Statement On Site Content

[Truck4 48]

After lengthy discussions between the webmaster and moderators and input from a large number of members through the boards and in person, we've decided further guidelines and actions are necessary after an abundance of posts from a relatively small number of members that not only violated the forum rules but also offended existing members and lead to unnecessary debate and tension.

There has been an increasing amount of posts from members, hiding in anonymity, that express their uneducated, biased, ignorant and uninformed opinions on matters of which they obviously intend to blast a department or organization they don't like or make a statement that they think is funny and then run and hide behind their screen name.

We, as a group, will not let these boards become another "rant" site. It has become apparent to us that many professional individuals, from all areas of emergency services- paid and volunteer, are turned away from EMTBravo because of the unprofessional and immature threads that, until now, we've given some liberties to.

EMTBravo has the potential to become an even greater resource for all interested members for information, training, news and events, with input from many individuals at the top of their fields. This is something we can all benefit from. This goal cannot be achieved if we continue to allow child-like and unprofessional behavior.

All of us involved with helping the webmaster maintain this site are in favor of a free and open environment, where anyone can ask a question out of desire to improve their knowledge. In light of recent postings, many members resist asking questions because they are often ridiculed, given the wrong information or unintentionally start a debate that has nothing to do with their original question. No one should be afraid to ask a question.

In effort to improve the effective communication on this site, moderators will pay closer attention to content in effort to protect those who honestly and respectfully ask a question. We ask that answers to inquiries be limited to those who are informed and knowledgeable to the material or incident. If a reply is deemed to be an uninformed opinion or other statement detrimental to the original intention, it will be deleted.

In regards to "Monday morning quarterbacking," discussions of incidents will now be limited to 1) accounts by people who were at scene and involved in the operation, 2) additional, factual information not posted in the original IA thread and 3) respectful questions as stated above, some of which will be moved to the appropriate forum.

We also ask for more participation from the members who are involved with departments who operate at scenes posted on the board. There are a group of members who post accounts of incidents they operated at that are well written and well appreciated. If more members become involved in sharing their experiences, tactics and accounts, we can all achieve a better level of learning through this site. In return, the moderators will attempt to ensure you're protected from the bashing and other nonsense that has occurred in the past. Of course, we are not asking for any information of a sensitive nature or an issue that came up that would be better suited for discussion within your department.

A better sharing of information with a stern filtering of nonsense would limit the useless debates that arise over and over again. Speaking of these useless debates, there will be no more 3 page threads on such common topics as "Paid vs. Volunteer," "Yonkers Vs. Everyone," "Police Vs. Fire" and "Blue lights Vs. Red Lights." Most of these issues are a matter of policy, procedure and politics, none of which will be changed or decided upon through these boards. These debates only cause resentment and go against the very intentions of this website.

As a result of these decisions, more posts will be deleted. There are over 2,700 registered users of this site and growing. We need to be responsible with how this site is run, just as the members should be responsible for the contributions to the content. Last week, there were over 200 views of a fire in Armonk in the Incident alert thread during the first hour of the job alone. This site has become a tremendous resource for all members, members who need to be responsible in order to maintain this resource.

Truck4

EMTBravo

EMTBravo Moderators