Time to Move On

L

Laurie

Senior Member
Location
Kingdom of Fife
With one thread locked and another no published in a 24 hour period perhaps I don't fit in here any more and it's time to seek pastures new.


Thanks for the company, I've enjoyed the craic , and perhaps made one or two virtual friends. I've tried to give a British, perhaps even a European perspective.


A special thanks to the Vets among you, who did me the great honour of inviting me to join your specialised US Vets group.


In the toast which has been heard in the joint service bars of real fighting men, not the bitchiness of rear echelon cocktail lounges, since 1944 "Good luck, Yanks. Keep your fool heads down".


Your marines, as ever, have the words for it


"Semper Fi"


Laurie
 

I admit I was about to give a 'robust' response to your last post when I found it locked. I hope we can all have very different opinions and still co-exist peaceably , and so I'm sorry you feel you have to leave. Well, good luck anyway.
 
Laurie, your thread was locked because the topic was leading into political debate and would have created hard feelings and arguing among those who responded, politics have been banned here for that reason. Your second thread was removed because it was just a continuation of the first one. Moderation is needed and actions taken in any thread are at the discretion of the moderators.

If you decide to leave because of this, I wish you well.

Politics is not allowed on this forum, political posts and posts that easily lead to political debate will be removed without notice.
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SeaBreeze said:
Laurie, your thread was locked because the topic was leading into political debate and would have created hard feelings and arguing among those who responded, politics have been banned here for that reason. Your second thread was removed because it was just a continuation of the first one. Moderation is needed and actions taken in any thread are at the discretion of the moderators.

If you decide to leave because of this, I wish you well.
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Thanks very much for the explanation. I appreciate it.

I am aware of the politics restriction of course, bot both the offending threads were about the EU which is hardly politics.

The EU is a political union of course, but so is the British Union and even your own Union of States. Are they banned subjects too?

The EU is a collection of 28 states each with half a dozen political parties and hundreds of politicians.

I did not mention any political party or any politician by name, and the only country I mentioned was my own, and then only in the context of a battle that took place over 200 years ago,hardly contemporary controversial politics.

You are very right to predict that threads can be dominated by one or two immovable members who keep trotting out the same arguments for weeks, but such matters are surely better dealt with on an individual basis rather than a broadbrush total ban. However you know your own business best.

The EU is now a big force in world affairs, whether for good or evil remains to be seen, and by banning it you present a very unbalanced forum.
 
Laurie said:
Thanks very much for the explanation. I appreciate it.

The EU is a political union of course, but so is the British Union and even your own Union of States. Are they banned subjects too?

You are very right to predict that threads can be dominated by one or two immovable members who keep trotting out the same arguments for weeks, but such matters are surely better dealt with on an individual basis rather than a broadbrush total ban.

The EU is now a big force in world affairs, whether for good or evil remains to be seen, and by banning it you present a very unbalanced forum.
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You're welcome Laurie. Whether the thread is about the EU or USA, if it's presented in a way to cause political debate, it is banned. Matrix had in depth discussions and input including votes from the members here before he made the decision to ban political discussions which proven by past history, always became nasty.
 
I can support Seabreeze in her comment. Political boards abound on the net and serve their purpose but this board doesn't need it. If this policy causes you to leave our forum I wish you safe travels.
 
I have enjoyed your posts, Laurie. I'll always support the moderators in their decisions (it's their job), but I hope you'll change your mind and stay. You have much to contribute to the general conversation.

Either way, here's wishing you the very best.

:cheers1:
 
AZ Jim said:
I can support Seabreeze in her comment. Political boards abound on the net and serve their purpose but this board doesn't need it. If this policy causes you to leave our forum I wish you safe travels.
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Very well said, I agree! This is a great forum, Laurie, just find a political forum instead and continue to post here for the ''other stuff''.
 
