I have read this forum for some time but posted very little. The reason for this has been what I felt as a 'frostiness' when some replied to me. Basically, to me, it felt slightly aggressive and unfriendly. Until now, I wouldn't have said so because it would have resulted in a 'sarcastic' attack.

So, the post regarding behaviour on the forum by TheGame doesn't feel like big brother or PC to me as a relative outsider.

I haven't rested easy with Changster since the start because it has kind of prided itself in being 'edgy'. Because of that, I have posted very little here although I respect the measurements and discussions by people like Marv.

I hope the new place works out well for most, but it would be nice perhaps for some if just a little more respect was shown sometimes. For instance, even the title of the Pluto thread is pretty offensive to me and its that kind of 'humour' that has really stopped me saying anything here.

Hello CHANGSTAR Members and guests! I would like to discuss further about the Future of CHANGSTAR. Firstly, I would like to thank every single person here for making CHANGSTAR a premier site for Audiophiles and Audio enthusiasts, we have an extraordinary community of knowledgeable, friendly, and overall outstanding individuals.

That being said, to continue this tradition on the new site, I will be keeping a very close and watchful eye toward unnecessary or demeaning behavior towards other members and guests. This is not a punishment, nor is it a "Big Brother is watching" scenario - it is simply to make sure each member and guest is happy, and feels safe and an important part of the community.

Marv is not excluded from this. He is not above my Moderation and the same rules apply to him as well, this is what he wants and it is my job to do so.

Keep in mind, everyone is entitled to their opinion(s) and have the right to express their opinions as long as it is not insulting, demeaning, threatening, or any type of harassment. This type of behavior will not be tolerated. That being said, we are very lucky to have the great community we have, and we do have very few issues with members or guests exhibiting this type of behavior. However, sometimes people can lose their tempers, or take something personal and things can get out of hand. This is not what our community is about. It is about exchanging ideas, opinions, and facts, and to me personally the most important thing, making friends and seeing both sides of a story.

Let it be clear that we still want to be edgy, as long as it does not go too far. I was given this responsibility and privilege to help keep peace and to make sure that every member and guest feels happy, safe, and free to express their opinions related to a topic or thread without fear of retaliation from another member or guest.

This community is about audio, learning audio, friends, and fun. Again I am not the community's police officer, or Big Brother, my main purpose is to help, and I take pleasure in doing so. As I have stated before, if you have issues with another member or guest, please let me know and I will get it resolved in the most peaceful manner possible while looking at both sides of the story. There are individuals who trust my judgement, and I hope the rest of you will come to feel the same way.

On the new site, some terms will no longer be acceptable. Any racial remarks, demeaning remarks, insults, or harassment is absolutely unacceptable. Again, this is not punishment, this is in the spirit of keeping the site a friendly, safe, and fun place to be.

That being said, it is absolutely paramount that members and guests feel free to post their thoughts (provided they are not objectiveness trolls, or individuals who post hateful things towards our site or our members and guests).
I care about this site's and the new site's members and guests above all else - and I feel that every member and guest should feel safe, happy, and have fun, and not to worry about everything one says, I just ask each individual to be respectful towards others and to please respect the Rules and Guidelines of OUR new site.

~TheGame

I shall avoid certain topics then. I also partially understand Rabbit's position.

I can honestly say I personally have no idea what was going on in the shoutbox last night, as Moderator, I do not have the permissions to do certain things like that no do I have the permission to silence or censor anyone in that manner in the shoutbox - I honestly still don't know who did it. I think it was meant as a joke honestly, but I think it may have been taken the wrong way. I honestly do not know what it happened, or who did it - and I did try to find out but I do not have those types of permissions.

Anyway, the main point of all of this is to Rabbit's point. We do not want members and guests to feel intimidated to speak their minds in fear of being ridiculed or talked down to. Certain comments may have been slipped through in the past that perhaps made some people a little uncomfortable or not feel welcomed. We do not want this to be the case. We want everyone to feel safe, speak their minds, have their opinions and thoughts, without the thought of being attacked jokingly, or seriously.

Like I said, I do not know what happened with Anax last night, I thought we were hacked as another member mentioned in a post - I was unable to connect to changstar for around 4 minutes -I kept getting a "server error" message.

But if it was not a hacker, then if the person who was able to do that (which I didn't even know could be done) wants to say anything, they will.

Anyway, the main point of all of this is to Rabbit's point. We do not want members and guests to feel intimidated to speak their minds in fear of being ridiculed or talked down to. Certain comments may have been slipped through in the past that perhaps made some people a little uncomfortable or not feel welcomed. We do not want this to be the case. We want everyone to feel safe, speak their minds, have their opinions and thoughts, without the thought of being attacked jokingly, or seriously.

I perfectly understand the point but if  Changstar becomes more polite and soft, it will loose the basic spirit for Piracy. As much as I hate some Anax Attitudes and as much as I can disagree with some of his opinions in Audio or in other subjects , I love to read him as much as I love to read bad jokes ( aka OJ's chingchong for the HE1000) and  politically uncorrect speaking.  A great french writer told " Even I fully disagree with you , i'll wholeheartly fight to defend your right to say what you have to say" .. something like that.

Changstar is like an old tavern with sometimes unpolite and definitely not for everyone talk & Chat. that makes this place special for me. Free speach allows creativity. There's so many different places elsewhere in audio web galaxy, why would you want to change this one in something else ?

We all know that posting here is not easy and that's why we have to think twice before posting. And that's fine like that. we're not kids after all.

Please don't transform Changstar in a wishy washy deluted retarded-friendly ghey thing. please !  Facebook and head-fi exists for that.

(French native speakers here so please forgive my english)