keeping the forum apolitical

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Hey people,
I just wanted to bring something to everybody's notice . while I Support Pometblava's view that Secret Projects should retain its "uniqueness", i believe that it should try to stay "unique" in other respects as well. For instance, of late I have seen a tendency to condone "certain points of view" , despite them being not very acceptable to a broader audience. Probably because the person posting the view is important in the "secret projects " space or is an "online buddy" or contributes "materially" to this forum. This is very typical of internet fora and not at all unique.

Now a lot of politics is being brought in via the back door. An example of the same would be discussions about procurement policies etc and this has been deemed as 'fine' by the owner of this site . However a lot more than the actual 'procurement debate' as it were, gets said and frankly speaking "intervention" from the moderators is far from prompt.

Now I know posting here is a "privilege" and all that and I am happy that I yet have that "privilege". However after positing yourself as a site with "unique content" you should not allow aberrant stuff to go under the radar simply because it was posted by somebody 'important to the future of this site'.

A lot of people come to this site because of the "unique content" and it would be unfair to let them view political stuff, of any kind. We would do well to remember that this may be a private forum but it is in the public domain.
 
To the extent that we are all political beings to one degree or another, politics will often intrude on the forum. If we say its a shame the TSR2 was cancelled, that is a political opinion, but it relates to the topic of unbuilt airplanes. Where I and the other moderators would step in would be when the politics in a post has no relevance to the topic of a forum.

If someone objects to a particular post, they can report it, and a moderator will look at it and decide if it needs editing or deleting. Noone on this site is paid, we all have jobs, so I'd can't guarantee how quickly this will happen. Also, moderators don't read every topic, so we may not even be aware of the post unless it is reported.

The specific incident you are referring to concerned, not a post, but the posting of a link to blog which contains much of interest to forum visitors. As a blog, it also contains personal opinions on other matters including posts of a political nature.

If you find those opinions offensive, do not visit that site. Or, visit the site, but ignore the bits that don't interest you.
 
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For instance, of late I have seen a tendency to condone "certain points of view" , despite them being not very acceptable to a broader audience.

I would beg to disagree. Keep in mind that your own signature features a link to a blog, which in turn contains material of an opinion based nature. Is that material "acceptable to a broader audience?" I think that there is an element of controversy in any statement of opinion, and all too often, even sometimes in a mere statement of fact. Everyone possesses opinions, moderators included, and as a moderator, I'm not about to pass judgment on other people's blog entries, whether the content pertains to wind power or pictures of cats.

However, standards have been vigorously upheld on this forum. In past, moderators have locked threads of a political nature, and in those cases, the action was made on the basis of forum rules, not the personal opinions of the moderators in question.
 
First of all,
I haven't mentioned a "blog" anywhere in my post above . you guys are simply assuming that I refer to a "blog". Secondly, please have a look at the content of my blog . it totally deals with energy related topics and nothing else . yeah okay wind power can also be political, but in any case I wasn't referring to a blog link anyway.


I am referring to on page discussions, some of which deteriorate into a reiteration of neo-conservative and indeed neo-imperialist standpoints. the moment you refute them you are immediately deemed a "leftist". The moderators have been rather lax in this regard and I think the 'future of the forum' has something to do with it. The whole issue is "promptness" and I am sorry to say your "standards " in that regard haven't been the best of late.
 
“Sure the Bushmen didn’t invent Penicillin, but did anyone ask them if they had?”

Please allow me to wade into this political discussion. Firstly I’m as left wing as they come without making an intellectual fool out of myself. I find it amusing that Americans refer to liberals as left wing as here in Australia they are our right wing. And the day a major American politician can be accurately called a socialist by ideological and world standards has never dawned on that fair land.

Despite all this I'm happy peruse this forum and the Up Ship blog without being offended. I can see that many of the issues that concern conservatives also concern a progressive like myself but our methods of dealing with them differ. Please note that I don’t subscribe to the ‘bleeding heart’ or post-modernist point of view that there is no right or wrong or blame or fault.

So I’m perplexed as to what the issue is? The only thing I could find is some suggestion in the PAK-FA thread that the Indian government has no idea how to build or procure defence equipment. I would hardly rate this point of view as neo-imperialist but is pretty reasonable historical fact. This isn’t a peculiar trait to Indians but rather what happens when a bureaucracy becomes all powerful to the detriment of all others. It’s a pretty common event in the rest of the world.
 
well a third world country like India built the HF-24 marut in the 60's , so forget about today. yeah even then India was hamstrung by the lack of an engine , but that is about to change as well. ;) The Indian government has built up one of the largest military machines in the world and I don't think it would be fair to say that it doesn't understand how to procure defence equipment . Just ask Boeing and LM , not to mention the Russkis. ;D

In any case , that's beside the point and what I am referring to is apparent to a lot of people including the owner of this site . whether they choose to acknowledge it or not is there call. Like I said oversight based on personal equations and common interests is par for the course in many internet fora. Nothing "unique" there at all.
 
So this has nothing to do with politics. Glad we worked that out. Well glad the rest of use can work that out.
 
i never said that a particular political viewpoint was being pushed by this forum. I merely have pointed out that there is a reluctance to "restrain" certain members from posting some of their political views over here. And that reluctance or to be fair 'lack of promptness' is related to the "future of the secret projects space".
 
Locked. This topic is going in circles and adding nothing. I allow *anyone* who is a regular contributor a little more latitude than a 1 post newbie in going off topic. There's nothing sinister about this, its about signal-to-noise ratio. if you post off topic once in a while its no big deal, if every post you make is off topic then you are probably on the wrong forum. Right now avatar you are heading to the wrong side of that ratio.

If anyone wants to give me a specific example of where I've screwed up, then pm me. Otherwise I will consider the matter closed.
 
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