I have only been here for about 10 days and feel this forum is well moderated and has some really great light topics and some great games to enjoy myself. I feel there are plenty forums designed specifically for political agenda and chats and this one is not designed for that. I feel the comments of Seabreeze and AZJim said it perfectly that we hope you can express yourself in another forum designed for those sort of topics, but also can still feel comfortable posting other topics here. Either way good luck in whatever path you chose.
 
Laurie I have been on 2 other forums before joining this one.It was always an issue in the political threads. They were always one sided and if you didn't agree with them you would get such insulting comments. You were called a stupid idiot and many worse things. One of the forums I was on I made a lot of friends and I enjoyed it until one day I decided to post something in the Political threads. You can not believe the responses I received from people who had always been nice to me. So if you like to discuss Politics find a forum for that ,but always come beck to this forum and have a good time.
 
Couldn't agree more with these comments and I rarely take part in on line (or any other!) political debate even where it is is permitted.

Where we differ is in the interpretation of "political". I do not believe the EU is any more political than the US or the UK. the moderators do not agree, and they are in charge.
 
There is no reason why you can't be on as many forums as you wish, there are no rules about being restricted to just one. Just accept the fact that this particular site doesn't encourage political debate, they prefer everything kept light. Any discussion on politics seems to bring out the worst in people. It is also true that some people like to stir things up, and deliberately cause unpleasantness. I'm sure we have all known this sort in real life. It means that you can't really have a decent discussion, people just want to argue.
 
Laurie said:
With one thread locked and another no published in a 24 hour period perhaps I don't fit in here any more and it's time to seek pastures new.
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Hi Laurie, you are leaving a forum because what, your thread was locked? It's something so trivial, don't you think? Honestly, I think you are spoiled. You have been here for 4.5 years with 1900 posts, has it ever occurred to you that this forum is just right for you? You may not be able to find another one even close.

You may not be aware or have forgotten that a forum

- can be very quiet, you started a thread with passion, waited one day, and no replies.

- can be full of ads that you have to be careful not to click ads accidentally, or had to endure emails with special offers, or wondering if you should make a donation and how much.

- can be attacked by inconsiderate members, and no one cares.

- can disappear for a week or forever overnight, and leave you wondering what happened.

- can be very hard to use, no matter how hard you have tried, something is just not right.

- can be very boring, you list all new threads and have no interest to read any of them.

And there are a lot more reasons to drive you away from a forum, and any of that can be more annoying than a locked thread.

I won't go into the details of the locked thread, it's really not important who is right or wrong here, IMHO. I'm also a heavy forum user and had lots of bad experience, I wouldn't even dream to convince the mods that they are wrong, I would be lucky to get a reply.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to change your mind, just want to take this chance to offer the members a different perspective. Overall, forums are a dying breed, active and friendly forums are getting rare day by day.

The pasture is always greener on the other side, please tell us your experience with other forums in a couple of years, good or bad, it would be fun. I wish you best of luck! :)
 
Great post Matrix.
Laurie won’t find a better site with nicer people
Threads get locked.
Its part of forum life.
Move on
Theres plenty of other threads to ponder over
You’re smarter than this
 
I hope you rethink and decide to stay, Laurie.

I personally was sorry to see this thread locked, as it's a subject that I know very little about, and would like to see an intelligent, civilized discussion about what the UK citizens think about it. We Americans could use some education on the subject.

IMO, banning a whole category of topics is always a slippery slope. Anything could lead to nasty insults:
You liked Elvis?! Eeeeew!
You call that stuff they eat in France high cuisine? Yuck?
You actually watch Game of Thrones? Childish!

See what I mean?
 
The fact is that those of us who were here years ago, and saw the horrible nasty cat calling and vicious personal attacks that were caused on this forum due mainly to disagreements over politics, were mostly very happy to see Matrix take the decision to remove it as a topic....and believe me this forum is a much nicer place for it..

yes, sometimes I'll see something that may be classed as political in the news and will post it here, completely forgetting the rules, but of course if it's removed I don't and won't take umbrage because I'd forgotten the rules..

