I am getting tired of threads getting locked so quickly. If all we are “permitted” to talk about are non-controversial topics, then this forum will get boring much more quickly. What’s wrong with a heated discussion? Some of us are somewhat passionate about certain subjects. Sure, the petty personal jabs get tiring, but they are also interesting (in a traffic-accident sort of way).
I find it interesting that many of the threads that get locked also have the greatest number of ‘views’ (not counting the on-going threads like the Depot Diner, et.al.) Perhaps this is an indicator of the popularity of these heated discussions and bickering. After all, just like with tv, it is the dramas that draw the audience. No crisis in the world today? Watch the news and see them reporting about the giant sand castle, or the Boy Scout jambouree; then watch the viewers drop away as quickly as you can say, “Lost Advertising Revenue”.
If Trains magazine is looking for internet ‘hit counts’ for advertising purposes, then these heated discussions are bringing in the bucks. Any worries that some pre-adolescent might get upset about the animosity and/or arguments of our discussions seems to me to be a bit off-track (pun intended). I would think Trains magazine would prefer the 18-49 demographic as their target audience. Who are the moderators protecting? And who will protect us from our protectors?
Agree 100 percent – and another thing that bugs me is when a moderator feels a need to pop into a thread to tell the participants how good a discussion it is or how well everyone is behaving. That’s overkill, too. [|(]
When I post on the forum I think of it as if I am a guest in someones home. In this case I am a guest in the Kalmbach home. A little respect can go a long ways.
I absolutely agree with all you said. Sure it’s their forum, and they can do what they want. But it would be nice to know what the rules are. There is a rule against off topic discussion, political discussion, and flaming. Yet plenty of threads merrily carry on violating any or all of these taboos without any intervention by moderators. So why the selective enforcement?
Agreed. The forums get stale when we’re not allowed to voice our opinions and concerns before the mods slap a padlock on the thread. Discussions get deep and heated but that’s life. We don’t all agree with each other 100% of the time, it would be a dull world if we did. It’s different when name calling and foul language are used but until then don’t throw in the towel let us go a few more rounds. Punish only the ones who violate the rules not everyone, and don’t lock this thread, hear us out at least.
Gee, fellas, you’d think that’s all the forum should offer is the same three or four members taking jabs at each other over a three week period on the one or two threads that they sustain with those same jabs…and go nowhere.
There’s nothing wrong with some off-topic banter now and then, and I have been quite tolerant of it. But I am intolerant of exchanges of insults that continue on to the nth page and day with nothing gained, no enlightenment, no quarter given, and precious little courtesy. When you are running your own fora, be sure to state in your rules that anything goes as long as no one pulls the plug on your server. Over here, though, while we are willing to entertain a certain amount of variance and some diversion now and then, the invective and diatribes get tiresome.
As well, just because you happen to be enjoying a thread doesn’t mean that the mods aren’t getting complaints to do something about the spectacle that the thread has become. In perhaps one case out of four, I will lock a thread that seems to be moribund or well into the burn of its second stage rocket. In three quarters of all cases, I am responding to a number of complaints from viewers who feel the thread is reflecting badly on those still at it, and to those who are reading it.
The rules are quite straightforward, and we try to be indulgent when they are skirted at times. But when enough gets to be enough, we’ll act.
There are other fora where anything goes. Feel free to find them if this place no longer meets your individual needs.
