Right wingers Ticked off about Bush nominee

I've been enjoying all of the fighting on this
conservative site:

(Link removed by Administrator)

Seems like the conservatives are a bit pissed by
bush's choice ... should a liberal be happy about it?


Linda

Moved from the General Forum. I'm not sure if this is a legit post or not. Newbie - only post. Are we getting a bunch of spam?

Spam or not, I have always appreciated the non-political nature of this forum. Sure hope it stays that way. Civility helps to avoid hard feelings.

Dan

I agree....while other forums always have political debates, we have rarely, if ever, even discussed politics in a debatable manner (politics of the Outer Banks and other similar areas not included). I think we went into it a little during the elections, but otherwise, it's stayed out.

I think it's another spam post, though. We seem to have had more than usual recently...not sure why. Hopefully it won't get to the point where it's too serious.

John,

I agree with Greg and Dan. Why not blow this topic into never-never land.

bobo

IMHO, the worst thing a forum can do is get involved in political debates. I belong to a coin collecting forum and they decided to open a "general discussion" forum to let people duke it out over politics. VERY bad idea. Before long members that were friends were now bitter, VERY bitter and the bitterness always spread into the entire forum like a virus, effecting everyone. You wouldn't believe what people were calling each other and the words that were being used over and over. The moderators really have their hands full trying to conduct order but often it is too little too late. Members are leaving going to other forums and it is really a mess. Political debates can and usually do get very ugly, very fast and I have seen several friendships end because of them. My advise, STAY AWAY!!!

I've taken down the link in the post. But will leave this thread going to allow others to get their opinions in on whether this is good, bad or ??

If the consensus is to make it go away, I'll do that.

Make it go away !!!!!!!

Get rid of it!

FWIW, I killed off a thread someone started in one of the other forums with a link to a gambling site.

Have to wonder why these people do crap like this. Doesn't cost to register, but they have to take the time to do so. You would think they could find something productive to do, like become carhops on the interstate.......

I don't think we need any help in finding issues to debate. We have enough issues of our own that sometimes we square-off against each other LOL

There is a way to set a member so that any posts they make most be approved by a moderator. But I can't make it happen automatically for new joiners and I think it would discourage the 'good ones' from joining and posting at the same time.

As it works now, when you join, you get an email with password and you have to confirm that you wanted to join so it's a two-step process.

I think there is a way to put those new people in a queue to be reviewed before they can join. I had that happen to me last week when joining a forum to get help on a software issue.

But who's to know from their name what evil someone is thinking of doing.

The gambling man 'flooded' several forums of ours with the same message. I can turn on a 'flood check' which basically keeps someone from posting more than one message in a minute.

Meanwhile, I've 'turned off' the memberships of the gambling man and the two nigerians and Linda1 and the webhosting guy. Didn't delete them, just won't let them post.

Totally agreed...

CF is too nice a site to be spoilt by such useless things!

Please keep out the sales, the politics, the begging and all that garbage.

I really enjoy coming here and by all means discussing lighthouse issues - even when they turn out to be poilitical. But we don't need electioneering here!

And while I am sounding off like this, I'd like to take the oportunity to thank all you moderators for keeping CF such a nice place!!!

oh dear - ... not nice to throw the dog poop from the high rent forums into the poor neighbor's yard. Don't be dumping your caste off threads in the FSB.

How about if you keep the post under moderator's discression until you find they've posted say 5 or 10 times, and then you can evaluate if they have anything legit to say and see if they are going to post. Unless it's all in the off-topic or simple "how-to" forums, by 5 or 10 posts, you should have a feel if they are going to be a contributing member or a fraud. Only other bad thing is will they start private spamming to all of us personally?!?

Steve

Or, worse comes to worse, you can have them fill out a questionaire to join and then aprove them through how they answer or through personal contact to see how they seem, then approve them or send them packing.

Steve

I agree with everyone else and to qoute Mike.

