Forum Discussion Demerit System

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Sun Feb 22, 2015 1:54 pm

Fellow RYPN'er Dave Crosby posted the following to the Steamtown NHS Facebook page, and I believe the same standards, with a few minor modifications, could be applied to RYPN's forums. Obviously a few are Steamtown/Scranton-centric, but we could easily add more general standards. Any suggestions for additions?

Quote:

I’ve noticed things have gotten a little rough in here lately. Enough to make the Baby Jesus cry. I feel like I lose IQ points every time I visit. Seriously, this place is becoming the online equivalent of huffing glue. So I propose a new demerit system. Below are offenses and their penalties:

Use of memes:
1 Demerit.
Use of hashtags:
5 Demerits.
Imitating the grammar of certain unnamed railfans from Pottstown:
10 Demerits.
Comparing Steamtown to others, i.e. R&N, Strasburg, Penn Central:
20 Demerits.
Suggesting the DL do something for Steamtown, for free:
20 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment should return to the geographic area where it operated: 20 Demerits.
Chronic Narcissism, i.e. Posting the same 5 year old pictures every 3 months:
20 Demerits.
Saying Steamtown “should” restore engine X after the 3713 is completed:
30 Demerits.
Jumping on new members for asking innocent questions:
30 Demerits.
Use of the word “Dieseltown”:
50 Demerits.
Posting non Steamtown related material:
99 Demerits.

Members will be banned after 100 Demerits. Demerits can be removed/forgiven by donating to the 3713 restoration fund. $1.00 per demerit.

Bulby · **Joined:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:45 pm **Posts:** 258

For the laughs, an RyPN centric edition:

Quote:

I’ve noticed things have gotten a little rough in here lately. Enough to make the Baby Jesus cry. I feel like I lose IQ points every time I visit. Seriously, this place is becoming the online equivalent of huffing glue. So I propose a new demerit system. Below are offenses and their penalties:

Use of memes:
1 Demerit.
Use of hashtags:
5 Demerits.
Imitating the grammar of certain unnamed railfans from Pottstown:
10 Demerits.
Comparing American preservation to overseas preservation:
20 Demerits.
Suggesting a railroad do something for preservation, for free:
20 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment should return to the geographic area where it operated:
20 Demerits.
Chronic Narcissism, i.e. Posting the same 5 year old pictures every 3 months:
20 Demerits.
Chronic Negativity, i.e. it will never be restored, or that project will fail:
25 Demerits.
Arm-chair managing railroads:
25 Demerits.
Saying someone else “should” restore engine X, car Y, or building Z:
30 Demerits.
Complaining that a private owner is doing what he wants with a piece of equipment:
30 Demerits.
Proclaiming that a piece of equipment should be painted in X, because that is your favorite railroad, when you do not own the piece of equipment, you do not volunteer at the museum that owns it, or otherwise have any stake in it:
30 Demerits.
Jumping on new members for asking innocent questions:
30 Demerits.
Using the phrases "Nattering Noobs of Negativism" "NNN" "Yammering Yutz of Yesteryear" or "YYY" except when describing yourself:
49 Demerits.
Use of the word “Dieseltown”:
50 Demerits.
Bringing up PRR 1361:
50 Demerits.
Asking when CSX will see the light and start running a steam program:
50 Demerits.
Pestering the Moderators over a poster you don't like:
75 Demerits.
Posting non Preservation related material in the interchange:
99 Demerits.

Members will be banned from the Interchange after 100 Demerits. Demerits can be removed/forgiven by donating to the new RyPN annual preservation grant. $1.00 per demerit.

The expected windfall from the grants will be used to fund a new organisation acquiring a pair of 250 ton cranes, a trio of surplus heavy duty flatcars, and a siding to store them on. This organisation will maintain the equipment such that if a piece of equipment must be moved quickly, the consist can move out an collect the endangered equipment.

