17,188 Threads

[cletus1]

All of you all used to have lots to say, but you said it all, huh? I am so disappointed in all of you and myself. I love the RVF. I want everyone to get on board and start telling me why I should not be talking to my local neighbors. I even like people from White City so talk to me. 

[cletus1]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

[Juniper]

I am not a fan that many of the threads are now closed. What was the reason for that? I actually think it can draw people in....people who are google searching may come in and comment on something. Keeping the threads so current has a dampening effect in my opinion.

[Wonky3]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

How do you find a vegan at a party? 
You don't have to, he or she will find you. 

We come to this space all too often with arguments already formed and because there is no reasonable way to prevent the "honest to god nut jobs" from entering and flooding these pages with the vitriolic and ignorant posts, the place tends to get bogged down in the struggles of it's own making. 

Over the years there has been shouting and screaming about any attempt at moderating conversation here. Until we have some form of preventing the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses, we will find the numbers here fall off. 

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us. 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

[Juniper]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

I don't think that old chestnut about lack of moderation is entirely true. It's an debate that's been bouncing around for years, but I don't think that's the problem.  Going back to the FB argument....the page Wars, is brutal. Just as brutal as this place EVER was, and in spades. Heaps of abuse all day long. Intense trolling and insulting and nastiness. Like having ten PastorClydes on all the time. But it's probably the busiest page in the County. It's the the means that have changed. The way people interact with the internet.  Forums are dying all over.  And most just have their core groups who hang on.

[chuck white]

we could advertise on craig's list.

[Valuesize]

I am not a fan that many of the threads are now closed. What was the reason for that?  I actually think it can draw people in....people who are google searching may come in and comment on something.  Keeping the threads so current has a dampening effect in my opinion.

How hard can it be to open all the threads?

[Wonky3]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

I don't think that old chestnut about lack of moderation is entirely true. It's an debate that's been bouncing around for years, but I don't think that's the problem.  Going back to the FB argument....the page Wars, is brutal. Just as brutal as this place EVER was, and in spades. Heaps of abuse all day long. Intense trolling and insulting and nastiness. Like having ten PastorClydes on all the time. But it's probably the busiest page in the County. It's the the means that have changed. The way people interact with the internet.  Forums are dying all over.  And most just have their core groups who hang on.

If true (and I have no reason to beleive it's not), what a sad comentary about our society. 
And there is a solution (of sorts) to that "old chestnut" about moderating these pages. We've discussed it before, but never in detail or fully explored. What if we simply stopped replying to those obvious rabid and "off the wall" posts that have no "redeeming value" of any kind?  Pastor Clyde may have been a good example. If we (myslelf included) had simply ignored those rantings he would have at some point tired of shouting into the dark with no response. We contined to engage him and it took criminal actions from him to finally prevent him from souring this space. 

SF Liberal, I have nothing to say to you, and having seen enough of your ranting I will never again respond to anything you post here. 

There. Done and done. 

[Scrapper]

we could advertise on craig's list.

        

[Scrapper]

I am not a fan that many of the threads are now closed. What was the reason for that?  I actually think it can draw people in....people who are google searching may come in and comment on something.  Keeping the threads so current has a dampening effect in my opinion.

How hard can it be to open all the threads?

I search for certain threads and then see that they've been closed all the time. 

[Juniper]

I am not a fan that many of the threads are now closed. What was the reason for that?  I actually think it can draw people in....people who are google searching may come in and comment on something.  Keeping the threads so current has a dampening effect in my opinion.

How hard can it be to open all the threads?

I search for certain threads and then see that they've been closed all the time. 

Very true. I think it stilts possible comments.  Can we get that changed?  And if not, why not?

[Juniper]

we could advertise on craig's list.

It's kind of been done. At least there have been mentions of this place on Craigslist in in Rants and Raves section.  I rarely go to Craigslist, so I don't know if anything recently.

[tvguy]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

How do you find a vegan at a party? 
You don't have to, he or she will find you. 

