Somewhat off-topic

O.Julien, I agree with everything that you posted. My response is long, and I apologize, in advance.

A little over a year ago, I was "elected" to be a moderator of a few forums - a duty that I neither wanted, nor asked to be considered for. Because of the behaviors of some of the other moderators, I quit within about 10 days after I agreed to act as a moderator. Moderator training consisted of learning the technical aspects of forum board management. There was no training, whatsoever, to help build an understanding of boundaries, appropriate online behavior, deflation of ego, maintaining objectivity, etc. My feeling was (and, remains) that ANY moderator should have been chosen by the webmaster, or should have been a volunteer AND that they should ONLY moderate forums with which they had no direct, personal involvement - meeting those criteria would have helped to keep the boards true, honest, and devoid of personal ego.

Having a site-wide "election" for moderators was, without parallel, the worst possible idea. Rather than choosing moderators for their abilities to remain neutral and objective, it became a popularity/knowledge-based contest. Some of the members with the most knowledge about a particular protocol or therapy were the worst choices as moderators simply because they were (and, remain) incapable of remaining objective and neutral towards those members who weren't as knowledeable as they were. In my humble opinion, this completely defeats the purpose of Curezone.com to educate rather than medicate. People seeking knowledge should never be made to feel inadequate or insignificant because they can't spell like a PhD, are ignorant of human anatomy and physiology, or that they are not fluent in organic chemistry.

Members who routinely use forum boards to sell their products and/or services have the option to advertise FOR FREE in the Marketplace Forum. Any blatant promotion of products and/or services in a discussion/support forum should be deleted and the member banned from the forum for a specific amount of time until they come to the understanding that Curezone.com is not "all about them." Vendors should feel comfortable to post in the Marketplace Forum, ONLY.

With regard to online aliases, we've all done it at some time in our Online Lives either at Curezone.com, on AOL, or some other ID-specific site. With that in mind, we must all try to be forgiving and, for those who have used aliases to intentionally and deliberately damage other members, they should apologize (using their anonymous ID, if necessary). Online Life presents a very tantalizing and tempting venue for us to "re-invent" ourselves. It's one of the pitfalls of the anonymity of the technological superhighway of the internet. Yeah, being honest and true is often very difficult, particularly with the temptations presented by complete anonymity. But, that's when we need to remember what Curezone.com was initially developed for. Either we are here to learn and teach, or we're here to manipulate and control - plain and simple.

Just my 2 cents. Best wishes.