I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mark Rubin, beloved moderator of the HD DVD/BD sections, has stepped down from his position here at AVS. Apparently, the format war has become too ugly (hard to argue with that) and he decided he'd had enough. While I can't really blame him, it's still a bummer.

He's given a lot of years to this forum and he's put in a ton of work trying to keep this place as orderly as possible. With that said, I would like this thread to be a sort of memorial for our "fallen" comrade - please keep any and all comments positive.

ahhh....so sad, but then again, I picked my sig for a reason.

Best of luck to you, Mark! Thanks for all of your hard work here at AVS.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mark Rubin, beloved moderator of the HD DVD/BD sections, has stepped down from his position here at AVS. Apparently, the format war has become too ugly (hard to argue with that) and he decided he'd had enough. While I can't blame really blame him, it's still a bummer.

Mark, I am sorry to see this get to you and lose a "voice of reason". It has to have been tough/mentally draining over the last year. I hope you'll drop by and put in your 2c every once in a while.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Mark Rubin, beloved moderator of the HD DVD/BD sections, has stepped down from his position here at AVS. Apparently, the format war has become too ugly (hard to argue with that) and he decided he'd had enough. While I can't blame really blame him, it's still a bummer.

He's given a lot of years to this forum and he's put in a ton of work trying to keep this place as orderly as possible. With that said, I would like this thread to be a sort of memorial for our "fallen" comrade - please keep any and all comments positive.
sad because he was very level headed contributor from casual observation :(

can't blame him though... you'd have to be nuts to deal with grown men acting like toddlers bickering about hd discs they'll never watch twice.

the fanboys are screwed up this forum in the past 18 months, that is for sure.

the owners of avs sure don't seem to care... seems to be good for their google analytics, advertising and such.

hurray to progress!

The format war has been hard on everyone over the past year.

Hats off to you Mark, as a fellow moderator from another forum.

Well, you couldn't pay me to moderate the HDM sections on AVS. I honestly can't blame him, I hope he comes back once the war ends.

Thanks for all your contributions Mark! Hope you are still active as a member.

However, I have you say, good timing. This mess is only going to get more out of control going into Q4 and CES.......

thanks Mark. Sorry you're stepping down. But understandable.

Thanks for the hard work Mark.

Cya mark! Enjoy your time off, watch some blu-rays!
:rolleyes:

Thanks for doing a thankless job Mark.

Mark thanks for the evenhandedness and respect you brought to the forums. You will be missed.

Mark thanks for the evenhandedness and respect you brought to the forums. You will be missed.

My feelings as well.

I just wanted to say thanks as well Mark for a job well done.

Well that sucks.

Take it easy Mark; you’ll be missed. Get back in touch with the real reason we’re all here- watching movies and listening to music with the best equipment our wives will let us buy! :D

He was always advocating "attack the post, not the poster". Unfortunately, this was more likely than not ignored in almost ever format battle thread.

Mark - thank you the time and effort keeping things sane around here. It is not an easy job. Best of luck to you.

He was always advocating "attack the post, not the poster". Unfortunately, this was more likely than not ignored in almost ever format battle thread.

YES... attacking the poster is back on the table!

J/K Sad to see him step down

I think we'll all miss you, Mark, and appreciate all the hard work you've put in. Enjoy the rest and enjoy some movies.

Sorry to see you go, Mark. Your voice of reason was appreciated in many threads. Our loss.

What a loss - can someone adjust his meds and get him back? :)

Mark is too nice :)

Thanks for your time and demeanor Mark. :)

I can't blame you Mark, but thanks for the enormous effort you put in.

You will be missed.

Thanks for all the hard work.

To the remaining mods, your efforts are also always appreciated and thanks in advance for your future works.

The mods here are the reason this place is the best place on the planet to discuss this stuff.

Mark, if your at CEDIA next month, your drinks are on me, after you run out of tickets .

BTW, AFAIK, Mark Rubin has only retired as a moderator.

He will continue to post on AVS as a civilian poster.

Looking forward to continue seeing his wisdom, unencumbered by the mod hat.