We come to this space all too often with arguments already formed and because there is no reasonable way to prevent the "honest to god nut jobs" from entering and flooding these pages with the vitriolic and ignorant posts, the place tends to get bogged down in the struggles of it's own making. 

Over the years there has been shouting and screaming about any attempt at moderating conversation here. Until we have some form of preventing the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses, we will find the numbers here fall off. 

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us. 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

You are. This place will never be what you want. It never was.. EVER. And now that only a handful of people post here. Your eternal wish for a utopian fairy tale forum with this moderated tone and "reasonable dialogue"  ever actually happening is next to impossible.

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us.

How many years will you be saying this before it finally sinks in that it's never going to happen?

It's quite amazing to me that you want some kind of moderation here to stop the "honest to god nut jobs"  " the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses"

Well ILC got booted for exactly what you are saying. So did Jesus Christ and others I can't remember.So if it didn't work then what makes you think we need moderation now? Or whom do we "moderate"? SF lib? Tornado? OL?

I don't see them stopping anyone from coming here.


Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views,

That would be Juniper and me. I really don't understand why more aren't sick to death of discussing politics.
I can already tell you exactly what every person here already thinks. Hell I've been listening to it for close to a decade.

[tvguy]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

I don't think that old chestnut about lack of moderation is entirely true. It's an debate that's been bouncing around for years, but I don't think that's the problem.  Going back to the FB argument....the page Wars, is brutal. Just as brutal as this place EVER was, and in spades. Heaps of abuse all day long. Intense trolling and insulting and nastiness. Like having ten PastorClydes on all the time. But it's probably the busiest page in the County. It's the the means that have changed. The way people interact with the internet.  Forums are dying all over.  And most just have their core groups who hang on.

If true (and I have no reason to beleive it's not), what a sad comentary about our society. 
And there is a solution (of sorts) to that "old chestnut" about moderating these pages. We've discussed it before, but never in detail or fully explored. What if we simply stopped replying to those obvious rabid and "off the wall" posts that have no "redeeming value" of any kind?  Pastor Clyde may have been a good example. If we (myslelf included) had simply ignored those rantings he would have at some point tired of shouting into the dark with no response. We contined to engage him and it took criminal actions from him to finally prevent him from souring this space. 

SF Liberal, I have nothing to say to you, and having seen enough of your ranting I will never again respond to anything you post here. 

There. Done and done. 

What if we simply stopped replying to those obvious rabid and "off the wall" posts that have no "redeeming value" of any kind?

What if?? Where have you been all of these years? People used to PLEAD and beg others to ignore trollish posters.. Don't you remember?? People BEGGED, over and over for us to not respond.
It never worked.. so you NOW say "what if we simply stopped"?? Seriously?

[tvguy]

we could advertise on craig's list.

It's kind of been done. At least there have been mentions of this place on Craigslist in in Rants and Raves section.  I rarely go to Craigslist, so I don't know if anything recently.

The rants and raves section of CL makes the people on Facebook look like choir boys and girl scouts.
There is virtually no intelligent life there. I tried it off and on but it was pointless.
That's where that sick F**K Ill comandot came from. And as far as I know he's the ONLY one who ever got kicked off of that forum LOL.
He spammed it with posts over and over until the forum was unusable.

[Wonky3]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

I don't think that old chestnut about lack of moderation is entirely true. It's an debate that's been bouncing around for years, but I don't think that's the problem.  Going back to the FB argument....the page Wars, is brutal. Just as brutal as this place EVER was, and in spades. Heaps of abuse all day long. Intense trolling and insulting and nastiness. Like having ten PastorClydes on all the time. But it's probably the busiest page in the County. It's the the means that have changed. The way people interact with the internet.  Forums are dying all over.  And most just have their core groups who hang on.

If true (and I have no reason to beleive it's not), what a sad comentary about our society. 
And there is a solution (of sorts) to that "old chestnut" about moderating these pages. We've discussed it before, but never in detail or fully explored. What if we simply stopped replying to those obvious rabid and "off the wall" posts that have no "redeeming value" of any kind?  Pastor Clyde may have been a good example. If we (myslelf included) had simply ignored those rantings he would have at some point tired of shouting into the dark with no response. We contined to engage him and it took criminal actions from him to finally prevent him from souring this space. 