Any remaining funds will be made available to qualified preservation non profits to fund land acquisition, track laying, and indoor storage.

bigjim4life · **Posted:** Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:21 pm

Bulby wrote:

For the laughs, an RyPN centric edition:

Quote:

I’ve noticed things have gotten a little rough in here lately. Enough to make the Baby Jesus cry. I feel like I lose IQ points every time I visit. Seriously, this place is becoming the online equivalent of huffing glue. So I propose a new demerit system. Below are offenses and their penalties:

Use of memes:
1 Demerit.
Use of hashtags:
5 Demerits.
Imitating the grammar of certain unnamed railfans from Pottstown:
10 Demerits.
Comparing American preservation to overseas preservation:
20 Demerits.
Suggesting a railroad do something for preservation, for free:
20 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment should return to the geographic area where it operated:
20 Demerits.
Chronic Narcissism, i.e. Posting the same 5 year old pictures every 3 months:
20 Demerits.
Chronic Negativity, i.e. it will never be restored, or that project will fail:
25 Demerits.
Arm-chair managing railroads:
25 Demerits.
Saying someone else “should” restore engine X, car Y, or building Z:
30 Demerits.
Complaining that a private owner is doing what he wants with a piece of equipment:
30 Demerits.
Proclaiming that a piece of equipment should be painted in X, because that is your favorite railroad, when you do not own the piece of equipment, you do not volunteer at the museum that owns it, or otherwise have any stake in it:
30 Demerits.
Jumping on new members for asking innocent questions:
30 Demerits.
Using the phrases "Nattering Noobs of Negativism" "NNN" "Yammering Yutz of Yesteryear" or "YYY" except when describing yourself:
49 Demerits.
Use of the word “Dieseltown”:
50 Demerits.
Bringing up PRR 1361:
50 Demerits.
Asking when CSX will see the light and start running a steam program:
50 Demerits.
Pestering the Moderators over a poster you don't like:
75 Demerits.
Posting non Preservation related material in the interchange:
99 Demerits.

Members will be banned from the Interchange after 100 Demerits. Demerits can be removed/forgiven by donating to the new RyPN annual preservation grant. $1.00 per demerit.

The expected windfall from the grants will be used to fund a new organisation acquiring a pair of 250 ton cranes, a trio of surplus heavy duty flatcars, and a siding to store them on. This organisation will maintain the equipment such that if a piece of equipment must be moved quickly, the consist can move out an collect the endangered equipment.

Any remaining funds will be made available to qualified preservation non profits to fund land acquisition, track laying, and indoor storage.

I can't tell you how much I actually, seriously like these ideas!!

rock island lines · **Joined:** Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:20 pm **Posts:** 487

Funny topic but it made me think.

One thing that gets real old is bashing of an organization. For example, Steamtown bashing, B&O Museum bashing, Greenbrier Express bashing, etc. The bashers don't contribute anything and their presence is toxic. Give them demerits.

But constructive criticism is good and important, and is different from bashing. If a group of amateurs really screws up (I could use a stronger expression), then we should be able to talk about their screw-up. No demerits for criticism when it is warranted. The whole point of preservation is saving artifacts, and occasionally the wrong-doers are the preservationists themselves - unfortunately.

Constant bashing, constructive criticism: Two different things.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Feb 23, 2015 3:48 pm

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Let me counter-propose:

Quote:

Use of rail-centric memes:
1 Demerit per use.
Use of animated GIFs:
1 demerit per use.
Use of hashtags:
5 Demerits.
Use of non-rail-centric memes:
10 Demerits per use.
The mere mention of certain unnamed railfans from Pottstown, Pennsylvania area except in reply to a query by a new member about a certain allegation:
10 Demerits.
Comparing American preservation to overseas preservation as if they were equal:
20 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment should return to the geographic area/line where it operated:
20 Demerits.
Chronic Narcissism, i.e. Posting the same 5 year old pictures every 3 months or a link to your favorite project's blog/Facebook page/website every month:
20 Demerits.
Suggesting a railroad company do something for preservation, for free:
25 Demerits.
Chronic Negativity, i.e. it will never be restored, or that project will fail, without specific reasons why said project is logistically impossible:
25 Demerits.
Arm-chair managing railroads:
25 Demerits.
Complaining that a private owner is doing what he wants with a piece of equipment:
30 Demerits.
Proclaiming that a piece of equipment should be painted in X, because that is your favorite railroad, when you do not own the piece of equipment, you do not volunteer at the museum that owns it, or otherwise have any stake in it:
30 Demerits.
Jumping on new members for asking innocent questions:
30 Demerits.
Saying someone else “should” restore engine X, car Y, or building Z:
33.3 Demerits.
Using the phrases "Nattering Nabobs of Negativity" "NNN" "Yammering Yutz of Yesteryear" or "YYY" except when describing yourself:
49 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment must return to the geographic area where it operated:
50 Demerits.
Use of the word “Dieseltown” or "diseasel/diseasels":
50 Demerits.
Bringing up PRR 1361 unless you registered less than 24 hours ago and your IP address shows you're not a repeat registrant under a new name:
50 Demerits.
Asking when CSX will see the light and start running a steam program:
50 Demerits.
Pestering the Moderators over a poster you don't like:
75 Demerits.
Posting non Preservation related material in the interchange, including vintage photos of equipment that was not eventually preserved:
99 Demerits.

