Over the past few days I've heard some remarks and seen some actions taken which have deeply worried me. Over these days I have seen the community which I care so much about damaged greatly due to fighting and anger within it. From this, I have seen emotions pouring out from every side of every disagreement, every message board thread, and in general, every site. I have seen people from both sides of every argument rush to the defense, and in many cases offense, of their argument. In general, I have seen more separation in this community over the past 48 hours then I have seen in months, maybe longer. Egos have clashed, emotions have raged, and the leaders of the websites in our community have been openly attacked for various reasons. There is no way anyone in this community who reads these boards has gone unaffected by this, I know that for a fact.

I haven't been very vocal the past few months, but my support and love for this community have continued to grow every second. With this in mind, you can imagine how an event like this which is tearing our community apart affects me. I'm never one to jump to a conclusion or pick a side; I always look at an overview of a problem and work to find a solution. After holding off on commenting on any thread over the past few days, I felt I must step forward and do everything in my power to pull things back together.

In any community, or even just any group of people, there are always going to be conflictions between various people. That’s just the way of the world; nothing is going to keep problems from occurring like this every now and again. However, what can be done is to work in a resolute way in order to solve the problems instead of making them worse. Arguing your side of the problem won't help anything, I think we've all seen this over the past few days. The only way to really solve any problem is to drop your ego & pride for a few minutes and look at the other side of the argument in order to really understand where the other person is coming from. Many times just by taking a clear look at the other side's feelings on the issue you can come to a resolution. Other times the best way to get past a problem or confliction is just to be the mature one and drop the argument. If you can gather the strength to say “you know what, let us forget about who is right or wrong here, let’s just move on for the good of the community”, you will be able to overcome many disagreements. Sure, you won't win any arguments, but you'll gain more respect by handling your problems in this fashion.

Those who I respect most are the ones who constantly prove themselves to be level-headed, and I honestly believe that those running any site in our great community will not get very far without this skill. This also applies to any member of the community, as you will clearly make a better image of yourself in people's mind by always being diplomatic. All of this said, I urge everyone to look past the arguments at hand, and work to find a solution for them rather then continuing to argue. As I said earlier, sometimes the best way to solve things is to really understand the other person's side rather then trying to play offense. Always remember, even though you might not agree with what the other person has to say, they always have reasoning in their head for getting mad. The trick is, figure out why, and help them solve the problem.

I truly hope that over the next 48 hours things will begin to turn around and everyone involved will begin to regain respect from those they had differences with. I honestly believe everyone in this community is a good person, and I think we can work together to heal the community. Our community needs to continue to grow and get stronger, and in order to do that, we really need everyone's support. Please, let us work together to make this happen. Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
David Gorman