SF Liberal, I have nothing to say to you, and having seen enough of your ranting I will never again respond to anything you post here. 

There. Done and done. 

What if we simply stopped replying to those obvious rabid and "off the wall" posts that have no "redeeming value" of any kind?

What if?? Where have you been all of these years? People used to PLEAD and beg others to ignore trollish posters.. Don't you remember?? People BEGGED, over and over for us to not respond.
It never worked.. so you NOW say "what if we simply stopped"?? Seriously?

Yes, we we KNOW your opinion well! That you don't agree, or won't consider other attitudes and options only makes clear that you see a reality that is your own. Change is always possible, but it takes some considered optimism to promote it. 

Go read some John Locke and return to discuss it. 

[Juniper]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

How do you find a vegan at a party? 
You don't have to, he or she will find you. 

We come to this space all too often with arguments already formed and because there is no reasonable way to prevent the "honest to god nut jobs" from entering and flooding these pages with the vitriolic and ignorant posts, the place tends to get bogged down in the struggles of it's own making. 

Over the years there has been shouting and screaming about any attempt at moderating conversation here. Until we have some form of preventing the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses, we will find the numbers here fall off. 

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us. 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

You are. This place will never be what you want. It never was.. EVER. And now that only a handful of people post here. Your eternal wish for a utopian fairy tale forum with this moderated tone and "reasonable dialogue"  ever actually happening is next to impossible.

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us.

How many years will you be saying this before it finally sinks in that it's never going to happen?

It's quite amazing to me that you want some kind of moderation here to stop the "honest to god nut jobs"  " the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses"

Well ILC got booted for exactly what you are saying. So did Jesus Christ and others I can't remember.So if it didn't work then what makes you think we need moderation now? Or whom do we "moderate"? SF lib? Tornado? OL?

I don't see them stopping anyone from coming here.


Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views,

That would be Juniper and me. I really don't understand why more aren't sick to death of discussing politics.
I can already tell you exactly what every person here already thinks. Hell I've been listening to it for close to a decade.

Just for the record, I never said I "no longer want to engage in any kind of political exchanges."   I just find them tedious. I have no interest in them. And really I never did.  I don't think I have the kind of mind that revels in that kind of debate.

[Wonky3]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

How do you find a vegan at a party? 
You don't have to, he or she will find you. 

We come to this space all too often with arguments already formed and because there is no reasonable way to prevent the "honest to god nut jobs" from entering and flooding these pages with the vitriolic and ignorant posts, the place tends to get bogged down in the struggles of it's own making. 

Over the years there has been shouting and screaming about any attempt at moderating conversation here. Until we have some form of preventing the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses, we will find the numbers here fall off. 

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us. 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

You are. This place will never be what you want. It never was.. EVER. And now that only a handful of people post here. Your eternal wish for a utopian fairy tale forum with this moderated tone and "reasonable dialogue"  ever actually happening is next to impossible.

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us.

How many years will you be saying this before it finally sinks in that it's never going to happen?

It's quite amazing to me that you want some kind of moderation here to stop the "honest to god nut jobs"  " the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses"

Well ILC got booted for exactly what you are saying. So did Jesus Christ and others I can't remember.So if it didn't work then what makes you think we need moderation now? Or whom do we "moderate"? SF lib? Tornado? OL?

I don't see them stopping anyone from coming here.


Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views,

That would be Juniper and me. I really don't understand why more aren't sick to death of discussing politics.
I can already tell you exactly what every person here already thinks. Hell I've been listening to it for close to a decade.

Just for the record, I never said I "no longer want to engage in any kind of political exchanges."   I just find them tedious. I have no interest in them. And really I never did.  I don't think I have the kind of mind that revels in that kind of debate.

