If you visit Ann Coulter’s official site (anncoulter.com) you will notice that she has a link there to her official chat room (Ann Coulter Official Chat or ACOC). It has been a lively discussion board for a number of years. It has built up a large membership and was managed by an active group of volunteers (administrators and moderators).
If you’ve never managed a web forum, it is not a simple task and the work never stops. The membership requests have to be monitored and scrutinized; discussion threads have to be supervised and checked for content; and complaints from and about board members have to be processed and judged. It is a thankless and difficult task on most boards, but on a board with the exposure of an Ann Coulter (with countless sycophants and detractors out there) the task is exponentially more complicated.
I’ve been a member of Ann’s board for quite some time. Over the years I’ve been banned, I’ve been insulted and I’ve met a lot of great minds there. I should say here that my sister was a very popular moderator on the board. As a moderator she had to endure personal threats, rude comments, suggestive insults, attacks on her integrity and scathing accusations. She suffered these things and did her job because she believed in the cause of conservatism and she believed in what Ann Coulter was trying to accomplish.
But all of that changed in the wink of an eye last Saturday morning.
In one fell swoop, the entire group of moderators who had worked so hard for so many years keeping ACOC a congenial and well-run enterprise was summarily dismissed without notice and without explanation. Current and former ACOC members (most of whom were banned from the site ages ago) were installed. Extensive changes were announced to the regulars with a thread entitled “There’s a New Sheriff in Town”. Rules that had been painstakingly measured out over years and designed to keep the large, national room functioning were jettisoned. Other banned members rejoined within minutes (it was obvious that they knew something was about to happen before it happened). The coup was bloodless, but not without injury.
One of the dismissed moderators (a Minuteman) who had given five years of free service to Ann lamented that he never even received a thank you. The initial chaos and move towards a more lax approach to decorum eventually led to longtime and faithful members leaving the board. A new board called “Covert Conservatives” sprang up the same day and soon approximately 70 of the best and most loyal ACOC posters had joined (a significant number when you consider the number of regular, daily participants). Their chief complaint? The shabby way in which the change was handled.
Many of Ann Coulter’s most devout fans are still in shock. Some have adopted a wait-and-see attitude but already evidence of a new direction is apparent.
There is little concern about the new moderators (they have their own work ahead of them). What they knew and when they knew it is far less important as to when Ann knew it and why she didn’t handle this major transition with more care. There is also the lingering of question of why such an abrupt change was completed is such a harsh manner?
If you showed up at work one day after years of service for no pay only to find the doors locked and someone sitting in your office, I don’t think you’d be too pleased if the owner refused to give you an explanation.
It may be just another internet board to some, but when you attach your name to it and provide a link on your web site, you must bear the responsibility for what happens in your name. These changes did not happen without approval from Ann. She may not owe anyone an explanation, but I believe both a “Thank You” and an apology are in order.
Politics can be a dirty game, but you're not supposed to spit on your own team.