Originally Posted by Halx

I'm gonna state this officially and you guys can do with this however you feel.

I take majority responsibility for the TFP and I consider it to be "my" place. Just the same way I foot the bill when no donations come in, I take care of this place when nobody else does/can. What you might see is this thread, a few random posts, a journal entry here and there and a whole lot of hoopla about how I run this place, but what you don't see is me staying up till 6am, working on projects for the TFP. You also don't see me confronting in private each person who I've detected has a strong opinion about how the TFP is going. You don't see me negotiating with problematic members or conferring with my staff about issues that are relevant to the wellbeing of this forum. You don't see me scouring the net, looking for a way to increase traffic or add a new feature to this site.

The donors give their money to help keep the site running, and I listen when they have something to say, but they are not shareholders any more than a regular user is. They have a donor tag as a thanks from me and everyone else, not as a board-of-directors member insignia. Many donors, in fact, are users who rarely post. You probably wouldn't be able to tell me much about my top 5 donors if I told you their names. This alone should tell you that the TFP is more than just a social network.

I spend a lot of time trying to smooth out the social game being played here on the forums, but that's a courtesy I extend to you, my friends. The real battle is being fought in the intellectual forums and the advice forums. The content is what creates readers and participants. We need to focus on improving and expanding that. We lose members when there are no interesting topics to talk about, not when Member 28938 insults Member 94273. So, I'd like to get everyone's focus on the real matter. Whether you attribute your quality of experience here to me or not, I am the one fighting to keep it all here, where it belongs.

Are you going to join me in that fight or simply posture about how important your dollar and word is?