I have notified Tommy Gears that I intend to resign as moderator here. I am interested in promoting robust debate among industry professionals regarding topics of importance, but it seems that is not what the membership wants and I have noticed that.

So there may be an opening here if anyone else would like to contact Tommy regarding assisting him with moderation duties.

Hope you re-consider as you are a good one!

Thank you for your service. I'm surprised you lasted as long as you did.

Rick, I hope you reconsider your decision. You were a welcome and much-needed breath of fresh air in an otherwise oppressively censored waste.

I hope you're happy, Tommy. Have fun deleting posts and comments at will just because they don't fit your narrow view of the world.

What a useless waste of server space this forum has become, when protecting pedophiles and the industry's bad actors is the preferred course of action versus meaningful discussion about issues that will affect us all, no matter how deeply you bury your heads in the sand.

Rick,

First off, thank you for the effort you put in.

While I am sure there will be applause from some quarters (assuming of course that internet access is granted in such places), I doubt much of it will be coming from those who actually contribute to this forum.

That said, I understand. Sometimes all you can do is walk away when something is controlled by small minded folks and no mechanism to remove them exists.

Hopefully you will still post some updtes on your projects. It was nice to have knid of a central place to see what was going on in the world of rr preservation and be able to discuss and learn from it,

Jason Midyette

Ps - I quoted Denny’s post because it pretty much sums up the situation as I see it

My sentiments as moderation declines and the non-preservation blather and general trolling increases.

Sigh,

Wesley

I've offered, twice in past decades, to assist with moderation here.

The problem was that my take of "freedom of speech" and letting fools expose their idiocy for all to see was potentially even more "libertarian" than Brother Rowlands.

And as plainly demonstrated by the current state of the Internet, social media, etc. on an hourly basis in 2022, the vast majority of regular internet users, media companies, etc. are patently incapable of handling such a free discourse and interchange of expression without rising up in outrage and offence at ideas they dislike and object to.

If you actually want a free interaction of ideas and information on the internet, people like Brother Rowlands (and his version of reason) are to be supported and lauded as moderators and commentators.

If you are the outrageously noisy but numerically insignificant type that believes Elon Musk buying Twitter is a travesty because he would dare to let the likes of Donald Trump and the Babylon Bee back on Twitter in the interest of free expression, then "sod off, swampy."

If there’s any way to change your mind, I would love for that to happen. I know there’s a lot of idiots in this world, but there has to be some sort of structure to the madness as well. I pray you do change your mind, because you have always made good educated decisions on what to let go on and what not to let go on. Please reconsider but I also understand your decision. Praying for you as decisions like this are not very easy.

Thank you Rick! Keep up the great work you do in the real world.
Mike Tillger

Filed under hypocrisy.

Cross listed under "non-preservation blather", "general trolling" and "whawww".

I don't think ADM's quoted post aged well. Who thinks that disqualifies him from a position of "moderation", at least where potential political speech may be encountered?

ADM-III wrote: "....If you are the outrageously noisy but numerically insignificant type that believes Elon Musk buying Twitter is a travesty because he would dare to let the likes of Donald Trump and the Babylon Bee back on Twitter in the interest of free expression, then "sod off, swampy."

ADMIII, how about Musk owning the libs and readmitting "Ye" {Yedolph} recently, to much fanfare, only to scramble to ban him~ post haste?

Do you think "Ye" should have free reign to call for violence against Jews....or, are we just overly sensitive? Hell, that holocaust was 70 some-odd years ago... that's old news. Why are we still talking about it?"... as Tucker would say.


Here's ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ an example, a small sampling of radical right hate speech, of why the cheerleaders of the radical right should be banned from mainstream social media... let them stay over on GAB....


https://youtu.be/Gsa3tiS2VTo

I have no interest in Kanye or ye or whatever the hell he's calling himself now. I think the guy might be suffering from Kardashianitis.

However, as of right now:


Meanwhile:

https://twitter.com/kathygriffin

Still in good standing.

And if I want anti-Semitic hate, I need go no further than the disinvestment advocates accredited leftists at some college.

I have no idea what this is all about. But as someone who has been in the rail preservation field for decades, let me say this about rypn: I don't come here to gossip or listen to gossip about people or politics. This forum is about raiilway preservation. If people get into heated arguments here about the metallurgy of staybolts or whether LED bulbs are appropriate, that's great, that's passion about the actual topic of this board. But if people are getting into arguments about politics, health care, pedophiles, sports teams, domestic animals, and other such off-topic nonsense, I really wish they would do that someplace else.

Thanks, Rick. I don't want to lose you as a moderator but what must be, must be.

Phil Mulligan

Thank you for the time you have put in. I'm looking forward to seeing more about your many worthwhile projects, especially the Porters and the Tod Engine.

Where have you gone Doug Bailey? Preservation turns its lonely eyes to you.