The Pub Discussion Board

At his request, Siath has been removed as a contributor from this website.  If you wish to read his stories, you will have to visit his personal site, at http://www.eutharan.com.  Siath asked to be removed because he strongly disagreed with the Contributor Activity Requirement on this site, which he was in violation of, and did not feel like rectifying the situation.

To explain:  All contributors (authors or artists) on this site are required to actively participate in the site.  That means that they are required to follow forum topics, and to post their opinions/insights regularly.  The arbitrary timeframe I picked to warn folks that they weren't living up to this requirement is three months.  PLEASE NOTE: I do not kick authors out if they have not posted a forum message for three months.  I merely remind them that they have an obligation to participate in the site, and give them a chance to explain their absence to me.  Only if they ignore repeated warnings will I forcibly remove them.  However, in the case of an author who asks to be removed (as Siath did), I am required to do so immediately.

There is a reason for the Contributor Activity Requirement, and it is this:  The Mystic Wolf Pub was not intended to be, and is not, strictly a stories site.  It has always been designed as a community site.  Stories and artwork are the common ground of the community, but they're not supposed to be the point of the website.  This is the reason I have always striven to have stuff on the site that had nothing to do with stories, but everything to do with people interacting.  (Polls, games, recipe books, and so on.)

The contributors are the "leaders" of this community.  They've been given special prominence within the site.  Let's face it:  They're not the ONLY authors and artists that visit here, but they are the ones who get hosted here.  That's a privilege.  In return, I ask that they take an active interest in the community, and an active role in the forum discussions.  That is their responsibility, as a leader of the community.  If one of our "civic leaders" (so to speak) isn't serving his community, then they should be removed and (preferably) replaced with someone who will be interested in being here.

This is the rationale behind the activity requirement.  I don't personally find it to be a draconian requirement, and I have no intention of changing it anytime soon.  It does not require them to post a message daily, weekly, or even monthly.  I believe that anyone - especially an author - should have something to contribute to the community at least once every three months.

I should warn you that Siath is not the only author who has violated the Activity Requirement, and as such, it is possible, though I hope not likely, that other authors may disappear in the next couple months, as well.  I would hope that they would take this opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the community they joined, and will reappear on the forums soon.

Thank you for your time.  We at The Pub wish Siath all the best in his endeavors.
Eric Storm