Hi, guys ... one thing this forum needs is faster confirmation emails. 6+ hours is for the birds. <sigh> Probably to keep out the trolls, right? Could at least mention that you'll have to wait, though.
Anyhow, I've spoken with MR from time to time about internet things and as an internet professional, I sense they spend more time thinking about their current big profit center ... the paper publications.
This internet thing is a sideline ... and they don't necessarily have it all figured out yet, nor even know how to handle it sometimes. No slight on them, it's true of many businesses who's main line of business is not technology.
When something like just what happened comes at them, they are kind of caught off guard ... since it's a sideline anyhow (in their minds), then let's just shut the thing down and take some time to think.
I agree it's a bit of an over reaction, but I also don't think they will take to the offers of volunteer moderation
of their forum either. It's the whole notion of "giving away the keys to the company to outsiders who don't work for us" that probably won't fly with them.
But can you really blame them? Consider: I get volunteers who want to help me on the Siskiyou Line from time to time, and I've learned something: having the motivation doesn't mean you are any good at it. So unless I know the person has the skill in the area they are volunteering for, I just smile and say thanks, but tell them that's a part of the hobby I like to do.
So in that sense, I can see MR's position ... what if they turn the moderation over to some volunteer moderators and their moderation skills suck? Now your forum has really gone south, made you look like a dufus, and now you have to make some people mad by telling them they suck as moderators. What fun is that?
Still, there is a mentality with the internet that is more community and flies in the face of the close-to-the-vest approach to business. Witness the open source movement, for example. Everyone gets together with a common interest and we write software together for the benefit of all.
And the amazing thing is it's working! The technology businesses like IBM, Sun, etc are getting it. Kalmbach is basically a hobby media business, and they will need to dramatically embrace the internet as the primary media vehicle of the future if they are going to survive much past the next decade.
So to keep up with the times, anyone in the business of presenting information to people needs to see the internet as more than just a sideline, and you need to embrace the community mindset that's building some great resources over the internet for us all.
How they handle this latest debacle with the MR forum will tell us if they are starting to "get it" with regard to the internet. For example, take the folks that volunteered and ask for their forum moderation credentials, similar to what you would do for an job interview. Pick a couple really qualified volunteers and offer them a free subscription to MR as payment if they do a good job.
Okay, my turn to get off the soapbox.