Ozzie has resigned as an administrator

how posters can expect other posters to abide by "their" rules and thought processes is beyond me. discussing feelings is what a support forum is about. if we are forbidden to disagree with another poster or the administration, what is the point? disagreement can be civil. it can be a learning experience. it seems to me that every time people start posting their viewpoints, it causes a firestorm. i don't think the thread should be locked. i think we can all behave as mature people and go a little easier on each other. i think ozzie would like that.

I also think this thread should not be locked.
imo people should be able to express their grief about this situation and also show support to ozzie.
I think it is more than a shame when disagreement leads to nastiness and fires.

How can we learn if everyone always agrees

Take care,
Fuzzy

ooh, I want to be defensive here. But I will not. I am simply saying what others have said, that we have a greater purpose and that the way we sometimes are unkind to eachother is not helpful. That is why I suggested we lock this thread. If we can learn and grow from it then so be it. I however, do have a problem with people confronting eachother in an abrasive way. We do not know the other and the best we can do is to disagree and state the whys and hows. I am asking for "I" statements. "I" am confused and sad to see Ozzie leave like this. "I" am scared because people seem able to act cruely to eachother on this board at times and that is not in my heart at all. I am scared because I would never want to be treated cruely here. Ozzie, I understand, I really do. I hope that we can stay connected in some way. Sometimes the world just plain rots!

ok.. I have just read all of htis post.. I do not think it should be locked.. we are all greiving and talking about what has happend and if we lock this one, someone will make a new post and it could turn ugly..
We all should hava some sort of place to greive with the loss of a member here in the froum..

I do not agree with the way Ozzie left nor do I agree with the way she was allowed to delte her post yes I do understand they are all the property of us when we make them and it is up to an Admin to be able to do a mas delte of said persons posts..

She has touched so many lives and I will miss her, but we all should remember she left for her own reasons and we have to respect that part of her life.. Not what was done.. What was done was done in hurt we all do thing in hurt and sometimes regert it and may want to undue iit and relize we can not.. So maybe after she is gone for awhile she will want to come back as a member when she needs support if not, then we need to give her space and time..

Things happen in all of our lives that others do not understand and we will never fully understand what happend because it was behind closed "admin" doors.. we have to accpet that and move on..

Let what has happend be ok..

Love to all .. This is just my opinion I was once a mod on here and I fully understand the courage it takes to be one.. ok..

i just miss ozzie. hope you are well ozzie. miss your smiles.

((((((wanttoheal))))))))))

My dear friend, Ozzie-Susan -- missing you --

I hope this thread doesn't get locked-- so if/when Susan comes around she can see how much she meant to so many people!

I very much appreciate all the Admin and moderators--both past and present ones-- and the great work they do for this forum--

Thanks to all of you!!
and--- Susan-- I hope, if someday you wish to return you will do so and be greeted with open arms!

miss you

mandy

I would like to speak for myself in saying that i will not lock this thread. there's too much heart and soul here. IT'S BEEN AN AWESOME THREAD. a couple of disagreements surfaced and were talked about and handled beautifully! THAT'S AWESOME. the focus returned to its basis which was susan's leaving her position as administrator. it was a position she held and maintained with honor and pride.

the removing of posts is a done deal. it would seem we all have a feeling and thought about that and those are diverse and personal. it's alright if someone doesn't share our thoughts and feelings about it. it's what make us unique and our individual contributions so wonderful.

let's mostly agree on this...susan is missed and wished well and we all have feelings about that in one way or another.

thanks for listening.

This is not to anybody in particular. I just want to say that I feel it is very important that we are able and permitted to express our feelings on this site. How can we get support here if we can't? And with so many people here, disagreements are going to happen, and that is okay too. We don't have to all agree or think the same way. How boring would it be if we couldn't disagree and all thought the same? We just have to be able to accept it when we are the one who is disagreed with, and not take it personally. And we need to respect each other's feelings. Feelings are not right or wrong - they just are - and the person having the particular feelings, which is all of us individually, is the one who knows what those feelings are and gets to say how they feel. Everybody else needs to respect that.

I believe in all of you and your abilities to disagree and to work it out when you do. When you need help, let us know and we would be happy to do what we can, but I think it's always best if the people involved are able to have as much say in it as possible. And please remind me if I ever forget that.

you are so right my dearie..

Thank you for saying that..

I am just so sorry Ozzie did decide to leave.. she will be missed by so many..

I lvoed her like a sister and will miss her so much..

As Nightdream I want to say:

Thank you dear Ozzie for all you did for me! Thank you for your kindness, understanding, patience, friendship,caring, warm hugs. Thank you for being YOU!

(((((((((((((((Ozzie)))))))))))))))

with love always
Nightdream

She will be missed. Of that there is no doubt.

This thread will not be locked.

To clarify deleting of posts: We have honored such requests in the past and will honor them in the future. I do, however, usually ask the member to reconsider, and think twice before going ahead and doing it. Mainly because the effect on the community can be pretty severe (as in this case). But in the end, it is the member's perogative.

Thank you for your kind words to and about the folks who help keep the forums running day-in and day-out. It is a mostly-thankless volunteer job done by folks who just want to help out.

DocJohn

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
To clarify deleting of posts: We have honored such requests in the past and will honor them in the future. I do, however, usually ask the member to reconsider, and think twice before going ahead and doing it. Mainly because the effect on the community can be pretty severe (as in this case). But in the end, it is the member's perogative.

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post">

DocJohn,

As a member who took some time away and requested that you delete our account and a certain post (not our entire posting history.....just a single post) we can certainly understand that you do abide by requests of the members and try to respect their wishes. That's a wonderful thing in a person....very compassionate to try to understand when someone is in pain and is hurting and to do what one can to remedy that situation.