Then you are doomed to live in the kind of society others choose for you. Like it or not, our lives, to  a large extent, are dictated by political action. Our country was founded because of political differences, and politcs have been the central force in determining the laws and civil attitudes of our lives. 

We are well aware of the extreme views of politcal leaders, past and present. Many "conservative" views would have us believe the individual is all important and there is no need for any social saftey net for those who "fall through the cracks" regardless of thier best efforts. Others, "liberal or progressive" often promote ideas and programs that foster dependance on  government programs without regard to indivual responsibility. 

It's with political dialog that we attempt to wade through the rhetoric of these extremes and find reasonable balance by electing the more moderate and pragmatic leaders who promote the kind of goverment that allows our civil lives to flourish in the capitalist system that has served us well, albeit well regulated and watched over. 

Our lack of attention to politics has given us the likes of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. We face a national election in which far too many feel there is no real viable good choice. The sad fact is, this is far too often the case. 

Being attentive to politics is important, and reasonable and rational discussion about things political is the life blood of our system. 

Or, we could just pray. Yeah, that outta work. 

[Juniper]

OK my friends, I fell bad about enjoying a post and not saying anything about the post. For example: I  Like TVguy's posts that are often interesting and or that give me a chuckle, but I don't say so. People like feed back. I will try to do better. I love conservative posters too. They motivate me. Without them, I only have my wife and my few liberal friends to talk to. 

How do you find a vegan at a party? 
You don't have to, he or she will find you. 

We come to this space all too often with arguments already formed and because there is no reasonable way to prevent the "honest to god nut jobs" from entering and flooding these pages with the vitriolic and ignorant posts, the place tends to get bogged down in the struggles of it's own making. 

Over the years there has been shouting and screaming about any attempt at moderating conversation here. Until we have some form of preventing the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses, we will find the numbers here fall off. 

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us. 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

You are. This place will never be what you want. It never was.. EVER. And now that only a handful of people post here. Your eternal wish for a utopian fairy tale forum with this moderated tone and "reasonable dialogue"  ever actually happening is next to impossible.

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us.

How many years will you be saying this before it finally sinks in that it's never going to happen?

It's quite amazing to me that you want some kind of moderation here to stop the "honest to god nut jobs"  " the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses"

Well ILC got booted for exactly what you are saying. So did Jesus Christ and others I can't remember.So if it didn't work then what makes you think we need moderation now? Or whom do we "moderate"? SF lib? Tornado? OL?

I don't see them stopping anyone from coming here.


Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views,

That would be Juniper and me. I really don't understand why more aren't sick to death of discussing politics.
I can already tell you exactly what every person here already thinks. Hell I've been listening to it for close to a decade.

Just for the record, I never said I "no longer want to engage in any kind of political exchanges."   I just find them tedious. I have no interest in them. And really I never did.  I don't think I have the kind of mind that revels in that kind of debate.

Then you are doomed to live in the kind of society others choose for you. Like it or not, our lives, to  a large extent, are dictated by political action. Our country was founded because of political differences, and politcs have been the central force in determining the laws and civil attitudes of our lives. 

We are well aware of the extreme views of politcal leaders, past and present. Many "conservative" views would have us believe the individual is all important and there is no need for any social saftey net for those who "fall through the cracks" regardless of thier best efforts. Others, "liberal or progressive" often promote ideas and programs that foster dependance on  government programs without regard to indivual responsibility. 

It's with political dialog that we attempt to wade through the rhetoric of these extremes and find reasonable balance by electing the more moderate and pragmatic leaders who promote the kind of goverment that allows our civil lives to flourish in the capitalist system that has served us well, albeit well regulated and watched over. 

Our lack of attention to politics has given us the likes of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. We face a national election in which far too many feel there is no real viable good choice. The sad fact is, this is far too often the case. 

Being attentive to politics is important, and reasonable and rational discussion about things political is the life blood of our system. 

Or, we could just pray. Yeah, that outta work. 

Why do you generalize like that  Wonky?  

