Good Morning Everyone.

Thank you for your messages, your patience and for your participation within the AGORACOM Community. As I am sure you are all aware, we seem to be in the midst of a very delicate argument; one which does require detailed analysis from a multitude of perspectives, and one which has gotten us far off the topic of this company.

I'd like to begin with the latter and state that we strongly recommend all members who have chosen to forget about Noront over the past few days and have opted instead to exchange their grief towards how a fellow poster conducts oneself in this forum, to cease these interactions. They are becoming a growing concern to the many who come here looking for info on the commodity's market and Noront Activity.

With that said, I have read quite a lot of interesting perspectives, however the most encompassing one has to belong to hoov. While we try our hardest to be impartial and without bias, I am sure some of the Hub Leaders are aware that sides, even to the slightest extend can rarely be avoided.

If I were to make a post regarding the Noront Resources Forum, it would be similarly aligned to hoov's perspective.

What is the purpose of this forum? The exchange of information in an environment free of bickering and personal arguments. It is a pool of thought in a monitored environment. We wrote our six rules of use as a guide for forum behavior, and extended a great deal of trust to the participants of the Noront Hub as well as to those participating in many of the other HUBS within AGORACOM, that they will do their part and adhere to those rules.

I am sure that you are all aware, moderation can be a very tough and thankless job; especially within a community the size of Noront Resources. An equilibrium is almost impossible, however if you honestly do feel harshly done, please respect your peers and contact AGORACOM with any issues that pertain to personal differences. There is no need to disrupt the flow of the forum, to discuss an issue, a grievance or a complaint by publicly addressing it to the forum. If there is a pattern brewing with a disruptive member, we do know about it. Each day there are Hundreds of inquries arriving to our general inbox, and if we see a pattern developing, we will post a response on the affected community. If the issue is personal, it is handled as such.

As some of you are aware, I do my best to offer support on weekends and evenings. Perhaps it is not as efficient as during regular business hours, however it always comes down to an issue of volume; never an issue of ignorance. I have made it clear to some, and hopefully to the rest of you, that I look forward to and enjoy having an open line of communication with members of our community.

Lastly, since this has been brought up, I would like to offer our opinion and a suggestion about our Hub Leader promotion system. As a means to reward our most highly rated and active members, we have set up an automatic system of promotions for President members, so that they can attain Hub Leader authority. The thresholds for these promotions, are pasted below:

• Must be a President Member (total ranking points of 1500 points and up)
• Must have a rating of at least 3.5 stars
• Must have completed at least 150 activity points within a Hub (typically, about 100 posts)

This is how we thought it would be best to setup our system of hierarchy, when we first launched our Investor Controlled forums. We understand, that as the community grows, this would inevitably become an issue (i.e. end up with too many senior members).

As an AGORACOM employee who keeps track of a community's sentiment, I can see both pro's and cons to realigning these thresholds. But I certainly expect any member listed under the Hub Leader panel to your right, adheres to our community's standards. And for the overwhelming part, everyone has done an excellent job.

To conclude, I would like to leave the board with a suggestion; If we could limit the number of Hub Leaders to the Noront Hub (for the record we can), would this be something that would interest you? Feel free to submit your comments to the board or via the General Inbox; however if you do choose to post, please do so on the Off Topic Forum. I will check back in the afternoon for your feedback.

Thank you all again for your attention.

Kind Regards,

Andreas Marouchos

AGORACOM Community Director