BANNED

[James Shadle]

From time to time it is my unfortunate duty to ban someone from participating on BPN.
Up to this point we have banned only a very few folks.

Of the few that I have found it necessary to ban, some of our staff and members felt the ban was overdue.
Anyone who knows me well will tell you I'm a very deliberate person. I will make every effort to salvage a situation in an attempt to prevent the need to ban someone.

So far his approach has served BPN well. At the same time this approach can embolden some folks to push the limits of my patience.

If someone is banned, I will not disclose the reason. I respect every member's(banned or not) right to privacy and will not comment publicly on the matter.
A ban is not punishment or an attempt to embarrass anyone, it is an action taken to protect Birdphotographers.net from rules violators.

Please understand that if I find it necessary to ban one of BPN's members, it's like banning a family member to me and it was unavoidable.

It has always been and will continue to be Artie's and my goal to make BPN the FUN place to teach and learn nature photography.

[Arthur Morris]

Well handled. And well said. Sending love to all from Japan. And now I am gonna go post an image in Avian :).

[James Shadle]

A couple of more Admin duties and a "we are BPN" post and I'm going to post and critiques images!!!

[Arthur Morris]

Looking forward to it from afar :).

[James Shadle]

Questions?

[Hazel Grant]

Must be a difficult thing for you to do. Sorry it has happened.

[Grady Weed]

Thanks James for a great site that promotes , fun, quality critiues and heck of a lot of learning! I guess I have to thank Artie too.

[James Shadle]

Hazel,
It's never fun, thankfully it's been some time since it has been necessary.

Grady,
We do want to promote fun with learning and teaching.

I'm very proud of our international reach, however that international reach does have it's challenges.
Cultural differences and the misunderstandings they can cause must be considered when communicating on a forum like this.

"People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?" Rodney King.

[ericbowles]

I moderate some forums on another website. As a general rule, you won't believe the lengths that moderators, Jim, Artie, and others go to to coach, warn, and modify bad behavior before resorting to banning someone. The work they do is fantastic - and often unseen by design. It is a necessary part of online forums and makes the experience better for everyone.

Thanks for the great work.