or ban the offenders? Seems

or ban the offenders?

Seems like overkill to lock that great thread.

Yeah, this seems a little

Yeah, this seems a little extreme.  I like Al, but c'mon Al, why is everything a battle with you?  Open the thread up.

Please return it

One of the great parts of your fine magazine /site please reinstate, the rant by the member was totally odd and out of order and deserved to have been taken down, I peruse this each weekend a couple of times and learn a lot and it is part of the model railway world sharing and learning in the land of the ether.

Cool off time

..

I made a post with a photo but I must've been typing away on it while Joe was typing his response.  I deleted my content accordingly.

I agree with you, Joe

Sorry, Rob

Sorry 'bout that, Rob. There's always next week!

A leopard doesn't change his

A leopard doesn't change his spots.

Just sayin'....

(Been there, done it about 40 times with the offender when moderating another forum.  It's the same wherever he goes.)

Submitted respectfully.

-Crandell

I agree with Crandell !

The vulgarity used in the first rant was extremely distasteful and offending. After a moderator edit to remove the vulgar content, the poster somehow thinks being a smart alec about it is ok. Well, I'd vote that attitude right off the island. We do not need or want that kind of attitude on this friendly forum.  As for his sharing, well, share those ideas and attitude somewhere else PLEASE ! 

Respectfully,

Randy

"need or want that kind of attitude on this friendly forum"

 I didn't get a chance to read Al's first comment but I live in a city so I'm sure it wouldn't have been anything I don't hear every day. That's just the way the world  turns these days. You might not like it but if model railroading wants to grow it's gotta go where the kids want to go. I've seen Al's stuff on youtube and he's always up to something interesting so I'd like to see him work with the moderators and add some content here. "Friendly forum" means accepting those you don't agree with as well as those you do. .DaveBranum

It's not the ideas, it's the expression of the ideas

Yes, we keep hoping the message gets across - it's not the ideas:

"hey, did you know there's cheaper options than what you can get from vendors?" (that idea is perfectly fine to express on here)

... But it's the expression of the ideas that we found offensive:

"these vendors are robbing modelers - here's a cheaper option I found that they don't want you to know about ..." (all these vendors care about is being thieves, but the poster is an altruistic hero)

Any post that slams others and attributes them with evil motivations to make its point is not welcome here. Now if you want to reword it to make your point without the slam, then fine (critique ideas or products, not people or vendors). But the resulting "anti-post" that we got from Al was still not in the right spirit, it was done to spite us, not to align with our request to be nice about making his point.

I like Al and I want to encourage him to post his innovative material on here, but he does need to follow our rules - which is: stop slamming others to make your point. It's possible to learn to make the very same point, but to do it nicely, IF he is willing to eat a little humble pie and learn, that is.

I do hope Al learns the difference because it would be a loss to not have his innovative ideas on here. As to the contention that people never learn, I don't buy that. People can and do learn, but the question really is DO they WANT to learn?

We certainly hope so, but if not then we WILL ban those who refuse to learn to play nice.

Profanity & obscenity - it's not necessary.

It is everywhere!. There is no good defense for profanity or obscene language. When I once served on a Grand Jury one of the police officers was using profanity to describe the crime (and he wasn't quoting someone else) I raised my hand and interrupted him. When the Judge asked me what I wanted I asked if the police officer could please refrain from using such language as I found it offensive. The Judge advised the officer to "clean it up" and the other jurors applauded! Am I a prude? - maybe, but if people are offended by such language perhaps they should speak up. Just because it seems many people have filthy low class mouths doesn't mean the rest of us have to listen to it....especially not here on the site.

" if people are offended "

Haha, grown men in engineer hats and vests festooned with model railroad buttons offend me :> )   Should I speak up?     Naw, something is gonna always offend someone some where, I think the trick is to learn to recognize that what they do is not what we are. If you are happy with yourself then that's what counts..DaveBranum

Presentation

I don't live in the city.  Vast quantities of obscene and profane language still populate my everyday speech.  I have fun with it, maybe like George Carlin and the obvious enjoyment he got from twisting words around.  You don't see it here on MRH, as it's not part of the communication here.  Let's be careful on cleaving those urban/suburban/rural divisions based on the superficial, and remember how the content of someone's character is revealed in the interactions that matter.  Here, it's a matter or presenting our case as it comes to trains.  We can choose to handle that productively, or not.

Well said, Dave & Rob

Dave - you are right on about having wisdom on when to speak up and when to keep quiet.

Rob - you are correct in obscene and profane language is everywhere, so my apologies in sounding like I'm slamming cities.  I love your statement "the content of someone's character is revealed in the interactions that matter." - it is so true!

Reporting offensive material etc?

I don't see anywhere on the forums instruction on Reporting Offensive material.

Who should be contacted when this occurs?

I don't see anywhere on the

It's in the MRH Posting Guidelines under the Help menu:

Well, I see Godwin's Law has been invoked....

Godwin's Law:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law

And such comparisons NEVER improve the conversation

And I would further add, comparing anything to the Nazi's or Hitler, even in jest, never improves the conversation - it only pushes it farther into annoying irrelevance or into total flame wars.

From Wikipedia ...

So enough of this Hitler and Nazi hyperbole. Back to talking about trains, P-L-EASE!

Not the first time this kinda

Agree on the bad language

YouTube stars are a dime a dozen...........

Overpriced?

If Youtube "stars" are a dime a dozen, perhaps they're way over priced?