Good morning to you all. As some of you know, AGORACOM Member "Hoov" was banned from the site a few days ago. Though a ban is fatal for most members, bans are also used as a cooling off period for good members that have gone offside and need to walk it off.
To say that Hoov is a good member is an understatement. He is easily in the top 10 most influential members of all time and has quite often been a sounding board for me personally in years past with respect to potential site upgrades and other important matters. His community votes, rating and rank unequivocally illustrate his value to fellow members and his ability to fairly apply the AGORACOM rules over all these years.
Having said that, like all active and high profile members of any community (digital or real world), controversy is certain to arise. That is the nature of the beast when you stick your neck out there. Trust me, I know this all too well. What is the old saying? "To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing and be nothing".
In the case of the Zenyatta HUB, in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety or conflicts of interest, our community director asked Hoov to refrain from exercising his HUB Leader authorities. Hoov honored that agreement up until a few days ago when an objectionable post was made here (more on that in a minute). As a result, our CD had no choice but to "ban" Hoov for the transgression, even if the action was warranted. At the end of the day, no member is bigger than the AGORACOM community. Not even myself.
Hoov understands that that and has formally / unequivocally apologized. I expected nothing less from him. As a condition of the reinstatement, Hoov will refrain from exercising any HUB Leader authorities over the Zenyatta board despite having algorithmically earned them.
To this end, I want to close with the following. I created AGORACOM for one simple reason. ~ 15 years ago, I grew tired of stock discussion forums that became nothing more than platforms to launch personal attacks on people. I started AGORACOM based on the principle that discussing and debating ideas would unleash the brightest minds in the small cap space. Many thought I was crazy but time has proven me right.
Keep this in mind as you continue to grow and cultivate this incredible ZEN HUB. As hard as it may be sometimes, you must focus on the ideas not the individuals. We're all real people behind these avatars at the end of the day. We all have our biases and motivations. Some obvious, some not so obvious. When you attack indiviudals themselves, however, you can unwittingly end up hurting them. This is why personal attacks are strictly prohibited. We have zero tolerance for them. Members that persist with personal attacks will be banned. Period. There are plenty of other sites for that kind of behaviour.
By debating ideas, we end up making each other better informed, leading to better decisions that are free from biases and motivations. Most importantly, we end up maintaining the greatest small cap community on the planet.
Thanks to all of you that continue to take the time to make AGORACOM the smartest small-cap platform on the web. It is deeply appreciated and I wish you continued growth and success.
Regards,
George
