<3 Hearties.

For sure!

Thump me hard.

The politics forum is more tribal and full of high conflict yet it seems to me it receives less bans than the soap forum?

It's nastier, but busier and more fun

It does get a bit much though, some of the long term viewers can get very nasty due to their obsession with the show

I was called thick by them and told I didn't deserve to watch Big Brother, and that I didn't 'get' the show like they do

I can just imagine her being a lawyer with all the innuendos, God, I love P.

It's just symptomatic of the decline of soaps in general. They attract less viewers; consequence fewer viewers to fill online forums.

In another decade this place will be a ghost town.

Bands won't play no more? Too much fighting on the dance floor?

Didn't realise you were into all that malarkey.

Maybe impersonating and baiting other posters is one of the things that drive people away. Also maybe derailing threads with stories that are not on topic and chatting to friends is another thing that bores people off the forum.

Ah aah ahh aah ahh ahh ahhh ahhh ahh ahh ah ah ahhhh! Doo doo doo doo di da dahhh!

I hope I never meet her under those circumstances, she'd probably throw the book at me for liking Alfie Moon!

nah cant be that thats been Happening for years Drama and banter was what kept this place alive

Much as it pains me to agree with you Rotter, () I must admit I do think the Soap Forum would benefit from a general 'Chatter' sub-forum, (up there alongside the Appreciation and Games sub-forums). That way fms could do just that - chat with their friends about stuff only tenuously soap-related. They can go there for their social intercourse and leave the genuine soap topics threads to people who are interested in discussing particular soap topics.

At very worst, since a minority of fms clearly insist on reporting threads that they consider off topic or chat, those threads could be moved into Chatter, rather than being deleted altogether. (A good example being the 'Joining Soap Characters' Names Together' thread yesterday, which although being a soap thread about soap characters's names, disappeared entirely yesterday.)

So sad to hear some of the regular posters have gone. Shame.

Some posters we don't see a lot of are those who only post when their faves get criticised and spout absolute nonsense in their defence. None are mentioned here or have posted on the thread!

Yes JoyofPat is still around I seen some of is comments on other threads the other day

Its a Shame theyve all dissapeared but one day they shall come back, yes they shall come back...

They'll be back faster than Patsy Palmer can slate Eastenders before joining again.

That's my reaction every time EE shows Max seducing yet another nubile young lovely.

It's a tricky one trying to keep everyone happy, the posters quoted as being MIA and being missed are the funny, chatty ones. And there's only so much you can post about Phil Mitchell or Ken Barlow's sex kimono.

So all the more reason to have a Chatter sub-forum. Maybe those funny chatty ones wouldn't have left/been banned if they'd had some legitimate place to just chat randomly with their DS friends. Wouldn't that keep everyone happy? (Particularly since, if we're honest, the chatty ones are in a minority. The majority, funny and otherwise, do tend to want to comment on the myriad various aspects of their favourite soaps, which is fine as this is after all a Soap forum).

The trouble is, they can't really cater specifically to the soap forum.

If they gave a random chatter sub-forum for soaps, they'd have to give it to every other forum too which would be too much effort. Therefore I think the actual chatter forum is enough.

I think mods should loosen up, sometimes the odd off topic discussion or the odd argument is needed. If it gets too much then fair enough, closing/deleting threads and banning members should take place, but I think they should wait and see what happens first.

Or a sensible option would be to only consider banning members and deleting threads if there are complaints, as if nobody is that troubled by the situation then I don't think it's worth taking action

And at the same time if they did that then we'd have to take some responsibility too and learn to keep it to a limit.

BiB 1) - I agree, but experience tells us that the chatty ones don't really want to hide their shining lights under a General Chatter backwoods bushel, which is why they don't go there in the first place.

BiB 2) I also agree but tbh, by and large, I think the mods do mostly just act on complaints by a very few serial reporters, hence I have said on several occasions maybe there needs to be a minimum number of complaints received before any action is taken. At the moment, too often I notice a single post on a thread complaining it is off topic, too rude to an actor or whatever, and shortly after, the thread is closed. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes...........

Other than that I would think the mods should just concentrate their efforts in removing threads/posters which clearly leave them open to legal action, (libel etc).

I think it will pick up as we head into the dark evenings and colder weather. No one is bigger than the forum but there does seem to be an influx of newer members. I guess that's just the way it goes, lots of posters have disappeared since I joined. The newbies keep it fresh. This forum is very friendly and I think people notice it more when someone goes missing for a while. I find twitter useful to see if they're still alive and kicking.

A lot of the members mentioned do still post, just not as often and I think a lot of that is down to the Mods clamping down on the more fun threads where members have a laugh. Yes, sometimes it's warranted but when they do it all the time, it takes a lot of fun out of the place and people are afraid to post in case of a ban. Bans seem to be handed out for the littlest things.

Dan and sorcha are on breaks. I hope they come back but I'd understand if they didn't. They're sometimes subjected to nastiness for simply stating their opinion and supporting EastEnders. Let's face it, the EE fans didn't have much to shout about last year but there's only so long you can ignore the pettiness before it gets to you. Others like SallyArmy and blue angel I miss but it's the nature of a forum.

I'd like to plea to the Mods to be a bit more lenient.

It is clear to me that there are different rules for different posters. Some people get banned for next to nothing and some posters seem to be able to derail threads and chat and flirt with no problem whatsoever. Whether you agree with those actions being offences which deserve bans is not the issue. The issue is that they are against the t and c of the forum but bans are invoked on an inconsistent basis.