There has been a JustinGuitar āforumā for many, many years. LievenDV has been a constant, a moderator from the beginning. I became a moderator in the early days too.
This Community was created in testing mode on 01 December 2021 and went public on 01 January 2022 with a full migration from the old forum. That is a total of 1588 days.
In that time I have been present and active in the Community on all but eleven days. Three of those were in the first month when the Community was still a private test space. That means I have missed just eight days in the four years and three months since it went public. Those days of āabsenceā are detailed below.
December 2021 to April 2026 - Complete summary of all āabsentā dates:
| Year | Dates |
|---|---|
| 2021 | December 3, December 7, December 13 |
| 2022 | November 24 |
| 2023 | May 26, June 14, October 27 |
| 2024 | February 22, April 11, June 13 |
| 2025 | June 19 |
| 2026 | None |
Come rain, shine, holiday, illness or other, I visit the Community to keep up with the questions, issues and conversations, to respond and help as much as I can and to moderate where it may be needed.
During that time I have read more than 168,000 posts (averaging about 100 per day) in over 14,000 topics and written over 9,500 posts myself (averaging over 6 per day). I have made thousands of moderator āinterventionsā.
As a community member, have I ever posted something frivolous or pointless, have I ever joined in with silly conversations or responded with levity and emojis? Yes, of course I have. I want to enjoy myself here just as much as anyone.
As an admin / moderator - as with all admins and moderators - my remit is to oversee the Community in a way that helps to ensure it runs according to some very simple and reasonable guidelines that Justin expects, in parallel with the philosophy and ethos of his business model. Most of these can be encapsulated in a few simple phrases - be positive and pay-it-forward.
In that role, have I ever made a misstep when moderating or making actions decisions?
Yes, very probably. In fact the chances are high indeed - who is perfect and never makes a mistake or a decision they come to have second thoughts about in retrospect?
I undoubtedly made such a lapse last week. And it caused some friction and dissatisfaction among several members. There were no major breaches of our ārulesā as we do not have explicit guidelines concerning the use of polls or the quantity of new topics a user may make. I was responding negatively to what I saw as a flood. In hindsight, my reaction did not warrant a community-wide admin announcement. For my error in judgement and the upset caused - directly to those members whose posts prompted my comment and indirectly to those unhappy with the moderation - I apologise. I messed up, plain and simple.
I value this community and the people in it far too much to let a lapse in judgement cloud the great work we do here together. My goal remains the same: to keep this a supportive, positive space for every guitar player, regardless of where they are on their journey.
Richard
