What in the hell...

Absolutely disagree. Threads are like a conversation. They meander wherever they may go. If you were sitting in the pub sharing a pint with friends you would not get up from the “talking football” table and move to the “talking fishing table” if you wanted to talk about the bass you caught the other day. The best forums that I have been involved with are all free flowing.

"Casual talk" (threads getting off topic) makes this a friendly place to me. If everything stayed 100% on topic it would seem more like a library than a public forum. It shows that relationships have been made between people and that's what keeps the forum going.

Most of the time the threads get back on topic.

Speaking of, I thought this was about the way people were talking to others, comments being made, etc.?

It's easy to get off topic at times.

In 100% agreement with cgvt

Then it's way too facebookish for me. I'm out.

“Be quick to listen and slow to speak” This is sage advice. Listen to what someone is saying. We all want to be heard. If we really listen to others as they speak one can learn a lot about the speaker. We all are as sincere in our beliefs as the next person. If we listen we can learn and maybe come to appreciate why they believe a certain way. This doesn’t mean we will agree with what is being said, but we can have a better understanding and probably find common ground to establish a dialogue that will lead to a peaceful co-existence. Listen and ask questions that allow them to keep expressing themselves. Man doesn’t learn anything while he talks, but he learns many things when he listens. Learning is gaining knowledge, gaining knowledge can allow one to act or speak wisely. 

AJ

This is like when Dad got home of the road on Friday night and I had hit my sister Tuesday and spilled paint in the garage Thursday.

He is right though. I think maybe it is cabin fever and lack of sunshine during this bummy time of the year. This past week has been unlike the patch.

Justin Ive been waiting for you to say something like this for weeks... Appreciated.

Just to share my thought process...

Perhaps I have been overly sensitive. Not being American there are some political things that I might even miss because I'm not in the know. Sometimes I try to err on the side of caution.

However, there are also some threads that should have been closed sooner than they were, but I like to give a gentle warning in the hope that things turn round before I close a thread.

Also, and this happened in every thread that I closed, when another patch member reports or PMs me that they have been offended by a post, I'm on high alert. I won't necessarily lock a thread because someone is overly sensitive, but I keep a close eye on the thread. In each case, somebody had taken unction on posts in a thread (sometimes more than one person), so it wasn't a sensitivity issue.

In all cases, I ask myself, 'has a people group or an individual been denigrated? Has a forum rule been broken? Or, in some cases, while the thread might have been heated, is it time to simply move on for the sake of peace?'

If the answer to these questions is, 'yes' then I lock the thread for the betterment of the forum.

I feel that is fair.

I my year here, the primary thing that draws me to this place is the brotherhood/sisterhood and respect that’s shown here. Knowing what I know about forums, they will usually encounter challenges as more tenured folks run the roost and newer members have to prove something to be accepted. This doesn’t seem to be the situation here and god willing it will never be. We also have a very even keeled group of Mods. I’ve been on boards that even the mention of certain things was a “bannable” offense and people began to fear contributing as a result.

The folks here are good, not perfect but good. I think a take away is to think before we type and continue to understand that everyone is different, everyone has differences of opinion but that’s the beauty of life. If everyone spoke the same, walked the same, smoked the same thing or believed the same things, life would be boring.

Whomever quoted Bill and Ted before was right: let’s be excellent to one another.

Agreed. Enough is enough.

" Knowing what I know about forums, they will usually encounter challenges as more tenured folks run the roost and newer members have to prove something to be accepted. This doesn’t seem to be the situation here and god willing it will never be."
Amen to that!!! Like the...

Being new here, I fortunately have never read any bad posts and know nothing of what some are referring to.
I think this is a great bunch of folks and am happy to have found it.

Chico, I was joking about being offended and appreciate what you offer to this forum.I hope you will post more.

What I believe is occurring, in your case at the patch, has less to do with not being part of a club defined by white, male, gun ownership, country music etc. but life philosophies. These core values often determine political persuasions and are communicated in different ways without mentioning party or politics directly. From what I can gather many here are truly independent, libertarian, conservatives with libertarian leanings and conservative There are also those who are liberal, though they appear to be in the minority, and much fewer if any leaning far left. As you have expressed a different philosophy than the general trend, from time to time, a little friction arises. But let's say you were a classic libertarian (not to be confused with Chomsky's libertarianism and other like versions), regardless of your gender, race, gun ownership, or you music preferences, I believe a portion of the problematic encounters would disappear. For example, I know one member here who is conservative theologically and would be viewed, at the very least, as leaning right of middle in his own country. He is also half Brazilian though culturally Irish. My friend is also one of the most beloved members of this forum. He is male, not a gun guy, prefers music other than Ametucan country music, hardly macho and certainly has no axe to grind. If he is perceived so well, it probably has to do with respect to his character and life philosophy than any other outlier one might mention.

Chico I do not agree with any personal attacks or insults given or taken. My point is simply on this forum the paradigm you constructed, while mentioning one solid example. folks favoring conservatism on some level, misses the mark in applying too much weight to the other factors. As a result it appears to portray a judgement though I honestly believe you might not be consciously aware of it nor mean harm by it.

PS Among all races, regardless of the outliers and the like, there are those who lean more conservative or liberal etc. In each camp you will find similar conversations, some more polite and nuanced than others, when something is perceived as less traditional to that perspective or out of the norm to the given narrative. It typically, on average, gets worse the further the idea is from one's professed narrative.

That could be considered "cruel and unusual punishment".   

Thanks for the reprimand, Justin. I agree with all comments and suggestions that keep the Patch a friendly and welcoming place. That's why I like to spend time with the people here.

I certainly did not mean to critique your overall performance nor appear unappreciative of your predicament in blocking the thread mentioned in my first comment. You did your best within the framework of your understanding and that is all one can ask. I might also be incorrect in assuming that the thread in question would not have spiraled completely out of control.