The Curmudgeonly Trainer

Time for an update on the TRDEV forum (training and development) currently hosted at yahoogroups. First, the number and quality of posts continues to fall from previous years. Attempts (feeble and somewhat pathetic, but at least well meaning) by Owner/Moderator Bev Ferrell to stimulate discussion continue to fail badly, so what remains is the occasional discussions that involve essentially FOUR people out of 4,000+ members - Mr. Woodward, Ms. Ferrell, Mr. Howe, and on occasion Don Clark, who has been absent lately.

More reports are coming out about heavy handed actions by the owner/moderators to control the content, which clearly, has discouraged people from contributing. Censorship appears to have increased. Fred Nickols, a well respected long time member of the training and consulting community posted elsewhere about his posts being censored for posting a LINK, and that, even after what must be 5-10 years of participation the trdev folks mistrust him enough to moderate his posts (ie. censor and control).

The truth is that if the TRDEV folks don’t trust Fred, they won’t trust anyone.

Several other long time respected members have become fed up with the moderators and have decided to leave. Due to the censorship issues, of course, there’s no means for dissatisfied members to voice their dissatisfaction without being censored or being banned. It’s clear to long time members that the most active contributors have almost completely stopped posting.

Clearly, the paranoia about “protecting” community members has gone way over the edge. So, owner/moderators, save the forum for the trainers out there and RESIGN. Particularly Bev Ferrell. For the good of the resource, RESIGN. You’ve had issues elsewhere (on ITFORUM) about being controlling. Give us back OUR community.

There’s more. Another user reports that he was summarily banned from the trdev forum without explanation (even upon asking).

But here’s the kicker: A NEW TRDEV POLICY

Here’s how it goes: (taken from the trdev forum for commentary purposes)

While we appreciate notices of papers and info, the guidelines clearly
state:

We expect list members to refrain from posting links to papers in
messages to the list. This is especially true when the white paper
contains an advertisement for your site and/or services. This also
includes sending members to your site or blog that has commercial
intent with respect to the members. This falls under the commercial
clauses in our guidelines

Read this carefully. If you have a paper or article that YOU have written you are now forbidden to mention it or include a link to it in the trdev messages. if, however, you come across material written by someone else of high quality that you wish to share with other trainers, you may not reference it, post links to it, or anything else, particular if it is “commercial”.

Basically, what this means is that any links besides those from non-profits or governments are not permitted.

Now it may be that this isn’t what they intend. If, however they intend to stop virtually all linking in messages posted to trdev, they’ve lost their minds, and have completely lost an understanding of the Internet, the Web, and linking. In fact, if we can’t share great material, what IS the point?

And if they don’t intend this, or haven’t thought it through, one has to ask: “Are trainers/consultants who are running this show so absolutely stupid and ignorant that they are blind to what they have said?”

So, what’s the alternative? I’ve just joined the ASTD forums. I’ll post something on that soon.