I've always enjoyed his posts with the mod hat off.

I realize I won't make any new friends with this post- and there is no disrespect for Mark Personally

But something just doesn't compute.

Most (all?) here think that the forum has gone down in the last year and 1/2 due to all the juvenile fanboy nonsense, yet at the same time everyone is praising the moderator.
I realize the work is tedious & thankless (and I sure as hell wouldn't want it)- but wouldn't all the "shame whats happened here"'s imply that it was mostly ineffectual as well?

I wish Mark nothing but the best in the future, I'm just curious at the disconnect I seem to see.

Good luck in your endeavors. I wish you success and good health

I wish Mark nothing but the best in the future, I'm just curious at the disconnect I seem to see.
I think this is a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". One could try a very heavy handed approach of post deletion, thread deletion, warnings and banning, and still (I suspect) find little different in these forums. The more one engages in being that kind of cop over what should be adult behavior, the more one gets frustrated and disillusioned with human nature. Spending time tracing down new user ids for banned members - *gack* what a miserable job. Can you imagine the vitriolic backlash from those who would claim that there was bias and favoritism in what was deleted and who was banned?

Instead, Mark regularly tried to nudge people in the direction of civility. I appreciate his constant attempts to be positive in the face of all of the crap he had to deal with as moderator. For me, when the fanboyism gets too much, I just limit my reading of the BD/HD DVD area (spend more in the audio, display areas and over on dbstalk). And make liberal use of the Ignore function. But when you moderate, you have to constantly muck out the barn -- no getting away from the smell. You can't put the egregious violators on Ignore.

Mark - thanks for your hard, and thankless (until now) work! Load up your Ignore list now. I look forward to your continued level-headed reasoning in posts in the future.

Ken

I hate to see a good guy burnt out by something like this. I happen to like the fanboy debates over the formats, but I can see how many in this forum would rather talk about the movies. Perhaps if they created a forum just for debating the format-war (you know, anything goes), then this forum could return to some sanity and maybe it wouldn't be so time consuming and stressful for Mark.

I'm sorry to see Mark go. He was a reasonable guy. Until problem members start being temporarily or permanently banned for disobeying the rules, it's not going to change around here. Sad, but true.

I hate to see a good guy burnt out by something like this. I happen to like the fanboy debates over the formats, but I can see how many in this forum would rather talk about the movies. Perhaps if they created a forum just for debating the format-war (you know, anything goes), then this forum could return to some sanity and maybe it wouldn't be so time consuming and stressful for Mark.
I think I can shed some light on this, given some past experience as a moderator on a number of other sites.

As a moderator, you can't look away. You have to force yourself to read every post, whether you like it or not. You can't put people on Ignore (in fact, I don't believe the Ignore function works at all for moderators in the vBulletin software).

You also have to strike a fine line between what you say and how you feel. You can't take sides on an issue or people will accuse you of bias, which undermines your authority as a moderator and makes the job of moderation (thankless as it is) even more difficult. Even when you aren't dealing with that, you have people who have developed personal grudges or worse playing at petty games of wordplay, innuendo, or outright flaming who will resort to using the Report Post function as a tactical weapon in their verbal duels.

And in between playing referee, there's the constant battle against spammers. I'm surprised that AVS is as clean of spam posts as it is, and it's a testament to how good the team really is here that it remains so pristine.

Being a moderator truly is a thankless job.

Ummm..... this post is exactly why.....

Nevermind. :rolleyes:Touche.
As Mark is the first casualty, he'll be forever remembered a hero. *sniff!*

adding to the chorus of cheers - more than once we've had private and public conversations that have been helpful and honest...

...I just hope that AVS gives you a parting gift worth remembering. I understand that Mark Levinson's a sponsor...:)

I realize I won't make any new friends with this post- and there is no disrespect for Mark Personally

But something just doesn't compute.
...


No one ever gave a eulogy under oath.

Thank you Mark. Well done.

Thanks, Mark.

As a Format Neutral I have more respect for your efforts here than the fanboys because you did your best to level the playing field & maintain a modicum of civility that otherwise would not have occurred.