The difference here is that when we left, of our own choosing, we asked you as the head administrator to take care of matters instead of deleting our own post. Here it appears that Ozzie took matters into her own hands. She was on par with you as administrator</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>

Ozzie is my co-administrator here and has every authority that I do (including the authority and ability, unilaterally, to suspend or ban members as she sees fit). Obviously I don't bestow this kind of authority lightly, so I trust Ozzie's judgment and ability in all matters having to do with the community here. A note about administrative issues here

</div></font></blockquote><font class="post"> and had access to admin features of this site not available to the average moderator. Previous administrators and moderators have left without abusing their powers as members of the admin/mod team. This was not her perogative to delete posts that were not written by her and in threads not started by her. Ultimately it was up to you as the owner and head administrator to deal with this situation and sadly it seems there is no way to undo the damage done by her unethical mass deletion.

This post is NOT to bash a person but instead to point out large flaws in the system that even allowed for this to occur. There is something largely questionable about moderators or administrators being able to move their own posts. We offer up a suggestion to make that option possible only with two moderators working together......kinda like the fellas launching missles with two keys. Safeguard.

For all those grieiving the loss of their words we join you. For those grieving the loss of a friend we are sorry you are feeling pain.

ZH......I agree....This was well writen and why I mentioned that in the future Dr John may want to not allow the keys to one's own thread IF he doesn't wish for this to happen again. I see it as his call and Ozzie had the choice at the point she left and chose it I cannot fault her for that.

Instead of seeing the negative over a member who had the power to delete her own posts...let us focus not on what action she took but the fact that she TOOK that action.
Her posts were HER. And she was hurting so deeply that when she decided she had to leave she TOOK ALL OF HERSELF with her.
It doesn't truly matter if we agree on who should have the power to delete, edit blah blah blah.
What matters is that a part of the core of this community basically committed forum suicide. She ended her life here on grohol...this is what saddens me the most.
This is what I have trouble dealing with.
This is what burdens my soul. That this Susan Jane misses Susan Jane (Ozzie) that has torn herself away from us.
Let's stop bickering about what we think is right or wrong and see how we can never allow another member of our community to just abandon us like this.

Hey sj, I wish you peace. be well.

I am myself very neutral on it and see it as Ozzies call...she did what she wanted to and if she wants to email her friends she will. I am not brickering myself I just see an adult who chose to do what she wanted
and I wish her well..She can come back and may we don't know

I'm NOT answering anyone in particular, just voicing MY OWN opinion:

Because of the inability to practice any kind of resolution on the board, if this thread gets locked, we will all again have to swallow our feelings and not resolve a thing, yet again!

As for me, I completely understand why Susan totally deleted herself and her life here. What she gave was from her HEART, something that this site so painfully lacks. Not from the membership but from some moderators on up to the administrator/owner of the site. Some few years back, I was also co-administrator of a site and for reasons that I won't mention, I decided to leave and yes, I "picked up all of my toys and went home." I felt like I had been taken advantage of, had been screwed over by the other administrator and why should I leave all the information and love I had shared?? It wasn't appreciated by my partner nor some of the more active of the members that were taking the information I had given and trying to start their own websites! HELL NO! I had my heart, blood, sweat and tears in those posts! They were MINE! They were ME, ME, ME!! No one was going to use ME anymore than they were going to use my WORDS. I don't blame Susan one little bit!!! BUT... it does HURT LIKE HELL!! When she made her dicision, it was because she HAD TO TAKE A STAND. For her, there WAS NO choice. When she left she tore the very HEART out of this site. You bet it hurts!! Doesn't any one of you stopped to think how much PAIN SHE IS IN??? I seriously doubt it!

I cry for Susan, not for myself...

Yes I cry for Susan. it is a miserable place to be and I understand she takes her words because they are hers. Our words are our power.

Maybe you need to read my post Semptember morn a few before yours to see that I do get the pain she was in. So, please, don't doubt what I already said.
I think she is in excruciating pain. And I am sure that if she knew we were aching and going through this "back and forth" on what is right and what wasn't it would only be more frustrating for her.
She did what she did for her reasons. I get that.
Don't assume in such grandiose ways....

Sigh. Though Ozzie did delete all her precious words, even if it had not been her capability to do so and needed DocJohn to do that, wouldn't the end result be the same? He would have honored her request, imo, just like he does with us.

I hope everyone reads ALL the posts on this thread and not react to only a few, unless clearly designated. We are all hurting, sharing that hurt is one thing, attacking another member for their feelings (which we may have misread) is another. It is common to misread and jump to conclusions when we ourselves aren't seeing clearly (though we think we are.) I, personally, select the option to preview every one of my posts before submitting it.. just to try and keep my own thoughts in line.

to Ozzie
to the site's members
to those just reading and haven't joined yet

I agree with Sky and so many of you, Yes Ozzie is in pain, yet she chose to back away, greive but do not bury her, she may be back, as many of us have returned so might she
Angie

I appreciate the reminder that I can make the choice to preview my posts before submitting, I can slow down and even take some time and distance before I post, and I can remember to keep tabs on how I am doing emotionally and mentally.

for Ozzie
all of us
Sky for the inspiration

Sarah

oh come on folks. be real. This situation really rots. Yes Ozzie is with us. She is another soul we have connected to. This whole thing makes me angry and I don't ever recall sharing that here. I wish life were more simple and all of this stuff didn't need to be.

as long as we remember the good Ozzie will always be here