I'm a member of several forums one British with approx 1/3rd non Brits and another American with a few non Americans...on those I can discuss politics if I wish... and of course there's the dedicated political forums too if Politics is someone's passion...

Laurie...stay or go.. personally I think you've made your point as has Matrix... I'd rather you stayed...
 
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Matrix said:
You may not be able to find another one even close.

You may not be aware or have forgotten that a forum

- can be very quiet, you started a thread with passion, waited one day, and no replies.

- can be full of ads that you have to be careful not to click ads accidentally, or had to endure emails with special offers, or wondering if you should make a donation and how much.

- can be attacked by inconsiderate members, and no one cares.

- can disappear for a week or forever overnight, and leave you wondering what happened.

- can be very hard to use, no matter how hard you have tried, something is just not right.

- can be very boring, you list all new threads and have no interest to read any of them.
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I fully agree with everything, but the above is right on the mark. I had almost given up on finding a good forum until I found this one. Many of them had maybe one or two threads that were recent and few posters replied and many had nothing new for months or even years. Some had very abusive posts and some of those posts were obviously kids having fun at the expense of posters. One forum had all the replies to one thread scattered among other unrelated replies, so if I wanted to read what else was said on THIS thread I would have had to hunt for newer posts. Anyway, I hope Laurie changes his mind and stays.
 
IMO, when you, Holly, Rose, me or whoever joins any forum, that person decides if the forum is meeting their needs. If it isn’t, or if you feel that you are being singled out and paying a price for it by having posts removed, then you have to decide to either stay and change the style of your posts or say the heck with and leave.

In the past, I know that I have at the very least, walked a fine line a time or two and may have even had a post removed. If one of my posts have been removed, I have already forgotten it. It’s not personal, it’s just that I may have crossed the line.

Having someone act as a moderator and checking what is being posted is what keeps this board friendly. Otherwise, we could have one poster calling another poster or posters names and then chaos would ensue. We should all be appreciative of the moderators that put in the time that it takes to check all the posts.

As as far as I know, this is probably the best senior forum on the net here in the U.S.
 
oldman said:
IMO, when you, Holly, Rose, me or whoever joins any forum, that person decides if the forum is meeting their needs. If it isn’t, or if you feel that you are being singled out and paying a price for it by having posts removed, then you have to decide to either stay and change the style of your posts or say the heck with and leave.

In the past, I know that I have at the very least, walked a fine line a time or two and may have even had a post removed. If one of my posts have been removed, I have already forgotten it. It’s not personal, it’s just that I may have crossed the line.

Having someone act as a moderator and checking what is being posted is what keeps this board friendly. Otherwise, we could have one poster calling another poster or posters names and then chaos would ensue. We should all be appreciative of the moderators that put in the time that it takes to check all the posts.

As as far as I know, this is probably the best senior forum on the net here in the U.S.
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Very well said, hit the nail on the head.
 
Just accept the fact that this particular site doesn't encourage political debate, they prefer everything kept light.

I have, in fact that's why I like it.


However, I regard the EU as "Current events and social issues" not politics.

The mods don't agree.
 
Matrix, you are 100% correct that forums such as this one are a dying breed all over the internet and are being taken over by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and all the other huge Social Media sites that provide the chats and forums. It will be hard to find another forum so active and with such friendly members as I was lucky enough to come by just over a week ago.

Laurie, if you really think your stance on the EU being a Current Event situation and not Politics is worth giving up everything else that this forum has to offer here; then by all mean leave. If that issue is not that important to you than please rethink your decision, because this site has a lot more to offer and you said that yourself.
 
Laurie said:
Just accept the fact that this particular site doesn't encourage political debate, they prefer everything kept light.

I have, in fact that's why I like it.


However, I regard the EU as "Current events and social issues" not politics.

The mods don't agree.
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I also believe the EU is a current events topic, but mostly because I'm very curious about Brexit and I'd like to learn more from UKers. Unfortunately it appears that we are overruled but that shouldn't run us away from here. ;D
 

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