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| Clarifying the RyPN Guidelines--operating practices https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20997 |
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| Author: | Erik Ledbetter [ Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:40 am ] |
| Post subject: | Clarifying the RyPN Guidelines--operating practices |
In the last week we have had a number of threads take a very confrontational turn. The common theme is that the point at issue involved a criticism, by name, of a specific organizations operating practices (either railroad practices or museum management practices). It might be time to clarify and restate how the RyPN management applies the Interchange Guidelines to these cases. In general, we interpret the Guidelines as strongly, strongly discouraging criticism of specific operating practices by specific organizations. If a reader has a serious allegation or technical concern about practices at a specific operation to register, this is almost certainly not the place to air it. There are several reasons why. First of all, the question often involves a practice that can only be observed with special access to the shop or cab, and that requires some degree of specialist skill to judge. As a result other readers are, more often than not, not in a position to judge for themselves (either not having the same access, or not being experts on the specific operating area under debate). With most readers unable to judge, the debate between the concerned party and the defenders of the accused organization ends up as a case of "he said - he said." It turns into a battle of credibility, and arguments over which poster is more credible become flame exchanges and are not productive. On a related point, its worth restating that we require posters to refrain from commenting directly on the motives of other posters. There is almost no way to do this without beginning to get into flame territory. The only exception to this general rules is for people who want to question, however sharply, the moderators or the management of RyPN. Anyone with concerns about how RyPN is run is welcome to have their say openly at any time. |
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| Author: | co614 [ Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:40 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Clarifying the RyPN Guidelines--operating practices |
I'm grateful that you've invited a discussion on this issue as I have felt quite strongly that on several recent occassions you have locked threads that I felt were still quite civil and whilst disagreements were involved there was valuable info/facts/points of view being expressed that many would find educational. IMHO this is one of the most valuable resource sites in our industry(I'd say it certainly would be in the top 5), but if we're going to administer it SO tightly that the least hint of differring points of view are semi-automatic thread locks-then it will become pap, and that would be a shame!! I would strongly plead that the thread lock be used MUCH more sparingly! Respectfully submitted, Ross Rowland |
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| Author: | QJdriver [ Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:13 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Clarifying the RyPN Guidelines--operating practices |
For my money, I was very pleased with how rypn handled that situation. Even though I tried a couple of times to post what I thought was a very appropriate message, and it disappeared somehow, the thread still ended up going where I wanted it to go. There was no need for me to say any more, anyway. Because of infighting there has been enormous waste of money, labor, talent, goodwill, time, and never again opportunities in rail preservation. Mr. Rowland and countless others over the years were right on when they suggested that we all really should try getting along better. If I may, I'd like to suggest that if we really need to go into the areas that Eric is talking about, we contact these individuals or groups via private thread. If the exchane ends up being so profound that the world just has to hear about it, then we can copy and paste to a public forum anytime we want. However, embarrasing or negative exchanges made in public can never be made private again. |
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