Rick, while we don't always agree; I think that you have been that rare voice that encourages free dialogue.

Let's be clear here. Internet moderation is a thankless job because it is impossible. We know that 90% or more of human communication is non-verbal and therefore written words are even more incomplete, especially between strangers. This is apart from malevolent actors who want to make private conflicts and antipathies into public opprobrium for their counterparties. Once you countenance Karens, they will never be satisfied.

And there's no constitution, mission statement, oiperational principles or any other written directive that can't be subverted or malinterpreted. Shakespeare was right when he wrote "The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose." in The Merchant of Venice. In the end, there is no "consensus", there is disagreement, and all too many people who peddle supression of "the other" as unity.

Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/949620-wil ... s-purpose/

I once had a dispute with an HR manager that ended with her saying "at a certain point you have to accept my judgment". This was really about her exercising raw administrative edict under the guise of adhering to general corporate policy.

(Imagine her shock and dismay when I said "actually Terri, I don't. I took the liberty of calling your boss and he agrees with me and wants you to call him in my presence).

She never screwed with me again.

So, instead of quitting, I wish you had "quiet quit", doing nothing. The more tantrums that are rewarded, the more they occur.

Unless somebody is offering some sort of personal or group animus or making threats; who cares.

Enough with the attempts to please F84.0.

The facts that you repeatedly appealed to my late father and not me, and that you hide behind a pseudonym, AND the errors in what you said Kanye/Ye/whoever actually said (according to the transcripts online), tell me:

1) how much attention you actually pay to these posts and their composers; and consequently:

2) how much attention I should bother paying to your posts.

Here is the fact of the matter:
West/Ye's idiotic remarks being spread far and wide, and the subsequent reaction to them and the current implosion of his career, are exactly how free speech work.
At least, when it's allowed to.

https://www.newsweek.com/kanyes-downfal ... on-1764223

Rick - Thanks for putting up with all of this. Good luck with your little railroad and please continued to keep us informed.

Rick,

you are the best moderator this forum has. Please review your decision.

Where have we come to if adult people object to free speech?

Normally I do try to watch what I say here and often bite my tongue on many subjects. But what I really want to say is Rick I hate to see you go. Thought your posts and views were well thought out and had the interest of what I felt this website was supposed to be about? I have in the past made a few posts in error. More an embarrassment to myself than tearing the scabs off of peoples ulcers. I do hope you change your mind. Always thought you were a breath of fresh air in this often "sea of mediocrity". Be well. John Risley.

Thank you for your service as a moderator, certainly a no win job. You displayed a much needed common sense.

Tom Hamilton

Rick,

Thank you for your contributions. I always liked your reasoned and sensible responses. The truth is that free speech is truly dead in the US today. Everybody is afraid of words now it seems while ignoring true crime that hurts and represses true liberties and freedoms.

Rob Gardner

21st Century academia/"higher education".

"Offensensitivity," as Berkeley Breathed stated decades ago in his seminal Bloom County
comic strip.

"Snowflakes," a term designed to offend (and rightfully and deservedly so).

We have obviously educated young people for decades now that their "feelings" are for more important, valuable, and dominant than other's opinions, facts that don't conform to a chosen narrative, or the open discussions of ideas and thought.

And now we pay the price, until these young people grow the %*#!@ up and learn otherwise.

Ironically, this was also presciently covered by the late Allan Bloom
in 1987.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Closi ... rican_Mind

Rick - thanks for you service, and hope you come back after a vacation.

Some other forums have a tipping service where you can buy the moderators a cup of coffee or such. I would support that here. Just a way to show appreciation.

Mr. Rowlands,
Good luck with future endeavors.
As the editor of a magazine, I know about some of the issues you are facing. The bottom line is, one has to do what is best for the magazine (or forum) while serving the general interest of the readers.
Ours is a privately owned magazine. Politics, religion, social justice, and other related issues are verboten. Only the facts germane to the topic covered please! There are also important considerations that go into making each issue -- the biggest right now is the paper shortage and rising paper costs. One has to economize on pages, so sometimes aggressive editing for size is required.
I do not follow the main stream media. From whatever side, there is little on the main news sources that is fact. It is all opinion and of limited value. I enjoy sleeping soundly at night, because I work hard most days. Why clutter one's mind with vile content from the main stream news. We have tremendous resources on line for information. If one is interested in a certain topic, one can take the time to study it from several angles, and form a personal conclusion.
The moderators here have different issues. If you have rules, then enforce them across the board. Be fair, but make no apologies. Censorship is an evil thing, but this is a private forum and has the right to moderate its content. That means deleting political comment from all sides that is openly partisan. Attentive readers on here should know by now how the regular contributors vote!
My involvement in railway preservation is limited, and mainly in the past now. However, I find this forum to have some interesting topics, and some good contributors. There are still things to be learned. I have made new friends through this forum -- what is better than that?
Now, if I can only find where I "hid" the Elesco Exhaust Steam Injector manual, I'll post it on here for everyone's edification. That damned thing never worked right on 6060 anyway!
Best wishes to all.

Rick,

I refrain from posting much anymore due to the divisive nature of this forum and how those with dissenting opinions are hurled into the proverbial flames should they dare speak. Your ability to deliver thoughtful, intelligent, and factual dialog while maintaining even temperament has been a much-welcomed breath of fresh air here on RYPN. I especially appreciated your courage in offering countering dialog to those who refuse to think for themselves. The decision to step down is/will be a huge loss to the folks who come here for legitimate rail preservation and related topics. Your moderation is something this forum desperately needs, and I will join rest in saying please reconsider your decision!

Best,
DC

And "updated" a generation later by:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coddl ... rican_Mind

I may have made this suggestion before, but this may be the time to formally reconsider it...

The steam_tech community on eGroups and then Yahoo Groups was somewhat more 'collegial' than RyPN, but there could be contention, discussion of topics not directly related to steam technology, and the occasional diversions into things not even remotely related to the group's purpose at all. Many 'serious technologists' resented any strict off-topic discussion, but 'groups' of that era ran strictly on email, and it was difficult to set filters that would allow selective reception (at one time we had steam_tech_too, which had moderators who would only forward on-topic posts to the list) but this didn't solve the issue (and involved even for that small group a great deal of realtime moderator effort)

What was needed was a code that could be easily inserted at the start of an email subject line, which would display in an in-box before requiring actual download of the email message, that would give users a quick way to ignore or delete certain classes of non-topic subjects. The initial way we did this was to use YAK for any post not directly concerning steam-locomotive technology. This quickly spun off OT as the code for off-topic discussions, for example of other aspects of technology, and RR-OT to further specify railroad technology exclusively.

This worked very well at the time, and I would suggest that a set of codes more specific than the current OT be used to eliminate the current war between 'free speech' and people who consider most of what passes for 'free speech' here anathema.

With reference to your last sentence: Seriously? I want some of whatever you've been smoking.