obviously serious it may be some time before he feels he is able to respond. I am sure we can all allow him that time.

Expelling someone from a community is no minor action. Rather than a community being weekend such actions can strengthen the community if the leadership is appropriately transparent. The membership can have their confidence in the leadership increased when they see them acting in an appropriate manner. As members anything that can shake our confidence in our leadership and the way the forum is run is our business but we have to trust them to act appropriately. Especially since the community/forum hasn't been told anything.

What ever the issue is a member of this community who is valued by at least some members on this forum has been expelled. Such an action is our business even though the events that precipitated it may not be.

lets not get into specualtion as to what may have happened, but i dont think he was expelled or an "obviously serious" reason.

it could simply be that rupert decided he had enough and doesnt want us to contact him later for any reason.

i mean, if he was "expelled" from here, then he would still be on the other forums, if he did something bad to get expelled from all forums, there would be no way to hide it and we would all know already.

If it was not a serious matter then there would be no reason why things have not been clarified.

The natural assumption I and others made was his health but that notion was squashed by a moderator.

Some thing has happened we must be patient and wait to see what information is able to be revealed in time. This forum has an excellent reputation in part because of the way incidences like this have been handled previously. To help maintain and improve that reputation some sort of statement will be needed sooner or later if possible.

Since the forum hasn't been told what has happened for all we know it may not be possible for us to be told for a variety of reasons.

Stuart I agree with what you say but my understanding of the situation was that Rupe left as a personal choice. I did not understand from anything that was said that he was expelled or excommunicated somehow. If someone can confirm that then I am happy with the way this has been handled.

Martin.