Well put Steve-O
I hate it that somebody left (Who?) but it would be silly to blame the OT or those who enjoy that section for that persons choice. OT isn’t manditory reading and the solution is easy. If you don’t like it don’t particapate in it. I’ve been here from the beginning and see nothing but this forum getting stronger and more interesting. I believe it has the potential to go bad like Hyper-you-know-what but Dave keeps the forums on an even keel. This thread seems to be causing as much distress as I’ve seen any cause.
Maybe a warning is in order on the OT. Something like “Free exhange of ideas, Enter at your own risk” or do it like they do the forum testers topic and make it invisable to the rest of the forum. That way those interested could sign up for it.
It gets a bit scary when people start calling for the banning of ideas they don’t like.[2c]
I tend to agree with Steve and Woody. This is, after all, the “Off Topic” Forum and technically there shouldn’t be anything here about models since those would be “On Topic”.
I also don’t think it’s fair to say that one person’s view of what is not important or relative is all-inclusive. Just because it isn’t important to one person doesn’t mean that it isn’t important to others. As Woody said, the Off Topic forum isn’t mandatory reading and it can easily be ignored.
Personally it is one of my favorite areas. I find a lot of interesting tid-bits here that would otherwise be lost. True, they may have nothing whatsoever to do with models, but so what? They are still interesting.
Weeeelll, I certainly don’t begrudge anyone from posting as much as they want here. After all, that’s what forums are for! As for the quality of posts (versus quantity), who are we to judge what is frivolous or not? If you spend any time at all here at FSM, you should be able to decide for yourself whose posts you consider to be “frivolous,” and then avoid them at your own discretion.
As far as the “chatterbox competition” goes, to me, it’s all just silly fun that harms no one. (I hope that doesn’t offend anyone who may be dead serious about their post count!!)
Concerning the often heated debates about religion or politics or whatever in the OT forums, I just avoid them. I don’t come to FSM to discuss such things. I come here to discuss modelling. But, if those topics are in the OT forum, I have no complaints. Some people enjoy those heated debates, and again, I begrudge them not.
The FSM forums certainly have changed in the last year and a half that I’ve been here, and I’ve seen some good people come and go.
Personally, I find myself posting less and less these days. There just aren’t that many topics lately that I feel I can add anything to or comment on, and I haven’t had any decent ideas for new topics of my own lately. That is, topics that I would deem worthy of presenting to our community for comment.
Even though I hold second place in overall posts (behind Shermanfreak, of course!), I never felt that I was one of the “power posters” of the forums. I can see that this position will be short lived, due to the advent of some very prolific posters. And to this new generation of power posters, I say, “More power to ya!”
Now, let’s build some models.
Woody…Steve…Scott…J-Hulk…Richard…
well spoken…
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You know this thread is almost about the things that you are bemoaning. You’re bringing up a persons personal opinion. What makes this thread any more important than the 1000’s of others started? Each person is affected differently by each thread, so what might be important to one person, becomes drivel to another. Contrary to my post counts, I’m not trying to spike numbers to gain special attention or whatnot, I’m just having fun. And if someone is posting a 100 posts in a day, (never even came close) who cares? To each their own agenda. Some like to build, some like to talk. The O.T forum was created for a reason, to learn more about one another and to talk about something other than shop. If one doesn’t like the O.T. forum, than stick with the build forums. You should find what you’re looking for there. Try bringing up more threads there also. Of course just my [2c]
well the reason i joined the fsm forum’s was to learn about other people , i.e are americans different to me , are canadians different to me answer is no , in fact i have made some good friends via the forums , i talk to some off you via the chatrooms , i went to a airshow with someone from the fsm forum’s , also i’ve gained more knowlege on modelling from the fsm forum’s , i have to say this the best forum going , if me doing 120 posts the otherday has offended people im sorry , but i kept it to the off topics , when i joined there was a lot of political subjects in the o/t’s but i like to have fun so i put a few topics up which some of you guys enjoyed , made some of you laugh , to me personally though most nights i’d sit and watch tv , now i come on here , to learn from you guys , to put up pctures of stuff im doing because i know i’ll get a honest answer, and also if i make some of you guys laugh , it makes me happy
Gotta admit there’s a lot of sense spoken here…
I guess the good thing about the OT topics are that you have a choice.
If you don’t like what you’re hearing, switch it to something else, like Aircraft, Armor or Sci-fi.
I’ve never gotten into the swing of the power-post…can’t be bothered. As it’s been said, it might be frivolous, but it hurts no one.
The way I see my moniter when logging into this site is as follows. There are 16 topics that are build or other wise model related, 6 that deal with community issues (introductions, announcements, and testing), and 1 OT where anything goes. How does one area dictate where 22 others are going? As I post this there are currently 33,541 posts in this area, so there is obviously a large interest in “meaningless” chatter.
As to any anger some debates may cause. Sure some of you guys have gotten my blood pressure up a notch, but as soon as I get to the next thread, I forgot about it. If someone’s political views or religous beliefs cause you to hate anything that person is or is capable of, then you have deeper issues that this forum IMO. I disagree strongly with some of you in here on certain issues but would still buy you the cold beverage of your choice and talk models any time.
Who left? is it me or is it kinda childish to quit a forum that you like just because you dont agree with another person’s view? if i find an offensive post, i just leave the thread and head for another one. i’m not gonna quit visiting this forum for something as trivial as that. oh well, live and let live i guess. i think that its cool just the way it is personally. you have to wonder how good the advice is that is given by someone who has 100 or more post in a day! when do they have time to build!![:p] is their hobby building or posting?[:D][;)] later.
