Depository for off topic / political posts (NO brexit related posts please)

Jacko wrote:

I have huge respect for Tim Nathan as an instrument pilot and I think that EuroGA is poorer for the lack of his input. Of course we disagree about some inconsequential things (mostly to do with politics), but few other people in the UK have contributed so generously and effectively to GA safety, to GA de-regulation and to my own knowledge of GNSS instrument navigation.

Tim somehow managed to annoy Peter enough to be kicked out, but if EuroGA was any sort of a democracy, I would vote to welcome him back.

I found ~Timothy’s contributions on the whole very interesting and thought provoking.

I think when any of us hold stroong views it is possible to take these too far, and unfortunately I agree with Peter, this is what happeded. You get a feeling when some contributors are pushing their luck into the realm of territory which unnecessarily causes offence, and I think unfortunately this line was over stepped.

That takes nothing away from his contribution to GA which I think is entrely a seperate matter, in the same way that I dont agree with his views on the current infringement policy, but never the less can respect the stance which he takes.

Debates should never become personal, and if they do then I suspect it is far better that the parties cease to engage at that point, or apologise and agree to disagree otherwise any forum stops working in a reasonable way.

This is nothing personal. I have met Timothy many times and never had an issue.

It is quite simple:

EuroGA is a community. It is only what the contributors make it. It isn’t a $300/year aviation newspaper, where you complain to the editor that his editorial staff is writing crap. So, if e.g. you are looking for particular content of interest, start a thread on that topic.

No moderator, especially an unpaid one like me, is looking for extra work. The last thing I want is getting out of bed and finding WW3 has started. So, all those (98%) who are “just nice”, I love you all and I’ll buy you a beer anytime

Those 2% who keep sticking a thorn in the mod’s side (and invariably they are people from the countries which have an unmoderated domestic forum – nobody is going to risk their job unless they have the next one lined up – or they are active on FB where you can write any nasty stuff you like), pop up on the mod’s radar and then they get “looked at” as a current contributor. Not as a contributor say 5 years ago. Why some people decide, after years, to switch to writing nasty stuff, or indeed why anybody ever bothers to waste their time hitting a keyboard just to p1ss somebody off, is a mystery which I don’t spend any time researching.

The most difficult “mod cases” are those who currently write good stuff but are also currently nasty. They are very rare, fortunately. They are normally highly desirable on a forum which carries adverts, because threads where somebody is getting a good kicking generate much more traffic.

Much easier are those who used to write good stuff but stopped doing so years ago, and are nasty.

The only aspect of EuroGA mod policy which I regret is not removing really nasty people much faster, years ago. All the big sites remove those people immediately – within an hour. On EuroGA we went for a “democratic” approach but it got abused – as the old-timers here will remember well.

Fuji_Abound wrote:

You get a feeling when some contributors are pushing their luck into the realm of territory which unnecessarily causes offence, and I think unfortunately this line was over stepped.

Well, in this discussion about infringements and Gasco, it goes for both sides, doesn’t it?

There is no issue with expressing opinions about or discussing infringement policy, so I don’t see what this is about.

Peter wrote:

The only aspect of EuroGA mod policy which I regret is not removing really nasty people much faster, years ago. All the big sites remove those people immediately – within an hour. On EuroGA we went for a “democratic” approach but it got abused – as the old-timers here will remember well.

It’s a learning process for sysoping and even then you can’t do what you want unless you are alone as a moderator. I lean towards removing people who do disturb the peace much quicker these days than I used to, but not everyone in a sysop team agrees to that. Generally, lockouts should be the exception rather than the rule, but in some cases, they need to be done quicker than in others. Not referring to any specific cases here, but in general.

Airborne_Again wrote:

Well, in this discussion about infringements and Gasco, it goes for both sides, doesn’t it?

I dont think there are two sides to this, but many, and that is the problem.

Hey. maybe for a change Peter might just be able to move some of the stuff from this bin-box thread to a proper one!!
(Reverse-moderation…Bet you never saw that coming!!)

Regards, SD..

It is interesting how vocal those with vested interests are – indeed as so often is the case. By vested interests, I mean they have connections with the Regulator, NATS, GASCo, or anyone else who has a industry vested interest. Inevitably they rarely disclose their interest.

Also inevitably they are especially vocal, and can give the impression they represent the GA community more widely. Indeed certain discussion forum seem increasingly to be influenced by this group.

If you would like to see a new thread, just create one

I don’t remember the last time a thread was deleted – unless it was spam, something totally malicious, or for simple admin reasons (thread merging, etc). I often edit the title to make it more descriptive.

As an aside, the feedback from forum users on this OT/politics thread has been wholly positive. People think it is a great idea to have it. But of course there are likely to be topics which end up in here which are valuable enough to have a standalone thread. Normally, a part of my admin job is to split off “standalone valuable” topics into new threads, but I am not going to get that right all the time, by any means.

The US elections really have a nail-bitingly close finish this year. From afar, the population seems deeply divided, although I reckon in day-to-day life the conflict is not as relevant as the media would have us believe.

But what is really beyond scandalous is the incumbent trying to de-legitimize the counting of all votes and prematurely declaring victory. I simply cannot fathom how the Republican party and its voters can tolerate such deeply anti-democratic behaviour, which is really no better than the likes of Lukashenko or Putin.