I applaud members like hill3 who see through the smoke but still acknowledge the facts, and I agree with the fact of an unpaid person to do a job out of consideration for the sport should be cut some slack. Yes, English and Grammer are all part of a professional press release although 99% of these releases are being written by a paid writer.

I would sooner put up with a couple mistakes then be left out in the cold with no news what so ever from a series.
Can you imagine if someone like Dale JR. was asked to write his own release's....Now that would return a massive amount of mistakes, but in most cases would be over looked because of the writer.

I personally cannot understand why mid writes or posts on here as everytime he does, the Grammer Police are out to get him. When I write articles for mags and forward them on, it's the mags responsability to edit them before they go to press, unless I want to take the position of Writer/Editor and not in a million years will that ever happen for these exact reasons.

I have just joined CRO, but have been a guest for more then two years and felt it was my time to step in and give my two cents worth on situations like this. As a Writer, we have two theory's. The first being tell the storey, and the second is to never rebutale over statements made regarding our intent.
A fellow Journalist once told me regardless what you ever write, only half of the storey will ever be credited, and the other half will be scrutinized by other Writers.
That theory plays into the deck here, but lets face it, the people scrutinizing are not Writers, they are fans.

It is easier to play in the sand box with friends, then it is to have bully's take away your toy's !   

There is a pattern to the recent moderator activities, however, that bothers many of the members.
The OSS representative who posts here tends to make rather wild unsubstantied comments (as Shadowracer himself said on another forum) and others call him out. This usually results in an exchange of comments that lead to insults and end with other people (but not the OSS rep) being moderated. This leads to a perception of favoritism.

In response, and just to be clear, this is what I wrote on that other board. And I stand behind it.

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But as it stands, its hard to say whats up with the OSS. On another board, the OSS brass has been posting some pretty pie-in-the-sky stuff. Other guys are calling them out on it, then animosity and criticism follows and a lot of posts are being deleted. There's ignorance on all sides and its pretty messy. (and I get to moderate it all...woohoo.  >:( )

Strangely, it doesn't seem to stop anyone from forming an opinion anyway. 
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I don't have an exact record of who has been warned/banned/muted in the past. I know we had a few incidents early on with a few members of the Barrie/Sunset crowd. That seems to be fixed. There haven't actually been that many that have been warned.

Let me suggest to not take it personally because a thread you posted in has been deleted. (and again, let me go on record as saying I personally don't beleive in deleting threads...but that is the OP's choice. The CRO mods are not normally in the business of deleting entire threads) The only time you need to take it personally is if you've actually been moderated...meaning we've red texted you and/or a colored dot has appeared on your profile and you received the status of "warned" or some such. 

Fact is, sometimes threads deteriorate so far that there's no point in letting it continue. That is our judgement to make and our cross to bear. It comes down to "is letting this continue good for CRO as a whole, or is it not?". Sure, sometimes there's good stuff posted between the garbage, but as I said earlier, we don't sit here like lifeguards at the beach. Sometimes have to take the attitude that "OK, these guys aren't going to let it go so lock the whole thing and hope that gets the message through."

We don't expect everyone to like it but we do what's best for the site.

As far as the OSS guys getting favored by moderators, you must also realize that this seems to be the big hot-button thing going on here at CRO. No other threads are getting locked because the garbage isn't flying anywhere else. And...just to reiterate again...the OP is usually the one who deletes threads, not us. (Unless the thread is already locked and they can't delete it...then we'll do it if they ask us, same as we would for anyone else.)

I would like to add an admonishment here with regards to the OSS stuff. Quite frankly, the resentment seems to have piled up to the point where MidAmerica can't even say "the sky is blue" without getting called out. We, the mods take a little of the blame for that for not spotting the "fisticuffs" post that started all this. (a little of the blame. Remember no one actually reported it to us.)

But I am gonna say that a lot of the criticisms that have come out are somewhat unfounded. OK, he's said there's potentially 40 cars (or whatever) going to race in the series. maybe thats pie in the sky and maybe it isn't. We don't REALLY know until the first race. Criticising at this point is like criticizing a movie you haven't even seen yet. If you're going to criticize anyway, back it up with something solid...or wait until after the first race and you KNOW how many cars showed up. Then fire away.

And if a press release is full of grammar errors, so what? What's it to you? If I recieve a store flyer that is full of typos, misspellings, bad grammar, and stuff I find hard to beleive, then chances are I won't go to that store. 

But, I'm not going to stand outside their store and picket it in order to show them how smart I am either. If I did, they'd be justified in calling the cops, actually.

So...thats my afternoon ramble.

Trev

midamerica here folks, and I said midamerica not OSS !!
Guess what- I got a warning yesterday from CRO for something I said...fitting but worthy !!
I want to clear up some things in point, just to end the gossip.

#1- I think me and 2fst4u got into it once and I called him out...he didn't show...and we both behaved stupidly. Sorry !
#2- I work for the OSS out of pocket which takes up about 30 hours per week. I write most of the stuff and what I type is true to the best of my ability. If you don't like something I have said email me and we will discuss it like gentlemen.
#3- Yes I did say 40 cars and I also said we were still building the car count. I know this number sounds large but we have been busting our butts to build the OSS and it is slowly paying off.
#4- The Driver Roster to date will go out, but not from me as I think you guys don't believe it. Instead a very worthy member with racing history amongst you will release the list. Dave Alexander is verifying the list and he just emailed me and said there are 40 drivers...soon to come out.
#5- I am a Racer at heart and very competitive. If you crash me I will crash back, thats just my nature. I am sure most of you can admit to the same thing. I cant make excuses for what I say or do, but I can say I stand behind what ever I say and if I am wrong I will admit it.
#6- I have landed a bunch of Sponsors for the OSS, and made allot of deals as well signed allot of tracks.
When I do so I try to keep the members of CRO up to date as that was the agreement between myself and Evan-CRO and will continue to be that way. You will here less of me as now I have to find my own sponsors.
#7- Since joining CRO I have taken note on how the arguments start, (and I have been known to be in the middle of a few), so when I delete something or ask to have it done it's because the basis of the storey was taken over by argument and we don't need sponsors to see that form of bickering.

To all, as I said earlier, I am competitive and will always do what it takes to remain that way. I might argue with 2fst4u or rogerdodger but trust me I spend the same amount of time arguing with folks like NASCAR, or Officials, or even my own Son. That's just the way I am and I mean no harm by it.
If I have offended anyone here I apologize and if I do it again without knowing, tell me.

Happy New Years to all and to all a good night !!!!     

This wasn't the place for this. Let's keep it about moderation policies and not particular posters. This thread is for the mods to express what we're doing because some folks have been wondering. We thought it was time to have a forum on our policies.

This isn't actually about the OSS or Mid or anyone else. We simply use the example to illustrate. Let's keep it that way please.

I would sooner put up with a couple mistakes then be left out in the cold with no news what so ever from a series.

I agree 100%. Over the years, we've lost a lot of good people, just because they have decided it's just not worth it to post on here and that's a shame and a loss to the rest of us who look forward to hearing their opinions!