I think this is really unfortunate.
We seem to have lost a long term and respected member over something that clearly many think is trivial. Many people have gotten angry and said some things in less than professional ways.
It seems from the exchange shown early in thread, that
the original request was respectfully made by mods, and again respectful from mods on the repeat. While I totally understand a member not wanting to arbitrarily give up an avatar that he had used for a long time, and I think he had the right to respectfully request a reconsideration or additional reasons, but it seems, to me by simply saying I am leaving and starting this thread was not a helpful way to respond.
I found the image unattractive, but was not offended, perhaps because I had no clue until today what it was from (I never watch horror movies). I had always assumed it was just a really unflattering picture of Elad!
A few times over the decades through my work I had to deal with situations that at first to me seemed someone unreasonably sensitive about something, but when I knew the entire story, I could see why they reacted so strongly to something that others felt was fine. That is why a vote, even if it was set up correctly, and voted on by more than about 0.05% of the monthly visitors to NamePros, would still not be the right way to decide an issue like this. I did not vote and do not plan to.
Mods have an incredibly difficult job, and all of us should go out of our way to be respectful and understanding, while at the same time communicating if we think they are off-base with a decision.
Perhaps this is already in place, but
I wonder if what we need at NamePros is some sort of an appeal mechanism, not one with power to change what the admin and mods decide, but as a sober second look that they would consider in a reconsideration of a disputed decision. Several respected people who would confidentially look at issues brought to them, provide an opinion, which both sides would consider. At the very least it would provide a brief cooling off period so perhaps things like this would not explode in a matter of hours.
On some of the general issues raised earlier in the thread, I personally do support a more professional tone for NamePros, at least in the sections which are open to Google search. I think it is in all of our interests to be part of a professional domain organization that can facilitate our development as domain investors, and that has a positive public face to a much broader world.
While frankly, until today I had never thought much about avatars, I think what we need is
some general guidance about what is and is not allowed, and some sort of phase-in period after the community has discussed in detail the new guidelines. I think the abruptness of the request was part of the issue here, and probably feeling singled out (or have others been asked to change avatars?) While I would prefer if everyone used a professional avatar, I realize that different people have different styles. I have wondered about the copyright or TM infringement issues with some images used. That seems incongruent with our general agreement that registering TM names is wrong.
I hope this can be unwound and some sort of satisfactory resolution found.
Bob