Members will be banned from the Interchange after 100 Demerits. Demerits can be removed/forgiven by donating to the new RyPN annual preservation grant. $1.00 per demerit.

Bulby · **Joined:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:45 pm **Posts:** 258

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Let me counter-propose:

Quote:

Use of rail-centric memes:
1 Demerit per use.
Use of animated GIFs:
1 demerit per use.
Use of hashtags:
5 Demerits.
Use of non-rail-centric memes:
10 Demerits per use.
The mere mention of certain unnamed railfans from Pottstown, Pennsylvania area except in reply to a query by a new member about a certain allegation:
10 Demerits.
Comparing American preservation to overseas preservation as if they were equal:
20 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment should return to the geographic area/line where it operated:
20 Demerits.
Chronic Narcissism, i.e. Posting the same 5 year old pictures every 3 months or a link to your favorite project's blog/Facebook page/website every month:
20 Demerits.
Suggesting a railroad company do something for preservation, for free:
25 Demerits.
Chronic Negativity, i.e. it will never be restored, or that project will fail, without specific reasons why said project is logistically impossible:
25 Demerits.
Arm-chair managing railroads:
25 Demerits.
Complaining that a private owner is doing what he wants with a piece of equipment:
30 Demerits.
Proclaiming that a piece of equipment should be painted in X, because that is your favorite railroad, when you do not own the piece of equipment, you do not volunteer at the museum that owns it, or otherwise have any stake in it:
30 Demerits.
Jumping on new members for asking innocent questions:
30 Demerits.
Saying someone else “should” restore engine X, car Y, or building Z:
33.3 Demerits.
Using the phrases "Nattering Nabobs of Negativity" "NNN" "Yammering Yutz of Yesteryear" or "YYY" except when describing yourself:
49 Demerits.
Proclaiming a piece of equipment must return to the geographic area where it operated:
50 Demerits.
Use of the word “Dieseltown” or "diseasel/diseasels":
50 Demerits.
Bringing up PRR 1361 unless you registered less than 24 hours ago and your IP address shows you're not a repeat registrant under a new name:
50 Demerits.
Asking when CSX will see the light and start running a steam program:
50 Demerits.
Pestering the Moderators over a poster you don't like:
75 Demerits.
Posting non Preservation related material in the interchange, including vintage photos of equipment that was not eventually preserved:
99 Demerits.

Members will be banned from the Interchange after 100 Demerits. Demerits can be removed/forgiven by donating to the new RyPN annual preservation grant. $1.00 per demerit.

I agree on all counts except the photos of equipment not eventually preserved, sometimes we are preserving the photos are we not? Without historical images, how do we truly know what the past looked like?

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2015 2:09 am

There exist websites specifically for that purpose:
Flickr
RailPictures
RRPictureArchives
Facebook pages
A variety of other rail photo gallery sites
And, finally, if you feel so compelled, you could form your own website.

But let's not be under any pretension that posting the photos here or at any other website, even the Library of Congress's, is "preserving" them. No. It's just sharing them. The preservation is in backing up the digitizations to hard drives that won't disappear when someone's server crashes, someone else stops paying a hosting fee, and/or Google/Flickr/whoever suddenly rewrite the rules for their websites. I may have a guy or two downloading every vintage photo that shows up of this area online as well as relevant data, but so what--that doesn't confer any ability to reuse them or even share them on another website or even a slide show.

There is good to be had in compiling rosters, "crowdsourcing" the fates or locations of formerly-existing equipment, etc., and photos can help play a role in those. But, to be honest, I come here to get away from the godawful noise-to-signal ratio of most other rail websites, and to me, putting up vintage photos of long-lost locos or stations just because they're "cool photos" is noise.

