Should There Be a Political Section?

Policies are created by politicians and enforced by the police. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics The Greeks figured that out a long time ago. Seperating policy from politics is like seperating sexual intercourse from pregnancy.

FastCargo said:

Uh, not to be a wet blanket but damn near everything can be politicized... Heck, I could politicize the debate on using FnF verses sanding sealer in a totally reasonable manner, which would then spiral out of control.

BATF verses APCP...that's political.

Launching at your local school verses soccer practice...that's political.

Retirement of the shuttles...that's political.

Guess what...you're a little bit pregnant with politics...even here.

FC

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Epoxy vs. wood glue

Aquaeous paints vs. organic lacquer / enamel

Paper versus plastic for bags at the store...

:wink:

tmacklin said:

Policies are created by politicians and enforced by the police. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics The Greeks figured that out a long time ago. Seperating policy from politics is like seperating sexual intercourse from pregnancy.

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Dolly thanks you for pointing out how special she was...

The only politics I want to see here are those that fly. So if you have a politically themed rocket - fly it and document it.

UncleVanya said:

Dolly thanks you for pointing out how special she was...

The only politics I want to see here are those that fly. So if you have a politically themed rocket - fly it and document it.

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Me? A polically themed rocket? Perish the thought! :eyeroll:

I'm with the majority....this isn't supposed to be a political forum. I think the mods should lock this & perhaps delete it...It's clear that the person who started it has an axe to grind. While I do have some strong political viewpoints, this isn't the place to engage in the debate.

cbrarick said:

I'm with the majority....this isn't supposed to be a political forum. I think the mods should lock this & perhaps delete it...It's clear that the person who started it has an axe to grind. While I do have some strong political viewpoints, this isn't the place to engage in the debate.

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I have no axe to grind here. It just seems that from time to time a political issue comes up that would be best for an exclusive section of the forum. Often these threads start about something to do with a rocketry subject and somehow become a politically charged discussion. Ultimately, the thread is closed or removed from the forum.

I'm not surprised by the number of the no votes but, I would have expected more yes votes for the restricted access.

With 84+ percentage voting "No" I would say the people have spoken. :gavel: This is no place for politics, the people don't want it, and it is against the forum rules and for good reason!

Time to put this discussion to bed...:yawn:

My wife told me a member of our local club mentioned politics at a local launch recently. Most agreed with him but childed him not to do it again. Most of our members are moderate or conservative but we frown but do nto completely exclude political discussions.

Whenever something comes on the tube that I find offensive, annoying or boring I simply change channels or shut it off. Apparently, rocket people become so mezmorized by contraversial discussion that they can't avert their gaze, as evidenced by the unusually large number of people who seem to gravitate toward such postings.

Somebody quick, pull my finger!

Poltiical discussions are like automobile crashes - most people just can't help but gawk. They're easy to get out of hand, and you need a pretty thick skin to keep them up. I have a couple of facebook friends and we go at one another from time to time. In the end, though, we don't make it personal and we still respect one another (even when they are wrong ;-).

Since we know most people on the forum only by what we post here, it ups the ante on any sensitive discussion. Someone will always take it too far (based on the measuring stick of someone else) and hurt feelings often spill over into the topical threads.

JordanT said:

Poltiical discussions are like automobile crashes - most people just can't help but gawk. They're easy to get out of hand, and you need a pretty thick skin to keep them up. I have a couple of facebook friends and we go at one another from time to time. In the end, though, we don't make it personal and we still respect one another (even when they are wrong ;-).

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I'm the opposite -- people I know who post nothing but political stuff on facebook find that I soon dump them. I don't really care to go to facebook and get assaulted by political views. To me, the site is for entertainment purposes, only.

-Kevin

So if we get a “Political” section; does that mean we will soon have Trolls and Sock Puppet Accounts?

And what the heck is the Care Bear Union?

For those missing the Care Bear reference, take a look at this thread from last year.

mkadams001 said:

I have no axe to grind here.

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Oh, must have been somebody else who wrote the "carebear" junk for the "no" vote, and not you?

Often these threads start about something to do with a rocketry subject and somehow become a politically charged discussion. Ultimately, the thread is closed or removed from the forum.

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So, if there was a political section, how does the existence of that prevent in the public ROCKET (non-politics) forum, the very chain of events you just defined? The "somehow" would still happen. Except that I think it would be more likely that such "somehow" public "accidental on purpose" political messages would happen a lot more often (on the rest of the forum, outside of the political section).

Now someone might say the mods can then move the thread to the political section, but that would then screw up the original thread before it got tainted by politics.

Don't forget there's YORF. It has a lot less message traffic than they did years ago (wonder why?). So the die-hard political activists on that site would no doubt enjoy having one new person to come in to listen to their garbage, having driven so many others away.

Really, I cant figure out any more likely reason for YORF to have dwindled so much in recent years than the political arguments there. So, if that is the kind of rocket forum you want, then go there. Don't ruin TRF with it.

- George Gassaway

The bozo's over there have been pretty quite lately, some people are even talking about rockets - go figgur.

georgegassaway said:

Oh, must have been somebody else who wrote the "carebear" junk for the "no" vote, and not you?

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You must not have a sense of humor...See the link posted above to gain some insight to the relationship of Care Bears and this forum.

So, if there was a political section, how does the existence of that prevent in the public ROCKET (non-politics) forum, the very chain of events you just defined? The "somehow" would still happen. Except that I think it would be more likely that such "somehow" public "accidental on purpose" political messages would happen a lot more often (on the rest of the forum, outside of the political section).

Now someone might say the mods can then move the thread to the political section, but that would then screw up the original thread before it got tainted by politics.

Don't forget there's YORF. It has a lot less message traffic than they did years ago (wonder why?). So the die-hard political activists on that site would no doubt enjoy having one new person to come in to listen to their garbage, having driven so many others away.

Really, I cant figure out any more likely reason for YORF to have dwindled so much in recent years than the political arguments there. So, if that is the kind of rocket forum you want, then go there. Don't ruin TRF with it.

- George Gassaway

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It's just a poll,nothing more. It is only to see if there was an interest in something.

Now, back to that axe grinding...

No, the signal-to-noise ratio will take a nosedive if political discussions are allowed on the forum. Politics really screwed up the old Rec.model.rockets newsgroup back in the late 1990s. (RMR was unmoderated, but the signal-to-noise ratio was really lousy, because of politics and spam.) I prefer to keep my political and religious views to myself. If you want to talk politics, run for Congress. Just keep it off the forum.

chadrog said:

The bozo's over there have been pretty quite lately, some people are even talking about rockets - go figgur.

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I did see this morning that the rules on YORF have changed.

NO Politics
NO Religion

As far as I am concerned, that's just fine. It was the same people with the same rants and neither side was going to convince the other.

BobH48 said:

I did see this morning that the rules on YORF have changed.

NO Politics
NO Religion

As far as I am concerned, that's just fine. It was the same people with the same rants and neither side was going to convince the other.

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I just saw that myself, seems Scott has finally had enough too - I thought he was just a glutton for punishment. I think I'm going to blow their minds and post a build thread over there!