Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

jcflies wrote:OMG!!! OMG!! remember the time we, like, went hang gliding? and we went UP? and we FLEW? and we were so HAPPY? and we posted about it on the FORUM?

PLEEEEEEEEZE!! no more f***ing political harangues! seriously!

SERIOUSLY!!! JT worked for HOURS to get rid of political bullshit--that's what facebook is for! can't THIS forum just be about how much fun it is to FLY?

please???

Yep, Janyce and I agree on something. And JT too. Maybe that means it is a good idea, maybe not. But it has to mean something.

Seriously, I have a suggestion:

If you wish to make political posts that are off-topic to the current thread, please make a new thread that is clearly marked.

If someone else posts and off-topic political comment reply with:

"This is off-topic and controversial. I have started a thread named "Somedarnedofftopicthing..." Please post there. Thank you."

Do NOT encourage them to take over a thread with significantly off-topic items by dignifying it with an answer. I'm not talking about one-off comments, we all do that. I'm talking about the ongoing battle of who can type more than the last guy! Or the "I'll post the same item on all of the threads!" Boy is that annoying.

This will take discipline on all of our parts. It will be especially hard for those of us who are more "talkative" than average. But we can do it if we really want to

I hate the idea of censorship, so I'm not saying we should stop folks from posting. But no bait-and-switch, please! If it is significantly off-topic, and is political/controversial (you know what I mean) then make your own thread, please. Then those who don't wish to read, may easily skip over it.

I'm directing this suggestion to all of us, but especially to Bob, Barton, JT, RJM and myself.

Thanks, and please go flying. I can't yet, so I really want somebody to get some good airtime. (Although, I almost blew off what I was supposed to be doing to fly today. Soon. I hope.)

Maybe we need a new section like "Politics of flying". Censorship really only hurts this forum on shga.com because it redirects the traffic to other forums. Some forums like ozreport have advertising banners that generate more revenue with more traffic. I noticed Davis Straub censored and banned Bob K from responding to allegations made against him and right before a recall election. That type of censorship reduces ozreport from a public forum to a content controlled novel by Davis Straub. A "Communist Manifesto" from the view point of Feudalism and the Divine Right of Kings as a former British colony. Forums in America need to preserve the constitutional right of free speech(within the terms of the internet provider).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR recognizes the right to freedom of speech as "the right to hold opinions without interference. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression".[1][2] Furthermore freedom of speech is recognized in European, inter-American and African regional human rights law.

i'm TOTALLY against censorship! you can see what a slippery slope THAT is!
i was just hoping that people could take all their political turmoil somewhere else, but i'd rather know that it's HERE (after all, i don't HAVE to read it!) than nowhere, b/c of censorship! not sure why, but the oz report just stopped coming to my email address.... hmm!

Talked with a few pilots over this on Saturday. Will be creating a section called "Off Topic" so we can move some of this off the main forum.

I'm also looking for a mod that will allow users to "Ignore" other posters that they would rather not read. It's kinda like your own ability to sensor the background noise to your liking.

I'm in the middle of testing that now. You'll see the forum availablity up and down over the next few days. Not trying to cause any problems just need access myself to test it out before releasing it.

Please Stand-By

Thanks Chip!

I think this is a good solution. No censorship, but people can see what they are getting into and make their own decisions about how much time to spend in the Off-Topic areas.

Now we just need to discipline ourselves to keep not responding to this stuff in the flying topics, and encourage posters to put it where it belongs (and label it correctly.)

Thanks again!

dhmartens wrote:I noticed Davis Straub censored and banned Bob K from responding to allegations made against him and right before a recall election. That type of censorship reduces ozreport from a public forum to a content controlled novel by Davis Straub.
...
The right to freedom of speech is recognized as a human right ...

Thanks very much for those comments.

Bob Kuczewski