How much ownership do donating members have?

[cjayflo]

I don't have a dog in this fight, I just keep seeing the subject matter come up and get deleted. If people want to talk about how they hang their defensive minded stuff in their hammock, why not create a donating member area for it?

[Dutch]

I will take a stab at this although I am not an authority, just a conscientious observer. HF came from white blazes which was a great wealth of information about the AT however IMO it lacked ground rules and people would flame for no reasons. So when HF got it's start it was in the context that they wanted people to treat each other with respect. I think if you look around at other forums and compare it to HF you will see what they put in place worked well in that regard. So they didn't allow subjects that aren't directly related to hammock and most importantly would start contentious discussion. Guns, Religion, and Politics seem to get people on soap boxes and they treat people with opposing views with less civility. So there are plenty of places to talk about those subjects and if they were permitted here, the discussion would need a lot of moderating and often would not follow the respectful way we discuss the hobby we enjoy. The mods are already working really hard keeping things organized and should be burdened by these topics that so often become long winded and cause feelings to get hurt. All in all I think steering clear of those subjects have been a very wise choice. Although you may be totally able to have a discussion about the need or how to store it there will be someone that no matter how civil you are will either take offense or be offensive.

[Ramblinrev]

Donating membership allows access to certain areas of the forums. The operative word being access. There is no ownership expressed or implied. So in that sense your pays your money, you get access. period. Beyond that... +1 to what Dutch posted.

[Rain Man]

If people want to talk about how they hang their defensive minded stuff in their hammock, why not create a donating member area for it?

Good Lord, PLEASE keep "defensive minded stuff" (what a euphemism!) OFF HammockForums. There are plenty of other sites to "discuss" (euphemism for debate and flame) such highly contentious issues. I donate and don't even want to see the poor mods try to keep a lid on it in the off-topic donating members area.

HF is a very, very civil site. Why would anyone want to change that?

[dkurfiss]

Exactly as Dutch stated. Hammock Forums is meant to be focused on Hammocks and while it has expanded to include outdoor gear that is limited to the "donating" section.

Being a donating member is just that, you are donating $ to assist with the expenses incurred to keep this site up and operational. You are not an "owner" in any sense of the work. Even the MODS are not owners. While we get some limited input into operational guidelines, we are unpaid folks who donate our time willingly.

Three topics are completely off limits on HF because they cause so much contention among the members - firearms, religion, and politics. Whether I agree with it or not those items will always get deleted and a PM sent to the user who posted them. I agreed to the Terms of Service when I joined and also when I became a MOD.

Now I am going to close but not delete this thread. I believe the OP has their answer and any further discussion will only lead to debating and the subject is not one that is open to debate.