Au Revoir

Mark is very knowledgable and fair, and I have enjoyed his posts.

I guess we all need to give ourselves a break here. We didn't decide that there was to be a silly format war, now we are all wrapped around the axel about it.

Mark: try to disconnect and not take it too seriously. Someday the format war will shut down and we can get back to what the forum is really about.

The bottom two have a way of bringing out the worst and ruining what was once a great forum. Sure, there's an occasional tidbit of good info from them but it isn't worth wading through thousands of posts. No army of people can adequately moderate this mess!

BINGO........ IMHO too, if you bitc* about the cost of HD Optical, you most likely don't belong here, where's your RUNCO? :rolleyes:

well if you ever want a MUCH easier moderator job give me a PM, sorry but it is a Cichlid board so we only talk about fish LOL

Wow. Sorry to hear that Mark. You were one of the goods. I understand completely though. This format war has driven some of us to go from poster to lurker because it just got too hateful in here.

I think we should let Mark close this thread.........one last time before he goes.

I realize I won't make any new friends with this post- and there is no disrespect for Mark Personally

But something just doesn't compute.

Most (all?) here think that the forum has gone down in the last year and 1/2 due to all the juvenile fanboy nonsense, yet at the same time everyone is praising the moderator.
I realize the work is tedious & thankless (and I sure as hell wouldn't want it)- but wouldn't all the "shame whats happened here"'s imply that it was mostly ineffectual as well?

I wish Mark nothing but the best in the future, I'm just curious at the disconnect I seem to see.
You have no idea, and I mean no idea what it would have been like if Mark hadn't been involved.

Mark is great example of civility and I hope he will continue to contribute here

You have no idea, and I mean no idea what it would have been like if Mark hadn't been involved.
I second what Ken says, When he was on vacation i learned first hand how much he contributed.

Mark will be missed thats for sure,

Staying ultimately true to himself, he took the high road.

Hope to see him around, but I doubt he will frequent these areas of the forum considering how he viewed the majority of the behavior.

Get rested Mark! You deserve a break from all of us :).

Many thanks for your contributions. The "vent here threads of last year" to calm things down. The catchy phrase of "Challenge the Post: Never the Poster & Take the High Road in Every Post." Creating the insider thread. And the list keeps going. Hope the rest of us are smart enough to keep up with civil thinking like this….

Mark you will be missed...you did a great job here…take care buddy! Enjoy you time away from this madhouse! ;)

Agree with all of the above.
You will be missed, this is a sad day for AVS :(

I'm sure Mark has invested all the $$$ he made moderating and is now vacationing in Hawaii.
Well deserved!





:)
J/K
Get some rest Mark, let the next schmuck moderate... ;)

a scholar & a gentleman, Mark your hard work and endless efforts to make AVS a great place will be missed.

hope to see you around in the flat panels forums.

gianmarco

Well that sucks.
Yeah, no $hit!

You're still the man, Mark! Thanks for all your hard work.

Mark is too nice :)

I would concur.

Mark...... Thanks for all your efforts, but I understand totally when the time comes, it comes, enjoy not having to worry about this, and watch some HDTV of your choice. Take care. :)

Mark thanks for trying to keep the peace.

geez people why dont you people do it like. if you think you cant stand the nonsense that the fan boys of the other format are doing, stop going to the other thread.

Or better still, the admin should come up with a feature to allow posters to volunteer to be 'banned' from the other forum.

This is a tribute thread.

Make it honest.

I very rarely stop by here, though the info here is excellent.

Question: Why aren't flamers just banned? Or maybe a "3 strikes" rule?

I know over on the Vegas Video Board there are times that things get heated, but eventually the biggest protagonists simply disappear.

Mark should still be here, it's the repeat offenders that should be gone. And yes I agree if people had stayed in their respected forums it would have made his job easier but there are some here who just can't resist the urge to start trouble and they know who they are so I hope they are all happy now. :mad:

Good Luck Mark!

a sincere Thanks to all: I love this forum and agonized over my decision to retire

the Signal to Noise Ratio is going down steadily on these format battle forums