A bit of restraint about the war please.

In recent weeks this forum seems to have swerved rather heavily into the current going conflict in Iraq. To the point where our civility to each other here in the forum becomes a bit strained and folks like DVOSS must step in to control it before it gets out of hand.

I’ve made couple of comments relating to current tensions, but I try to take care to be self editing and keep my comments on war generalized and not specific to the going conflict.

We are hobbyists, while some of us are current military or former military, we should not play politics here.

I have tried to give my recent comments about conflict a model related bearing, but I shall make no further statements about the current conflict from here on. I hope we can all do the same and put civility ahead of freedom of speech in this forum.

Failing that, perhaps it would be a fair thing for FSM to place a warning or other sort of memo on the forum sign in page so that its clear to all who enter that politics aren’t welcome here. Don’t wait till someone gets on your case to find out you threw both feet in your mouth and bit HARD.

Plea for civility here folks, keep it to the hobby.

100% with you on this issue, Upnorth.

I can’t improve upon what Upnorth has said. There are plenty of other good sites out there for discussing the rights and wrongs of the present conflict. We will see some fascinating modeling subjects on our televisions in the coming days and weeks, but let’s keep the discussion here focused on just that: modeling.

It’s late in the day, so I’m getting anecdotal… I spent a few cold evenings this winter reading the archives of another forum I visit regularly. When I passed through the postings for Sept-Oct 2001, I was amazed that there was not a single reference to the events of Sept. 11th. This is not to say the members of that forum were not affected by those events as much as the rest of us–I’m sure they were. But the purpose of the forum was to discuss model rockets, and that’s what everybody stuck to.

The FSM Forum’s subject matter makes that kind of compartmentalization more difficult if not impossible, but whatever we do, let’s keep it civil.

Thanks for the back up on that guys.

Trends come and go, but civility NEVER goes out of style. :slight_smile:

I agree. This site should be about the hobby that bought us here in the first place. Each person has an openion about the conflict, but we should keep it to our self. One way to lose the friendship, I see at this site ,can be lost forever by a remark made in haste. Lets close the door on war and get back to modeling.

Another vote of agreement here…this is a modelling site and we should be discussing current events elsewhere.

If you want to talk about current events why not do it on the internet. This is a forum for model builders. Most of us consider this a hobby, a few lucky ones can claim it as their vocation. I want to argue politics (and believe me I do) I get on a chatline

Well said upnorth. I hope that I have not offended anyone here by my own comments the other day. I may have been less civil than I would prefer to the poster of the "tick,tick…Saddam thread in the aircraft forum. My apoligies to all. It just goes to show you that It’s not always a good thing to share your exact thoughts with everyone, particularly when it pertains to such a controversial subject.

Darren

All here are correct, this site should remain about our common link, modelling. Opinions on the current conflict can only serve to divide what is, in my opinion, the friendliest forum on the web. Even my own comment recently, which was a one line addition to a post about the scale of the MOAB, should have been reserved for another place.

Rarely in human existence does such a diverse group of peoples get together to help eachother in such a genuine way. It is truly impressive to read the posts on this forum and see the sense of comraderie expressed by fellow modellers. To let any subject, war or otherwise, interfere with that would be an injustice.

Couldn’t put it better than upnorth did so I won’t try. I’m with ya.

upnorth said all that needs to be said on the subject. Carry on, lads! Back to the workbench. -Ed