i use to come here for intelligent, informative information on railroad preservation; now i just come here for the drama/humor!

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> Allow me to give my notice that I wish to remain a member of this forum.
> The moderators are doing a good job at a thankless task and I hope that they
> will continue to do it.

Nicely stated. My feelings exactly.

If there was one improvement I'd make to RyPN its to add a LIKE button.

J.R. May

Kelly, what bottle shall we stash for the Last Man's Club? I can come up with a bottle of Superstition Meadery mead, or maybe Glenfiddich 15-Year Solera Reserve....

As for this overall policy, my understanding was that Brother Rowlands imposed the policy as he did because too many people have groused in the past that they were "afraid" of being verbally attacked if they posted on this forum, and he wants to make this forum a friendlier, more approachable and active forum.

From the evidence I was shown, I guarantee you that had excommunicated-Brother Wilkens taken the same approach with me had I been a moderator, I would have done the precise same thing--he practically begged to be thrown out, and it was the simplest, easiest approach.

But, boy.......... that approach is backfiring, BIG-time. At this rate, there soon won't be any "signal" for the "signal-to-noise ratio".......

Thank you Kelly, well said. I must admit I shall mourn the loss of two of my most reliable antagonists which leaves only 3 remaining so the ranks are getting pretty slim.

Life goes on and RyPN shall continue to serve a very valuable function.

IMHO-Ross Rowland

I hadn't been to SmokStak in awhile until Kelly mentioned it, but it's interesting to note that they've added a couple of new forums specifically for railroading ("railroad and equipment", "railway speeder cars", "railroadiana", and "model railroading").

Well spoken, Kelly. Stand with the preservationists who get dirty on the job.

I'm always amazed how many excellent writers there are on RYPN. Thank you Mr. Anderson for your perfectly worded commentary. I am in complete agreement. Very much looking forward to your next shop update here on RYPN.

Mr. Mitchell - The subject matter of your proposed tontine is very interesting but your suggestion that one may be necessary is a bit premature. I do not believe that Rick's primary intention is to, "make this forum a friendlier, more approachable and active forum" but rather to make it more professional and civil by eliminating posters who repeatedly take gratuitous pot shots at other forum members every chance they get. I fully support this goal.

You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!"

I agree a LIKE button would be useful, but since (last year?) RYPN has problems just keeping electricity flowing to the server, it is a lot to ask.

I happen to be (roughly, and from memory) paraphrasing what he told me directly. This is not some presumption. He directly said that people were complaining back-channel that they were no longer participating, or afraid to, because they feared being "attacked" or otherwise insulted, and specifically by Wilkens. (W, on the other hand, believes this to have been a coordinated attack against him by people elsewhere in the "trade" that dislike him. I'm not taking sides here.)

I heard from both sides back-channel in that hissy fit, and as I said had W pulled what he did with R with me as a moderator, he would have met with much the same fate, much as I disagree vehemently with the tactic. You talk/act like a jackass in reaction to a stern warning, you're going to be dealt with like one, and often that involves the [proverbial, lest I get accused by the "offensensitive" readers of animal cruelty or violence!] two-by-four over the noggin to get the jackass's attention.

I'm started to be reminded of the long-ago "Andy Capp" cartoon where Andy is portrayed as engaging in a fistfight with several pub patrons simultaneously, and the pub owner says "All right! I'm not having yer beat up me customers! Yer BANNED!"
Andy replies "If I go, me friends go!"
Gaffer replies, "Hah! I should worry!"
The final panel shows Andy and all six guys he was fighting marching out in a queue, while the gaffer says at the reader, "Oh, NO!!"

Andy Capp - very entertaining. I'm thinking more of the Simpsons when they believe the world will end. All the folks in the bar run to the church and all the congregants in the church run to the bar. Some may refrain from posting for a while, and some may leave permanently, but others who either never were members or who have not posted in a long while may return to RYPN after seeing a sustained reduction in unprofessional attacks.

Fascinating stuff this internet psychology. My apologies for the digression from rail preservation.

Yeah Sandy, for the past couple of years, I *have* effectively departed the forum, being here for at most a dozen days or so over that time. The reason is precisely the posting style of a very small few, who disregard the concept of a marketplace of ideas founded in mutual respect and advancement of the craft, while the rest of us were trying to create that.

Those few are (were?) able to "glide over all" without consequence, and it resulted in many threads that should've been highly productive being completely derailed, to where writing an intelligent answer was pissing in the wind. Or worse, threads locked, too often while I was writing a lengthy (and helpful) answer that had nothing to do with the fight. I couldn't very well repost it as a new thread, or I'd be accused of restarting the fight. So it was literally a waste of time to even participate here.

And I've been here so rarely that others can't really blame me for any of the trouble.

I'm well aware that W's ban came shortly after my arrival. But go back and read the thread. I did not engage him at all. My mere existence on the forum seemed to have aggravated him, but that's not my doing. For the record I did complain, but my feeling is that to control behavior you need to intervene quite early with measured consequences; people simply need to be reminded of forum rules. I have complained and always advise a consequence, but never longer than a 7-day suspension. My advice has never been taken. It's a separate and larger subject: the problem of management being reluctant to discipline, letting someone's bad behavior run amok, until (much too late) they finally try to correct the behavior and find they no longer respond to management at all.