Someone left because they didn’t like what they were reading in a SMALL section of the forum? Who was holding the gun to their head making them read “drivel” ? If he/she was that disturbed by it why continue looking? There had to be other reasons as I find this hard to beleive.
I myself would hate to see the Off-Topics page go away; indeed the Off-Topics page is one of my favorite parts of FSM’s website. I don’t live entirely on modeling and I think it’s fun to prowl through this thread and learn about what everybody likes to eat or what kind of music we listen to or what sports teams we root for. I generally don’t bother with political or religious threads. The games are fun; particularly Jeopardy, although I haven’t been on the Word Association or the Never-Ending Story as they do get too long to read. But I think the Off-Topics page adds to the fun of my favorite website--www.finescale.com. One reason why I enjoy it here so much is that some of the other web sites I nose around in are full of misspellings, punctuation and grammatical errors and garbage posts.
Well to answer the question of who left … me.
My reasons are many but can be boiled down into the simplest of terms. When I first joined the Forums here at FSM, the focus was on one thing and one thing only, the modeling hobby.
Now …. I feel it is not.
So to the many friends that I have made here, thanks for the good times and best of luck with your model building.
Last night I really hoped that you will change your mind when this day breaks. I am sad that you didn’t.[V]
Anyway, Sherm…THANK YOU for being one of the most helpful members of this forum and certainly the most cheerful. I’ll just drop by the sherman depot[;)] every once in a while.
Still hoping though that you will change your mind about leaving and even if you don’t…
you will always be a friend to me.
God Bless.[:)]
No, someone left because the family feel of the forum is rapidly disintegrating due largly to the animosity and deterioration generated in the OT forum.
I’m as much a patriot as anyone here, I spent 4 months in Kuwait before the war doing my duty, but when things got ugly between the US and some of the European countries that did not support us, there were quite a few postings against those countries with no regard to our international “family” that is on this board. That caused a few good members to leave, some returned, but it was uncalled for. Some of the international members made some disparaging remarks about the US and it’s policies and practices and how did y’all feel then?
There are many other cases where someones beliefs were so strong that they were down right ugly in the posts. I’m not saying anyone doesn’t have a right to believe what they want, but is this place to fight over it? Is it worth losing a few good friends? Is it worth losing some good contributors because you demand your freedom of speech? Regardless of who you offend with that freedom? I’m not talking about your opinion offending someone, but your behavior.
I have no problem with silly posts in the OT forum, fun, games, off the wall info, powerposting, whatever. But when the powerposting is running through every single forum on the board to rack up posts, it detracts from the build forums, the technique forums etc. When the personal views one holds causes angry retorts to be thrown back and forth, what good are you doing the forum? There are better places for that in my…again…opinion.
I’m saying all this to try let y’all understand I’m not against people having opinions or stating them but we need to start thinking about who else is on this board, whose kids are reading this board, and behave appropriately. Wave your flag but don’t slap your neighbor in the face with it. I’m not against having fun on here either. I do it all the time, but not at someone elses expense or by detracting from other posts in the other forums.
Again, this is only my opinion and I know some will dissagree and you have that right. I’m being polite (as have all the replies so far, thank you) and I’m trying to be civil to get a point across. I just think when the number one contributor on the board decides it’s not worth his time to participate because of the behavior, we’ve all lost more than we’ve gained by an OT forum and any post in it.
Eric
It would truely be a shame if you left.
Take care Robert, I know we’ll keep in touch…
You have become a great friend and I’d like to personally thank you for getting me back into this great hobby with your Sherman Group Build.
May your Shermies be abundant…and your friends even more so…
Regards, Dan
Many valid points have been brought up all around. I can tell you the staff is reading this and there has been some discussion regarding this topic.
There is not much I can add that has not been stated already.
I too agree that “off-topic” means just that, but I can see where some things have gotten out of hand or at least seemed to.
The problem with forums like this is that the written word alone is difficult to get your points across without it being misconstrued as something other than what was intended. The majority of communication is expressed by voice inflection and facial expressions and neither of those can be understood when typing on a forum, so what was intended as healthy discussion can be misunderstood as hot debates.
I am guilty of this myself in the topic that roadkill_275 alluded to in his post about him having an “argument with another person” the other day.
I was not trying to be hotly debating his answers but I can see where people can see it as such. Normally I don’t argue many points especially political posts as they are subjective in nature, but when someone publically posts an untrue statement about theological issues I feel it is my duty to publically defend it. If the post was not put publically on the forum then I would not answer to it unless the person wanted to discuss it via email.
I feel that if I am silent when someone challenges biblical truths then other’s may think that believers have no answer to the challenge, and to me that is not right. Christians are commanded to “ernestly contend for the faith” and to “be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us” as commanded by scripture. This is apologetics and it is my area of study that I have been involved in for about 21 years on and off.
Anyhow, that is how I feel about it and hopefully my feable attempt to convey my thoughts was helpful in some way. [:D]
Mike
Leemitcheltree, saltydog, sahickerson, roadkill… Bravo!!! Great points!
wow robert, i had no idea friend. i’ve never had much dialog with you, but i hate to lose such a prominent member as yourself. please reconsider.
erush, i understand where you are coming from now. its very easy to forget that this forum is global, but it is global isn’t it. i can see where political and religious threads could get out of hand. i seldom if ever read offensive posts myself, but i will defend my interests and beliefs if they are trampled on. hopefully, we can work this thing out. i have all confidence in the staff at fsm and the members of this forum that we can all get along and do what it takes to right the ship. later.