How come, when the topic is something technical and useful, the responses are sparse and the thread quickly dies. But mention a topic like sexism, covid, the role of government, and it quickly grows to 10 pages: of totally worthless crap! Railway preservation people arguing on a railway preservation forum about politics, and trying to make some tenuous connection to railway preservation issues, is just dumb. How about going to a political discussion forum, and starting a raging flame war [no pun intended] about boiler pressures?

I should like to observe, at this happy juncture, how very, exuberantly glad I am that I am no longer either a moderator or an administrator of this forum. I think that Canada Bill Jones Motto applies beautifully to moderation: "You cannot win, you cannot break even and you can't even quit the game."

As a moderator, I will sometimes post to steer (or nudge) a thread away from a difficult outcome... then if steering doesn't work, will lock it... This is rare but can happen.

Sadly, more commonly my post will kill a topic, which is an unintended consequence.

But, also, your moderators are passionate about the subject so are involved.

Randy Hees... your always friendly moderator...

"How come, when the topic is something technical and useful, the responses are sparse and the thread quickly dies. But mention a topic like sexism, covid, the role of government, and it quickly grows to 10 pages: of totally worthless crap!'

Well.. according to Ladders.com

https://www.theladders.com/career-advic ... -2021-9-24

Thank you moderators.

I'm pretty sure that the moderators are working for free, and I certainly don't have time to take on another job/hobby/volunteer role/etc., especially one without compensation.

Therefore, to the folks that keep complaining and are always writing dissertations on RYPN (which admittedly I don't read), it would appear that you do have some extra time to become moderators. How many of you have volunteered to take on this role?

After receiving a rather insulting private message last night, I had to ban a member who already had a couple of strikes against that person for repeated violation of forum rules.

Once again, someone is complaining about the generalities of online discourse and social media while erroneously believing that the "problem" is somehow "rail preservation."

Furthermore, few people, even here, have the experience or expertise to comment on "boiler pressures," let alone contribute knowledgeable insight. But everyone who doesn't live in a cave, under a rock, or guard Jack Benny's safe develops opinions on sexism, COVID-19 and efforts to combat it, government's roles in our lives and avocations, etc. based on their experiences with the topic--and the topic is often forced upon them involuntarily. (Your opinions and "rights" about COVID are irrelevant if your workplace, a Federal building, the TSA/FRA, etc. forces you to mask up, be inoculated, etc., as one example.)

This is often expressed with the saying "Opinions are like a*****es--everyone has one."

The moderators are much appreciated, and I thank them for their efforts.

I think the Moderators do a good job here and thanks for that

The respect is my top priority and I am not the one here to be not American be interested in US railroad. Again I am a french Canadian and the railroad i like is the Union Pacific. I just happy when someone here post a reply to my question hahaha.

Be only a Railfan, the ((technical subject)) has no interest in me and I stay far far away when is time to talk politic and Covid here.

MAYBE Interchange topics need to be divise. Because there are a difference between preservation news VS technical subject
Historic news VS restoration news

I like the moderation here.

I clicked on the like button.

Excellent timing, Stephan Pastis:

Today's "Pearls Before Swine" comic strip addresses this perfectly:

https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/09/26

After a few days of intentionally not commenting, I feel that I should explain my initial post.

The reason I posted it, as I said in the original post, is that it seems that people still seem to claim this type of thing isn't an issue.

And then it went down the rabbit hole of apologists for the behavior:
- "It's not really railroad preservation people"
- Various flavors of "She's asking for it" (which is particularly abhorrent)
- "This isn't sexism"
- New unsolicited comments about her appearance
- An admission of questionably legal hiring bias

All of this simply makes my initial point, that perhaps needs a sharper edge put on it.

If you, or your organization, is creating a "safe space for assholes", you are going to have a hard time attracting volunteers, positive attention, funding, support, and ultimately, success.

You can like it or not but reality proves it out time and time again.

It's not the end of the world, though. People CAN get better (even if that means simply not saying anything). I'm sure many of us in the professional world have gone through various training about workplace appropriateness. While those sometimes may seem a bit ridiculous, exhibitions like these threads demonstrate exactly why those are still needed, and might be something that more people should look into if they're struggling with these issues.

I think the moderation here is EXCELLENT!!!

My history goes back to dial up Bulletin Boards, Usenet, AOL days social media. Remember all those floppy disks falling out of the sky? Before the CD's became a meme in their own right?

Controversial topic threads tend to fit a pattern. They often eventually start looping around and repeating without getting new information. It's a judgement call as to when to cut off the death spiral.

In my opinion, a discussion board does better in the long run when such a thread is allowed to run long.

It's important that a controversial topic has a correct title. That way folks who are not interested in - say Covid-19's effects on the business - can avoid dissatisfaction. Fortunately this board does not have that problem.

It's important that folks with firmly held beliefs be exposed to others who do not share such beliefs. In my opinion one of the failings of modern media is how folks are manipulated to shun the "others".

Social Media is able to change minds. There's been a number of folks who decided to get vaccinated after reading social media posts about the consequences of refusing.

I vote that folks put away their torches and pitchforks.

Brian