I will leave the poll open until 12:00pm EST, on Nov. 8. I will then take the poll, PM's and posts into consideration and make my decision then.
I have received one PM that bothered me a little, and since it was private I shall quote it anonymously, I hope the poster understands.
Quote:
Unfortunately, I just got to the point where I could no longer deal with the hostility, childishness and complete lack of respect shown by a great number of members for so many others. The greatest tragedy is the fact that in the land of supposed free speech, people are jumped on with both feet for expressing a contrary opinion, correct or not.
However, I think I am correct in suggesting that all of this has come about for the simple reason that people are being allowed to voice political slogans with regard to current situations, on a site that is supposed to be concerned with history, in the form of preserving, sharing and enjoying examples of military weapons of days gone by.
I wish you all the best because I think you personally have good intentions, but I think the monster you have allowed to surface is getting way out of hand.
This bothered me because in a lot of ways he's right, though I don't think it is a out of hand as he thinks. However, he is not the first person to express his disappointment. I do my best to provide an friendly environment and I realize it is impossible to please everyone. I try to enforce rules as infrequently as possible and actually having to ban someone or suspend them is annoying. But sometimes people don't listen to warnings and something has to be done to bring the point home that their behavior won't be tolerated. I have issued numerous warnings to Bill in the past and they have proven less than effective so the next step had to be taken.
And this isn't about freedom of speech. I respect our men and women for fighting to defend that right but their has to be controls. We don't have XXX films on broadcast TV, the F-bomb is for the most part not allowed in broadcast media, and you can't yell fire in a theater (unless their is one I suppose). If I didn't control some aspects of this sight it would be utter chaos. You can call it censorship if you like but it's something I have to do or else the site would be filled with Viagra SPAM.
We are a community here, we have to find away to get along. Treat each other with respect and think through your responses. Heck, wait 24 hours before posting a response to a post that pissed you off. Calm down, try to really understand what the poster meant.
And just because someone is new to the forum doesn't mean their a individual of questionable judgement. Jumping down someones throat, especially when they are new, solves nothing and make you look like the individual of questionable judgement.
And finally, these problems happen in every forum. Their is no magical place on the net where everything is perfect. It's a hazard of this form of media. I will try to do my best to oversee this community but in the end it is YOUR community. Let's all try and get along.
And remember, if you can't be civil then be quiet.
_________________
Scott Rose
Editor-In-Chief/Webmaster
Warbirds Resource Group - Warbird Information Exchange - Warbird Registry
Be civil, be polite, be nice.... or be elsewhere.-------------------------------------------------------
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