Bulby · **Joined:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 6:45 pm **Posts:** 258

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

There exist websites specifically for that purpose:
Flickr
RailPictures
RRPictureArchives
Facebook pages
A variety of other rail photo gallery sites
And, finally, if you feel so compelled, you could form your own website.

But let's not be under any pretension that posting the photos here or at any other website, even the Library of Congress's, is "preserving" them. No. It's just sharing them. The preservation is in backing up the digitizations to hard drives that won't disappear when someone's server crashes, someone else stops paying a hosting fee, and/or Google/Flickr/whoever suddenly rewrite the rules for their websites. I may have a guy or two downloading every vintage photo that shows up of this area online as well as relevant data, but so what--that doesn't confer any ability to reuse them or even share them on another website or even a slide show.

There is good to be had in compiling rosters, "crowdsourcing" the fates or locations of formerly-existing equipment, etc., and photos can help play a role in those. But, to be honest, I come here to get away from the godawful noise-to-signal ratio of most other rail websites, and to me, putting up vintage photos of long-lost locos or stations just because they're "cool photos" is noise.

I understand where you're coming from there.

How does this sound: Posting non preservation related material in the interchange, including photos of vintage equipment that was not eventually preserved unless the photo is specifically requested or information is being sought on something in the photo.

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:00 pm

How about when someone asks a question, then it never fails that someone has to chime up with an insulting answer, mentioning how easy it was for him to look it up so therefore inferring that the first person who asked must be stupid?

It has been brought up already, but these two could easily be in opposition:

Jumping on new members for asking innocent questions:
30 Demerits.
and
Bringing up PRR 1361:
50 Demerits.
With any forum, you get the same things that keep popping up and driving the people who live for the forum nuts. Then the regulars go out of their mind when someone who simply had never seen the subject before ask what's up.
No way around that and I always wonder why it drives people so nuts when it's obvious that the person asking simply didn't know...

Al Stangenberger · **Joined:** Mon Aug 23, 2004 12:59 pm **Posts:** 648

Bulby wrote:

How does this sound: Posting non preservation related material in the interchange, including photos of vintage equipment that was not eventually preserved unless the photo is specifically requested or information is being sought on something in the photo.

If I ran the zoo I would also add some demerits for posting a high-resolution copy of a photo rather than reducing its size to what is needed to view on a screen. (Maybe not too many demerits, but it's useful to learn how to make a lower-resolution copy of a photo.)

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2015 9:10 am

Hmmmm.

1) Concur with Bulby's proposed revision of "no non-preservation photos" idea; it does embrace the concept better. Ranier Rail's bandwidth-clogging photo posts do (usually) have a purpose, after all.

2) Since all of this is simply satirical, humorous venting which doesn't stand a chance of actually being imposed, let me propose another:
Lack of any use of capitalization or punctuation whatsoever in a post: 25 demerits.

Mark Trebing · **Posted:** Thu Feb 26, 2015 1:39 pm

If you're using the Firefox browser, the Image Zoom extension is your friend. In the options, add "zoom out" and "fit width" to the context menu. You'll need to do an extra right click, but too big photos are solved.

Of course bandwidth is still an issue, if you're on a slow connection.

-Mark

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Feb 26, 2015 2:43 pm

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

The mere mention of PRR 1361.

I do not know why it is not listed in the FAQ on the Interchange.

What Interchange FAQ?

TimReynolds · **Joined:** Sat Aug 31, 2013 4:11 pm **Posts:** 287

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

The mere mention of PRR 1361.

I do not know why it is not listed in the FAQ on the Interchange.

And at this point in time, the mere mention of a certain "steam" program of one of the big four US RRs. There is another blog (TO) that can provide all the entertainment one would or could want on that topic...

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Sun Mar 01, 2015 7:51 pm

TimReynolds wrote:

Jeff Lisowski wrote:

The mere mention of PRR 1361.

I do not know why it is not listed in the FAQ on the Interchange.

And at this point in time, the mere mention of a certain "steam" program of one of the big four US RRs. There is another blog (TO) that can provide all the entertainment one would or could want on that topic...

Minor point of correction: It's a paid subscription discussion forum, not a blog.

Forum Discussion Demerit System

Who is online