It seems to me that part of the problem here is around expectations. I think a lot of people take the name of the site 'The Psychic Reviews' at face value, and expect it to be all about pure reviews. But if you look a bit deeper into it, there is a lot more is going on. There are already boards on the site called 'The Vent' and 'Connect with Others', for example.
And then there's what forum users are talking about. There are all kinds of conversations going on... from 'are psychics really just reading our minds' to 'taking a break this month' to 'how to ask questions to make sure you're not giving leading info' to 'how ethical is it to do spell work.' These conversations are just happening. And you can try to control it all and keep telling users -- stick to the reviews only, but if people want to talk about those related topics, you can't really stop them.
I'm trying to think of an analogy and the one that comes to mind is a book club I used to go to where we'd discuss the book for all of about 10 minutes and then the conversation would go on all sorts of tangents. It would come back to the book every once in a while, but I would say about 2/3 of the time it was non-book chat. It's similar here, except in general the overarching topic is psychic readings and readers.
I came on here looking for reviews originally -- both good and bad. As time went on, I started to question the value of readings in my life. Along with that shift, I found I was enjoying the conversations that were a bit more philosophical in nature. I definitely don't have all the answers, but I think we can learn a lot from each other if we stop trying to pinch off all those conversations, whether they are about belief, addiction, healing ... etc.
The admin stated over a year after the board started that I see this site as more than a psychic review service, but it's also doubling as a relationship support site, which is great, but I think the problem is more along the lines that when someone posts their review/experience with a psychic so you can decide if this might be a good reader for you, not your style or a cold reader there are certain people who come along and drop a giant turd in every single post about how all psychics are fake, blah blah. People don't let the reviews be reviews.
Yes, I get where you are coming from and can appreciate that idea - let reviews be reviews. That said, two thoughts:
1. it's not always the "all psychics are fake" comment that derails review threads. Users take all sorts of tangents. I recall someone named atsrk1 (or something like that) whose blanket statement was the opposite; she was more on the lines of 'all psychics are real and if things didn't happen for you, it's your fault.' And then there are other tangents people take about all kinds of topics, some related to the reader the thread is about and others not. I find it can be annoying if I am looking for feedback on a specific person and the thread has taken a multi-page tangent. I often give up looking because I don't want to wade through all the other stuff and it's the bickering, that often goes on for pages and often gets quite ugly / personal, that gets to me most, especially when embedded within a readers' thread.
2. What some forum users find relevant to the thread, others feel is off-topic. I don't have a specific example at my fingertips, but in my opinion if the thread about 'psychic x' is discussing 'psychic x', including the way they read, what they got wrong, their ethics... those are all relevant IMO. I get the impression that some users only want to see 'psychic x' got 'a,b,c' right. And to me there's a lot more that goes into evaluating a reader...
