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Attention all hands... 68kMLA Rules Update (2009-03-21)
- Thread starter ~tl
- Start date
II2II
Well-known member
It has already been said that this is not a family.
I will also point out that this is not a private community either.
Everything that happens in our "army" does not stay in our army. It is published to the world in a very public manner. Anyone who wishes to lurk here can lurk here. Anyone can stumble across a conversation here by submitting a query to Google, or any other search engine. Anyone can join the forums, and the only way that they will be booted is if their conduct is particularly anti-social (like spamming). Members can also leave and never give the forums a second thought, because our only bonds are a common interest (and not blood).
JDW
Well-known member
Sieg Heil! :-x[This is an army, not a ladies' club! Discipline, soldiers! >
I myself participate most often in the Compact Mac section of this great forum, so I do not know all the many diverse members of our fine Army personally. But many have sent me emails offline in the past as well as PM's, and through the years I have developed friendships with a number of people. Indeed, I've been in our Army so long that I tend to treat others with the same high regard as I do my own family, as do many in the regular armed forces. And just as regular military units protect their own in battle, I was simply suggesting we do the same. By no means was I suggesting that a select few should be allowed to run amuck and destroy order and sanity to this forum (as some have suggested was the case).
Some among us are well educated, write well, and often exercise their vast knowledge of classic computing in thought provoking discussions on this site. There are several people that I myself have tremendous respect for because of their intense love of classic Macs, which shines forth in their detailed posts. These people spend hours pouring over a given topic, scrutinizing every last detail in a discussion. They also share first hand experience rather than idle speculation. I personally consider this exhilarating as I learn an enormous amount from their posts and I am more willing to try new things with the old Macs I own. Indeed, this is why I return daily to this forum, to get a new dose of classic Mac info from the experts among us; and from time to time, I offer some of my own first hand experiences for the benefit of others here. My personal feeling is "do unto others as I would have done to myself." But most importantly, I've not found our respected members to be disrespectful to our members here in the Army, not even to new enlisted privates (or to "lurkers"). Go to other forums and you find chaos -- single line posts galore, statements like "you're stupid" or "I'm gonna hunt you down." We don't have any of that here. I suppose that such could be due in part to our rules, but perhaps it is more likely due to the maturity of our members here versus other forums.
Take it how you will, but many of the highly respected contributors among us had participated in the now controversial discussions. I myself cannot flippantly cast them into a bowl badged "troublemakers" or "lurkers" for they simply exercised the same mentality in scrutinizing classic Mac sales as they have in scrutinizing topics like floppy drive cleaning, logic board repair, networking ancient Macs to modern day computers, etc. It's not like a brand new member suddenly posted an off-the-wall topics like "gay married Mac 128k users" or "Facist SE/30 owners of America." Purchasing classic Macs is one of the most fundamental issues we all face. How do most of us obtain the machines we have? Most often it is and was through some sort of online purchase. And many among us have faced many problems, scams, outrageous pricing, and misleading sales (vendors who play on the assumption that we assume they don't know much about classic Macs when they really do). It therefore should not have come as any surprise that some of our veterans started a valid "classic Mac related" topic on issues that affect most of us. This was done all in the knowledge that these forums are indeed indexed by Google, such that anyone search for "classic Mac" related information will find this site. While now in retrospect it can be said that things perhaps "got out of hand", I still do not feel that the individuals involved are evil, underhanded, anarchist lurkers set on nothing more than wreaking havoc in our forums and who can easily "run away" anytime they like. It is simply their same passion for the Mac we love that has spilled over into another fundamental area of our Mac lives -- how do we get more Macs safely and economically? So it is our diversity and passion that is at the heart of the matter, not merely a handful of irresponsible no-goods who never contributed anything significant to our forums.
With all this said, I appreciate the forum owner's kind response in confirming that there was an outside email, albeit one that apparently was not the root cause of the decision to delete a thread and change the rules. That settles it in my mind, and I am satisfied with that. May we therefore move on yet remain a diverse group that is not afraid to stimulate intelligent thought on our mutual love, the Macintosh.
Dog Cow
Well-known member
I had thought you ment "sells your hand," and not the case. :lol:
But seriously, the blood business only works with Witches and the Devil.
Achtung!
I agree; this is the most in-depth and focused message board I belong to, and it's great. I ask all my questions here. In some forums, long posts are shunned with a tl;dr comment. But here, long posts are revered, and picked apart for priceless knowledge.
Mike Richardson
Banned
Perhaps we can make a sub-forum that only registered members can access. In this forum we can post things which are not prohibited, which are not secret, but which we do not want distributed across Google and other search engines. I think one of the problems with the original eBay threads is that specific sellers and items were mentioned and these were Google searchable.
However, the thread where the seller actually came on the forum and replied to some of our criticisms, while heated, was informational and constructive. I learned some of the motives behind chopping, and how these are valid from a business standpoint.
However, the thread where the seller actually came on the forum and replied to some of our criticisms, while heated, was informational and constructive. I learned some of the motives behind chopping, and how these are valid from a business standpoint.
Mike Richardson
Banned
I don't see how such a forum would make it a "private members club". Registration is free and open to everybody. Private clubs generally imply some sort of exclusivity or requirement to enter. Does that make the War Room a private members club?
Maybe we can just make posts typed entirely in a PNG and displayed as an image, at least until Google figures out OCR.
Mike Richardson
Banned
"Private Members Club" is actually a sort of legal status in the United Kingdom, where ~tl is located.
Based on a few quick searches these clubs may have something to do with racism or sex discrimination in the UK. It is a loaded phrase.
Here is a quote from a government site:
We can extrapolate from this that members of a "Private Members Club" must undergo a selection procedure. Free and open forum registration is not a sufficient selection procedure, as anyone may register regardless of race, origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, wealth, status, etc.
Therefore, such a forum is NOT a "Private Members Club", at least in my limited understanding.
It remains to be determined, however, if a lawsuit regarding 68kMLA would be governed under the laws of the United Kingdom or under the laws of Plano, Texas, USA where the server appears to be located.
Mike Richardson
Banned
Probably.
