a few questions.
1).  You have some very pissed off members.  Some long time members, some not so long time.  Are you worried about that?
2).  You have some new members that are being very vocal without any real contributions to the site other than becoming a top poster,  Does that make you question their motives?
3).  You are going to internally moderate all the boards.   What makes you think that you can do this for any lenght of time as it will get old and personal as it always does, then what do you do?
4).  This is a money maker  site But if you think you can bring this manestream give us your grand plan.

I find how you posed question#4 very amusing. It's as if you were sitting on the TER Board of Directors and grilling its CEO.

Are you going to ask TER next to present its 5 year proforma P&L, as well as its 2013 Marketing Budget plan too?

I thought even you would leave this alone

What kind of statement does that make when many of the Top 100 Ladies won't even come here and participate because the environment is so hostile?  

they might not need all that extra attention

they do not need to be.  They are in the top 100.  They may not want to participate at this level to avoid any problems that arise.  It is very easy to irritate someone with a off the cuff comment and it could cost them business.  I have seen many ladies shoot themselves in the foot by posting here and going off.  The men are no angels either but we are not her to round up work.  yes we should be nicer but this is a adult board with adult topics and a thicker skin might be needed.

I agree with some of your points.

But when did being an adult board with adult topics mean that it is acceptable behavior to be rude, insensitive, and mean to others, to the point where having a "thicker skin" might be needed?

TER obviously does not believe that need be the case. Neither do I.

Then they do not know much about how these types of sites work. IMO, the changes make sense as they have explained them, which does not mean you, me or anyone else will, or will not like them. It only means they have certain goals, mostly pretty obvious, and the changes are meant to help them move toward those goals.

Traffic is king. That is what brings in the money. So they want to hold onto the traffic they have, and add new traffic.

A major goal is to convert more of the new visitors into regular users, based on what they have been saying and the types of changes being made. And if you look at some of the site analytics, you will see that traffic has been pretty consistent, but click through from searches has been dropping pretty significantly, which is a worrisome trend long term. So they want to make the site more "welcoming."

I guess the question is whether TER is primarily a sort of virtual saloon where people come to hang out and shoot the breeze, or a hobbying resource used by hobbyists and providers to find and screen each other. I think it is the latter, and the former is just a minor sideline that naturally grew out of that. So do not imagine that this board is terribly important. In fact, the message is pretty clear - this is the tail, no matter how loudly it screams, the dog is not letting the tail wag it.

But then, I never liked a lot of the stupid, snarky crap that passed for conversation here, anyway.

zig

Ladies use aliases too! Wait! Aren't you a lady posting with an alias?