what i've decided to do is keep the moderation pretty much as it is. but i think there are a few people who go out of their way to leverage the loose moderation, and are needlessly abusive in their comments to others. i've asked them to leave. sort of.

i don't mind topics that are edgy. i don't care what political views you have. i don't mind anyone who defends political views. but those who are strident, and are internet bullies, and who go out of their ways not to challenge but to offend or to shout down, that pushes people away and you don't hear from those people. but i do.

I don’t care one way or the other if you want to tighten the screws in the lavender room. But for the love of god, would you please lock that damn crank length thread of H2Ofun’s in the tri forum?

Actually I see that it hasn’t had a reply for theee days - please tell did you slap Dave/Frank with the ban hammer?

... i "need the clicks". no, i don't. i don't need the clicks; ...

Man I need better glasses first time I read this those cl 's read as d 's and I was like say WHAT>

But if one of them asked you to call them by their real name and not your made up nick name would you still keep calling them by that made up nick name?

I don’t care one way or the other if you want to tighten the screws in the lavender room. But for the love of god, would you please lock that damn crank length thread of H2Ofun’s in the tri forum?

Actually I see that it hasn’t had a reply for theee days - please tell did you slap Dave/Frank with the ban hammer?

No way. I totally support Dave's effort and he's practically a saint for not lashing out at those that harass him. He's doing something interesting. It's an experiment worth doing. The amount of shit he's taking reflects poorly on the shitters.

I’m not going to get into a debate on the good and bad over in that thread. And I am not going to criticize Dave here either.

But I will compliment you on seeing the good in people where many others do not. BTW I wish we would have gotten together for that beer in Omaha.

I am also not one to post often, but I read many of the threads daily. I see it as a source of entertainment, education, and an overall challenge to my opinions and prejudices based on my past experiences (walk in another man's shoes). I vote for keeping it as is. And for the record.....I am female and was not in the least offended by the thread in question - I don't identify with it, but can still appreciate the humor of the stereotype. Stereotypes have a basis of truth in them. If you want to change the stereotype, change the truth.

For the record, I think everyone here is cool. Smartest collection of people I've ever met. It's what drew me back after a long hiatus. We may not agree with each other, but who wants that out of life? Also, I'm a big 1A guy and I personally don't believe in ANY limits on such speech, and I do mean "ANY." I simply do not care if you're offended by a joke and I don't care if the joke is unacceptable in polite society. It's your right to utter it, not my right to decide whether you should say it or not.

That said, this is Laird Dan's land and it's his right to lay the burdens of obedience upon the serfs who till it thusly. Should we find ourselves unable to bear those burdens it's incumbent upon us to find more welcoming climes, not his to make his own climes so.

to be clear "katy" did not contact me. she didn't complain to me. nobody in that particular thread complained to me. i get complaints frequently, and i don't feel like getting complaints, agreeing with the complaints, but doing nothing about it. so, a few notes...

i don't expect you all to have to block someone's posts in order to not need to read abusive comments.

let's not conflate passionate or discordant views with abusive language. there are folks here who i agree with almost never, but who are nevertheless civil.

and, no, i don't think you should feel that you need to refrain from voicing an opinion current cultural zeitgeist. if you think that the metoo movement is mostly a crock, i'm not going to take any umbrage with that view expressed here. i might not agree with it, but this forum isn't a place just for those who agree with me. but, if you're going to use the metoo movement as a proxy or platform by which you hurl abuse at folks - and if it wasn't that topic it would just be another - then no, i'm not going to want to host that speech.

basically, there are folks here who think i "need the clicks". no, i don't. i don't need the clicks; i don't need the traffic. but i'm happy to host this community. i think after 20 years of seeing how it might best work, i pretty much have a handle on what abusive speech looks like. i've seen - as you have - the havoc wreaked first on reddit and then on facebook and twitter, as one person after another shuts off their social media channels because of the damage done.

what this forum has that facebook doesn't really have is me, to pick up the trash and sweep the floor around here. so that's what i'm going to do. the difference between facebook and me is that i'm not going to knuckle in order to keep my page views up. i'm also not going to knuckle to the PC forces who'll remove speech that isn't in line with this year's thought wave.

there are a few people who were here yesterday that aren't here today. i hope this helps the general tenor of the place. we'll see.

dave and i chat.

I haven't posted here since Dec 16'. I still read this forum frequently but I decided that there were too many juveniles. They like to quickly turn most topics into insults, their sex lives, them, denial that they said anything because they only implied it, etc. Just too much chaff so I quit participating in the discussions.

That is not to say that there are not posters who have thoughts and perspectives that are worth listening to. Slowguy. Big Kahuna. JSA. I like to read their views and try to ignore the juveniles. I found 'not posting' as the easiest way to ignore them.

So I think your recent actions are good. Back to reading, not posting.

Oh shut up, you big baby. ;-)

Funny though, you value BK's contributions. I'm rather indifferent, but he spent a LOT of time being a grade A shit disturber here and drove many other's away from this forum. What you may value, others can't stand. Goes the other way around, too.

Uhm, like, sorry that this is OT, but like, uhm, are you single? If so, are you located in the contiguous 48 United States?