Please Avoid Political and Partisan Issues

.... and their advertisers.

Football! Nah! It's a gentleman's game, with two opposing sides having a friendly kick about on grass with a sheeps bladder. Any disagreements are rapidly sorted out with a quick slap here or there and a swift kicking if the other side doesn't come round to their way of thinking........ and... er.... oh yes maybe you're right!

Um. What has Donald Trump got to do with model engineering?

Maybe if we stuck to the main reason for the existence of the forum there may not be so many issues.

regards Martin

I once heard football described as a gentleman’s game played by hooligans, as opposed to rugby, which is a hooligan’s game played by gentlemen.

So, Plasma is leaving because he was upset by thinking the moderator was insulting in the way he replied.

Looking at what the moderator actually wrote, I thought he was spot on and not insulting at all.

People sometimes need to think before they act!

I'm up for a good healthy politics, sex ,religeon barney as much as the next man but I don't come here for it. Good call by the mods.

.

”influenced by their advertisers” ... perhaps

But the rules are dictated by the hosts.

Terms and Conditions : **LINK**

Code of Conduct : **LINK**

MichaelG.

Maybe the prescence of a "tea room" infers that discussions would follow those as experienced in most workplace tea rooms. Taking the lead from Neils's post and reference to the purpose of the forum, why not remove the tea room and confine discussion completely to directly related subjects? Problem solved. If there is an area for general discussion why censor!

Seems to me there have been several members express intent to cease using this forum recently, threads where they have expressed their reasons have recieved some far more inflammatory comment. The mockery shown for the individual expressing that opinion in this thread certainly did not adhere to the advice in the opening post!

Paul.

Maybe Neil's original intension for the Tea Room has become a bit too loose

Thanks Jason, a good point.

To remind folks:

'The Tea Room' will be a place for loosely engineering related chat. The popular 'what did you do today' thread will go here and is a guide to what sort of discussion is appropriate. The 'aircraft general discussion' thread will also go here.

I will stress that forum rules still apply to ALL topics and that threads should still have a relation to our common interest in engineering. For example 'Scrapheap Challenge' might be a subject for discussion in the tea room, but I doubt that 'X Factor' belongs there.

We have seen some mission creep, but I think most things are working OK.

If those who put the most into and get the most out of the forum set the tone and lead by example, most problems will sort themselves, and on the whole that is what happens.

Neil

The heading is thus;

The Tea Room
This is the place for discussion of any issues that aren't in the forum mainstream. Misplaced threads will be moved here.

This is what most members that were not paying attention in 2015 will see. Infers discussion of any issues.

Lets get this locked down proper and for consistency clamp down on bee keeping, bird watching, mental health, corona virus etc etc all together! Let's stamp out all this frivolous stuff and concentrate on the models!

Paul.

..perhaps the name should be changed to 'the beverage room' as a less partisan heading?

Any forum requires rules of scope and moderation to avoid topic drift. Members are either happy with that or should look elsewhere. I've transgressed and accepted a wrist slapping in the past - fair enough that i breached the parameters Mr Speaker constrains. If not prepared to accept those limitations in exchange for the benefits then the forum is not for you.

Speakers Corner used to be a place where freedom of speech could be excercised but I note that even there the Police can decide now on the lawfulness of the topic.

pgk

Lighten up guys. Life's too short.

Why don't we just leave things as they are and let the moderators continue to do their excellent job?

Brian

Me too, several times! I didn't take it personally and had no trouble understanding why Neil &/or Jason judged I'd gone too far.

For me the forum exists to exchange technical facts, experiences, ideas and suggestions. Dry fact-based forums don't appeal because I like learning to be fun and Model Engineering is a hobby. I see the forum as a combination classroom, workshop and pub, plus the occasional post mortem. I don't mind exploring interesting to me subjects, and sometimes push my luck. The forum doesn't exist so I can push my opinions on the world.

What is Model Engineering? To me it's a broad church; I'm interested in anything technical from Astronomy to Zoology, via Economics and Psychology. In that context it's hard to avoid politics completely. For example, I see Metric and Imperial as measurement systems, tools to be used and evaluated only on the basis of their logic and internal consistency. Make changes as necessary to improve them. At the other extreme some see measurement systems purely as symbols of historic identity with much the same patriotic values as the Union Flag, Stars and Stripes, and twelve 5 pointed stars on a blue field. The collision between these two views is politics!

Disagreements are inevitable in our imperfect world. Negotiate a peace treaty and move on...

Dave

Hi, I firmly agree that this is not the place for politics, religion, racial comments and sex etc. but I've been in many tea rooms in my working life, where all and sundry has been spoken. However, no one is ever forced to join in on anything or have opinions on what is talked about, many will just read their daily paper or in more recent years be playing games or surfing the net on their mobile, well it's the same here, no one forces anyone to read any threads or posts, so if you don't like allowable things that are discussed in the tea room, don't look at it.

Regards Nick.

That covers it for me: the most interesting things are those that aren't part of my 'normal' interests - the bee keeping thread is a good example, and Bodger's Lodge was an excellent demonstration of how techniques crossover. Model Engineering is a terrible term for what happens in many of our workshops, but it's the one we're stuck with.

This also combines with the Repair Shop comments: I don't want to see 30 minutes of in depth cutting, trimming, sanding, sewing of chair upholstery, just seeing how it all goes together is enough. And I definitely don't want to watch hours of machining, as I already know what that looks like!

What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop - particularly at my rate of finishing things!

I have to agree with the moderators.

My "main" forum is the Unofficial Mamod. It has remained peaceful and harmonious for more than a decade due to ruthless moderation of anything hurtful, even to numpties. It has a large membership with strong contingents from the USA, the EU, especially Germany and Australasia. The potential to argue based on various actions in British history is awesome, but nothing is ever said, it is a place of steam heaven.

Facebook on the other hand is full of bile and bitterness. That is the place for politics, or Twitter.