I have never responded to this user because he's essentially been bitching about me ever since he joined the board and I generally make it a rule not to respond to trolls, since it only encourages them. But I will make an exception in this one case.

I have the solution for him - don't post here. Don't read the messages. Don't bring your extreme politics here. In fact, I will help you do it. Thanks for your input. It is also your output. I've had enough being attacked unfairly and for no reason for months and months on end. This is supposed to be a fun little board about radio, not an insult pen and I often put in as much as 8 hours a day doing this. (In fact, I pay to keep the board ad free, so it actually costs me money - more than $300 U.S. annually.)

Have a nice life. Hopefully, somewhere else. 

To everyone else: please forgive this rant. This is only the third person I've ever banned from here in almost a decade. Trust me, it is a last resort and I rarely if ever use this tool. But enough is enough, already. 

Or, in the words of former moderator Iain Grant, "​If I don't like you, If I don't like your posts, either, or both will be deleted on a whim." 

Guess it was time to finally exercise that option.



PJ

RadioActive wrote:

I have never responded to this user because he's essentially been bitching about me ever since he joined the board and I generally make it a rule not to respond to trolls, since it only encourages them. But I will make an exception in this one case.

I have the solution for him - don't post here. Don't read the messages. Don't bring your extreme politics here. In fact, I will help you do it. Thanks for your input. It is also your output. I've had enough being attacked unfairly and for no reason for months and months on end. This is supposed to be a fun little board about radio, not an insult pen and I often put in as much as 8 hours a day doing this. (In fact, I pay to keep the board ad free, so it actually costs me money - more than $300 U.S. annually.)

Have a nice life. Hopefully, somewhere else. 

To everyone else: please forgive this rant. This is only the third person I've ever banned from here in almost a decade. Trust me, it is a last resort and I rarely if ever use this tool. But enough is enough, already. 

RA to me this doesn't come across as a rant, rather a reminder of the reason for the common sense guidelines everyone generally plays by when we post on here as well as the consequences for disregarding basic big yellow board good manners, flexible tho they may be.

RadioActive wrote:

Thanks for all your support. I have to say in all honesty banning someone is something I dread doing and it actually keeps me up at night, because I'm generally a stickler for free speech. But my Golden Rule is:

It's OK to disagree. It's not OK to be disagreeable.

It's a small thing to ask. And I'm grateful most here adhere to it and make this the great place it generally is.

As I've mentioned before, my approach on The Oldies Music Board has been to delete anything political unless it has direct relevance to what a musician is doing. I also prefer not to ban users, but one user deleted himself after he posted something political that I removed ... part of it was actually ok, but the other part completely crossed the line and so I deleted his post as soon as I saw it. I found it unfortunate that he left over the situation, but I also have absolutely no regrets about what I did. Your comment about how this place should be a fun little board is a good description of what I want the oldies board to be as well.

My fear is too many are already too polarized to make your suggestion happen and whenever this stuff comes up, the vitriol howitzer is fired on both sides. It just seems those who are really into this stuff cannot - or will not - discuss things rationally, without the name calling and the anger that all too often accompanies these discussions. It's almost the nature of social media and anger is an addictive emotion. 

I have no objection to political talk and when there's a new law that concerns radio or TV, yes, it's certainly belongs here. But in the battle between the three major parties, I honestly don't believe this is the place to do it. As noted, there are tons of sites that welcome that kind of often bitter debate. There aren't that many like this one for local radio. I think that's worth protecting.

So while talking about the new slogan for radio station A isn't as exciting as noting the latest gaffe from Politician B, I'd prefer to stick to the basics and as much as possible keep politics out of it. 

I kind of look at it like the conclusion of the computer in the movie War Games. "The only way to win is not to play."

I'd love to believe what you say is true. But every time politics about either PP or JT (who generally have nothing to do with broadcasting) raises its head here, the claws come out by those who support one or the other, eventually leading those behind the keyboard to start insulting each other. So to answer your question, can an intelligent discussion be had about this? The answer should be yes, but in my experience, it always seems to deteriorate to no. 

I wish it were otherwise, but as someone who reads every single post here, it's never really happened. Which is why I prefer not to bring them up at all. But you're right - if people can discuss this stuff rationally without name calling if not outright hatred to those with disagree with them, it could be interesting. But in a polarized world, it just doesn't ever seem to be the case.

That, unfortunately, has been my experience, too. It starts off with a perfectly fine discussion but inevitably deteriorates to name calling, bad feelings and valued members threatening to leave. It's already happened here a number of times and some whose opinions I thought were valuable have gone and never returned.

As the de facto sheriff here, because somebody needs to be, I'm just trying to keep the peace! 

Thanks Mace. Please let me know when you get your next ticket so I can fix it for you!

I was actually thinking of Paterson1 when I wrote my rant. He's a perfect example of how to disagree without being overtly disagreeable. He makes his point, he stands his ground and he defends his thoughts, but never resorting to name calling or disparaging remarks about someone's intelligence or how idiotic they are. (And God knows, sometimes I can be!)

While we all cross the line sometimes when our assumptions are challenged, this is the way to do it. Some bravo to p1. We may never agree on everything (anything?) but at least you're willing to hear both sides. And I will always welcome that.

Now about those CanCon rules...oh, never mind. Maybe next time!

This situation got me thinking about a regular on the former oldies board named Flo Murdock. She was a music industry veteran with strong opinions regarding music and musicians that she liked and didn't like, and she got into disagreements with a number of people including me. In my case, it reached a point that for quite some time, I figured that she didn't like me. But when Ron Smith, the admin of the previous board, announced that he was shutting it (along with the site that hosted it) down, and some of the regulars said that they were going to miss it, Flo said something to the effect of "Wouldn't it be great if Lorne could set up a new board for us!" I was really surprised to see her suggest me as a potential new admin, but that showed that our disagreements hadn't been personal (and also that she had a higher opinion of my admin abilities than I did!). But I'm sure that it helped that our disagreements had never been political either ... I'm very interested in politics and therefore also take an interest in the political viewpoints of musicians, but when I saw how problematic politics could be on the other board I decided that I'd avoid saying anything about my own beliefs.

I've never been much attracted to Florida.
As for the U.S. election... I'm just Biden my time.

 

This whole issue seems like just politics to me. 

RadioActive wrote:

I have never responded to this user because he's essentially been bitching about me ever since he joined the board and I generally make it a rule not to respond to trolls, since it only encourages them. But I will make an exception in this one case.

I have the solution for him - don't post here. Don't read the messages. Don't bring your extreme politics here. In fact, I will help you do it. Thanks for your input. It is also your output. I've had enough being attacked unfairly and for no reason for months and months on end. This is supposed to be a fun little board about radio, not an insult pen and I often put in as much as 8 hours a day doing this. (In fact, I pay to keep the board ad free, so it actually costs me money - more than $300 U.S. annually.)

Have a nice life. Hopefully, somewhere else. 

To everyone else: please forgive this rant. This is only the third person I've ever banned from here in almost a decade. Trust me, it is a last resort and I rarely if ever use this tool. But enough is enough, already. 

You put up with his nonsense a lot longer than I would have. Kudos to you RA, and keep doing what you're doing.