lambchop, you're not getting banned for what you're saying in this thread. I've ALWAYS welcomed constructive criticism.
No one is shutting down the FTR IRC channels. You can continue to do what you do and invite other people to join you or whatever. We just won't advertise it here as an "official" chatroom.
I simply feel that it is unmanageable. I did not select the current Ops like I select the forum Moderators. I don't even know who made those decisions. Somewhere along the line, a lot of people were put in place with no real management skills, guidelines or policies. Some feel that IRC should be completely freeform, with little-to-no rules. Others feel it should be ruled with an iron fist. So who is right?
Part of our inability to manage it and prevent the flame wars and all the drama we've seen in the last few months is because none of us Admins have the desire or time to sit in the IRC channel and keep abreast of all that is going on there. I personally don't think it's a manageable format.
If we keep it as an "official" chatroom, issues and conflicts that occur there will naturally flow into our forums. If we separate ourselves from it, we can rightfully prevent those same issues from being posted about here in our forums.
As for you saying "if you don't like the thread, just ignore it," that goes against everything the Admins and FTR stand for. We are not like those other troll forums. We will not tolerate anyone flaming another member. The friendly atmosphere that we try to maintain here is sacred and I will NOT let anyone spoil that.