"Make it go away !!!!!!!"
This Forum is about things Nautical......
Bill B

We have certainly picked up a few questionable posts lately. How do you suppose they picked us out of a crowd of millions of other places to visit on the Net?

Bob

It was just our turn in the barrel, Bob.....

I noticed that, while tracking down these guys, all of them seemed to have struck forums with the same Infopop ubb.classic interface. Maybe they got into some sort of database of Infopop's, and we were just in it?

Allowing any type of political discussion on these Forums will only lead to disaster. If a person posts his/her feeling about any political subject, this person will be alienating himself/herself from approximately 50 percent of the people who read it. Long-distance friends will all of a sudden be long-distance enemies who no longer want to post if one of their political enemies posts. It is a no win situation.

Scott

Very true, Scott. We have been pretty fortunate over the years to not have had much of an issue along those lines.

I totally agree that we need to keep politics and all the garbage out. I am very passionate about my political beliefs, so if I started talking about it here, most of you would probably vote to boot me out. I have always tried to be discreet about this because it is true that it is the best way to lose friends and make enemies - I always seem to be in the minority, anyway.

Grace,

I totally agree with you. All that garbage always results in a lose-lose situation.

bobo

I don't know if anyone else finds irony in this...but this topic was originally "about" Harriet Myers and the right-wing opposition to her. Since then, she's stepped down and we have a new nominee, but this topic is continuing, albiet on a different tangent. Not that there is anything wrong with our discussion, I just find irony in it.

The overwhelming opinion is that politics should be kept out of the forums. I opine, as mentioned before, that it definitely should. Maybe a little, flameless thread during presidential elections and the like, and of course, discuss it when it relates to lighthouses, but otherwise, I think that it will just cause division between us and eventually topple our forum.

If you really look hard, you can find my opinion on the subject of politics. I know that there are several (and probably many) other members here who have a radically opposite view. I know that that is what they believe, and what they feel, but since we havn't gone into detail about it, I can still read their posts and talk to them otherwise, and not think "{political party!} {political party!} {political party!}"

Of course, this entire topic was started by a member who has seemingly not appeared here since. 10:1 it was a spam post. But I think it has confirmed the opinion of the general membership that we should have a "separation of lighthouse and state."

She hasn't reappeared, Greg, because her posting ability was turned off.

Dave,

Thank the Good Lord.

bobo

Semi-Rhetorical Question ...

What if someone, since one's first post here on the fourms, had a political message embedded in one's signature, not becasue one was particularly enthralled with the messinger, but rather, the message itself struck one as so true in its simplest reading?

Is that the same as posting (or not posting) about politics?

You mean as in "Wisdom and Strength..."?

John,

Well, I wasn't trying to personalize it

But in a more serious vein ... If I were to say it is Winston Churchill, George Washington, or Confucious who uttered those words, everyone will treat the message with thought and consideration before agreeing (or disagreeing) with the thought ...

As soon as you reveal the orator then the politics and demeanor of the speaker become the issue and not the words ...

Trust I am not parsing here, just trying to make a tiny point ... can one have a discussion of issues without having a discussion of politics?

I Googled your signature line. Interesting author.

There was a time in America when you and your neighbor or friend could support opposing candidates and you didn't have to become enemies over it. You could just have a difference of opinion.

Over the years, America has become more polarized - more extreme on both ends of the political scale.

I don't think when the constitution was written the framers had in mind the rise of political parties. (My opinion only of course.)

(Is that too political a statement for the Forums?)

John,

If you GOOGLED then you well understand what I meant about message vs messinger ...

Regarding your last point, I beg to differ ... to paraphrase Brother Alexander Joseph from my American Constitutional History course too many years ago ... you just need to see the difference in philosophies in Hamilton and Jefferson, the necessary compromise to get the tenth ammendment into the Bill of Rights, and the many precedent setting decisions of the John Marshall Supreme Court to see the rise of politcal parties almost from the inception of the idea of the United States ...