Then you are doomed to live in the kind of society others choose for you. Like it or not, our lives, to  a large extent, are dictated by political action

Why do you make conclusions about a person based on the fact that they don't want to discuss politics online?  This one little preference for the forum gives you insight to me personally?    I'm going to correct you right there.  You make presumptions. Period.

[Wonky3]

How do you find a vegan at a party? 
You don't have to, he or she will find you. 

We come to this space all too often with arguments already formed and because there is no reasonable way to prevent the "honest to god nut jobs" from entering and flooding these pages with the vitriolic and ignorant posts, the place tends to get bogged down in the struggles of it's own making. 

Over the years there has been shouting and screaming about any attempt at moderating conversation here. Until we have some form of preventing the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses, we will find the numbers here fall off. 

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us. 

Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views, if only we could moderate our tone and attempt to express those views with reasonable dialog and without ugly slander and ignorant expressions of rebuttal. 

But history is, as always, instructive. We've been here before. CLete, I applaud your tone and hope for a "clean well lighted place" to engage with neighbors and friends we find on these pages. It would a real joy to log on here each day and engage in civil and reasonable dialog that informs, stimulates, amuses, (etc) so that we might share the diverse voices that post. 

I confess I'm not optomistic. I hope I'm wrong. 

You are. This place will never be what you want. It never was.. EVER. And now that only a handful of people post here. Your eternal wish for a utopian fairy tale forum with this moderated tone and "reasonable dialogue"  ever actually happening is next to impossible.

Civil posting and responses will be the life blood of this space, and when (if) that becomes the standard we might attract more who want to interact with us.

How many years will you be saying this before it finally sinks in that it's never going to happen?

It's quite amazing to me that you want some kind of moderation here to stop the "honest to god nut jobs"  " the rabid opinionated posts that are too absurd to warrant responses"

Well ILC got booted for exactly what you are saying. So did Jesus Christ and others I can't remember.So if it didn't work then what makes you think we need moderation now? Or whom do we "moderate"? SF lib? Tornado? OL?

I don't see them stopping anyone from coming here.


Someone said here recently that they no longer wanted to engage in any kind of political exchanges. Really? I think this is a good place to voice those views,

That would be Juniper and me. I really don't understand why more aren't sick to death of discussing politics.
I can already tell you exactly what every person here already thinks. Hell I've been listening to it for close to a decade.

Just for the record, I never said

Then you are doomed to live in the kind of society others choose for you. Like it or not, our lives, to  a large extent, are dictated by political action. Our country was founded because of political differences, and politcs have been the central force in determining the laws and civil attitudes of our lives. 

We are well aware of the extreme views of politcal leaders, past and present. Many "conservative" views would have us believe the individual is all important and there is no need for any social saftey net for those who "fall through the cracks" regardless of thier best efforts. Others, "liberal or progressive" often promote ideas and programs that foster dependance on  government programs without regard to indivual responsibility. 

It's with political dialog that we attempt to wade through the rhetoric of these extremes and find reasonable balance by electing the more moderate and pragmatic leaders who promote the kind of goverment that allows our civil lives to flourish in the capitalist system that has served us well, albeit well regulated and watched over. 

Our lack of attention to politics has given us the likes of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. We face a national election in which far too many feel there is no real viable good choice. The sad fact is, this is far too often the case. 

Being attentive to politics is important, and reasonable and rational discussion about things political is the life blood of our system. 

Or, we could just pray. Yeah, that outta work. 

Why do you generalize like that  Wonky?  

Then you are doomed to live in the kind of society others choose for you. Like it or not, our lives, to  a large extent, are dictated by political action

Why do you make conclusions about a person based on the fact that they don't want to discuss politics online?  This one little preference for the forum gives you insight to me personally?    I'm going to correct you right there.  You make presumptions. Period.

Just responding to your comments:  I "no longer want to engage in any kind of political exchanges."   I just find them tedious. I have no interest in them. And really I never did.  I don't think I have the kind of mind that revels in that kind of debate."

And if you don't want to discuss it here, I'm betting your comment , "I don't think I have the kind of mind that revels in that kind of debate." says a lot.