Adam Ant forum admin quits role

An old Ant Rap logo

Ant Rap News - Justin Swan, the person who runs the official Adam Ant website has sensationally quit his role as admin of the Ant Rap forum.

The forum, which is part of the official Adam Ant site at adam-ant.net has suffered from a few knock-backs over recent months as many long term members have left due to the excessive amount of non-Ant chat and online squabbling.

However it has to be said that attempts have been made to rectify the problems with the forum being split into an on topic only section and a non-Ant chat area, called the Ants Nest.

Forum moderator and successor to the admin crown, Monk, has made some concerted efforts to initiate new threads to maintain interest by delving into his own archive of Ant files, which were intended for a planned Ant related book.

For many years, the Ant Rap forum was run soley by Justin after he took over the reins from its birth mother, Canadian Ant fan, Nancy Kelly. However, moderating a forum with that much traffic is a tall order for one person.

Several attempts to bring in assistant moderators failed as there were never really any rules for the members to adhere to and as a result arguments would flare up without any forum officials stepping in until it was too late.

Some forum members who took things a little too far were issued with 'permanent' bans only to end up being allowed back and apparently show little change to their behaviour. Something which drove even more people away.

The site and forum had also expressed intentions to move away from the Ants side of things and just concentrate on Adam Ant, the solo artist. But the Ants have found themselves crawling back into the forum section headings more recently.

It is not known at this time if Justin is also quitting the running of the official website as he has only commented on his intention to step down as admin of the forum.

Ant Rap as it looks today

So what of Ant Rap now? It's fair to say Monk has an uphill task on his hands if he is to win back the regulars who often frequented the boards. Rumours of a new Ants forum remain unfounded, although there is currently little choice on offer.

Delphi currently hosts two Ant forums, but are hardly anything in the same league as what Ant Rap has been. The Insect Nation (link below) is a strictly moderated on-topic Ant forum, and only seems to be used when there's news to be told, which is its purpose. Then there's the old Ant Rap rival in the guise of the Ant Lib forum(link below). In its hey day it was one of the two pillars of online Ant communities, but has since shrunken down to a speck of its former self.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the hard work Justin has done over the years for the Ant community. Both in the guise of his old Red Scab site, and running Ant Rap/adam-ant.net. Running a web site can be demanding enough at times, but with the lead weight of officialdom hanging over your neck, it becomes even tougher as you have to toe the official line and only speak when told to. For that alone, I raise my bonnet to Mr Swan and wish him all the best for the future, whatever he chooses to do with it.

(Chav!!)

Adam Ant forum admin quits role

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