BGIF, It's certainly true that the mods have no control over advertising, or the thread access issues/problems caused by advertising. I do think however that the mods understand that they are the only conduit to ownership, and there is a level of pain they have to endure because of it. If ownership chooses not to respond, I'm sure the mods are frustrated as well.
...
I"d be interested in hearing what the mods have to say about ownership response, or lack there of. Not holding my breath for obvious reasons though..
Sigh.
My post wasn't very long but obviously you didn't read otherwise your second sentence highlighted in
RED wouldn't have been in your post.
Once again, the Mods communicate with the Administrator(s) and THE Administrator communicates with the owners/tech support.
I'll repeat for the rant frustrated who have it set in their heads how it works rather than how it actually works.
I've been on this board for over 10 years and have served as a volunteer mod twice. I believe you been on the board a year or so less. I've known most of the mods over that time plus the vBook operators who usually aren't mods. Mods deal with threads and posts. vBook operators only deal with the vBook.
When I was a mod, I was a Community Mod which meant I had power (actually it was called Access Privilege) in any Thread in any Forum. The other Mods were limited to one Forum only such as Recruiting. When that Mod was offline no other mod could deal with the trolls and spam. Problems like pissing contests could go on for days or weeks if that Forum Mod was on vacation. Since I had Community Mod Access I could moderate All Threads so I became backstop and read every post every day. When NDinLA came on, he also was a Community Mod and he and I split the backup duty. But if a new recruit committed to ND NONE of the Mods could update the first page. Only the Administrator could do that. When Jason was backpacking across Europe we had outdated information on the front page for months. Eventually I was granted access to the a couple of items on the Front Page like the Recruit Commitment List and I could change that BUT I or no other mod could change things like updating weekly game results.
It was very frustrating. I asked for an email for the owners and was told that was only for Administrator. I asked to be upgraded to Administrator as I was semi-retired at the time and had time to do the job. Although I asked several times I never got a response.
For a long time the board only had one Administrator along with another guy who stopped by now and then, LMI. Today there are 3 or 4 but I don't know that the "newer" Administrators have the ability to communicate with the Owners/Technical Support.
Ask NDinLA. We sent several suggestions up the chain of command but rarely got guidance. We asked for rules/guidelines on "counseling" or banning misbehaving posters as each mod used his own judgement. The response was for us to write it ourselves. NDinLA did and got a ton of flack from people over.
When a technical issue arose and the board crashed, or was crammed with spam, the mods couldn't advise anyone as we had no emails for anyone up the food chain, IE PM was the only mode of communication. Tough to use a PM when the boards down.
The board has grown, different mods and admins are on board now but MODS STILL CANNOT DEAL WITH TECHNICAL ISSUES.
YJ your an oldtimer, you should recall that Jason Svoboda, the guy at GoldHelmet, was the original owner/administrator of IrishEnvy. And he started the board using proprietary software from vBulletin. Svoboda sold the board and moved on. The board has sold at least once since then. At time the only Administrator was a Michigan State fan.
While ownership of IE has changed during the years so has the software to accommodate changing Windows platform, Apple platforms, and browsers, plus tablets, and cell phones and tapatalk, and ... and ... .
Tonight I realized I could not longer see which version of vBulletin we are using. It used to appear at the bottom of a page with a copyright notice about the proprietary software vBulletin version 3.7 or whatever the version was. Couldn't find it tonight. So I went to the vBulletin website and read about all the versions over the years, changing fees and such. Then I saw that the current owner of vBulletin software wanted a cut of the profits of each site using there software. That goes back a couple of years actually.
Then I realized the board is kinda different than the IE board I used over the years. The current complaints aren't the first, I recall people complaining about losing functionality in the Arcade a year or 3 back. I when I searched tonight for other features that seemed or looked different I didn't find them NOR the vBulletin statement at the bottom of the pages.
But on one page I did find where the vBulletin statement used to be ...
vbBux / vbPlaza v1.5.8 coded by CMX at vbPlaza.com*-*Graphics done by tab @ MySpaceRocks.com
Apparently there is different software or a modified form of the vBulletin software being used. Therein may lie the problem ... aside from the fact that
MODS STILL CAN'T FIX TECHNICAL ISSUES.
So stop harassing the mods.
If you must harass someone with your rant, harass THE ADMINISTRATOR.
50 years ago or so there was a saying regarding pecking order, caste systems, and Boston Brahmins that "The Cabots (Senator/Ambassador) speak only to The Lodges, and The Lodges speak only to God."
The mods by comparison couldn't get to speak to the Cabots doorman.
You've been around here long enough to know who to contact. So do it.
By disclosure, I haven't been a mod for years, have never been an administrator and have no pecuniary interest in IE. For the thousands of hours I've put into IE (my wife can testify) I have the enjoyment of a lot of nice people and frustration with a few. Fortunately arthritis in my left thumb precludes me from using a cell phone to access websites, so I don't have the frustrating problem you do.
IF I did, I'd find the decision maker and let him or her know of the problem and advise that if they don't fix it, I'll take my business elsewhere.
Ranting at the mods is bullshit.
BS burnout is one of the main reasons mods quit. Nothing like being a volunteer and getting crap from your "friends"
s:] ???, appeared as a bigger rectangular box (about a 1/2 inch square) with a inverted curve similar to a bell curve and the area below the curve was a light shade of green. 
