A few blogs ago I covered some shenanigans going on over at Teletips, specifically the necessity of forum moderation and censorship. A while back I was taken to task for my moderation style on the Couloir forums. Basically, certain individuals said we were too strict with our Couloir moderation, and should be looser, “like Teletips.” And more recently, on another web forum, my moderation style was termed “Dawson rules with an iron hand.” In reality, both Couloir and Teletips are moderated forums with similar but slightly different sets of rules. My recent blog about Ttips was intended to point that out in a lighthearted way, but I neglected to praise Teletips owner and moderator Mitch Weber for having the guts to step in and moderate his forums the way he feels he should, rather than bowing to pressure from whatever quarter. As I’ve said before on this blog, all the backcountry skiing forums have their place, and provide rich variety that is helpful to folks trying to find a place to fit in. No one forum of the top three or four (or five?) is better than another, only different. Forum moderation is a hard task, and while we may not agree with all aspects or styles of moderation, it’s necessary, and we must live with it to one degree or another…
That said, this blog is an op-ed style weblog. Thus, I’ll continue to write opinion about the goings on in all forums of interest to backcountry skiers, but will try to avoid bombast. If anyone thinks I get too negative or preachy, feel free to fire an email and take me to task. I don’t live in a vacuum, and view all feedback as a gift.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
