A Reminder......

[Rawja]

Our forum is graciously hosted by the AACA. Our little community of Reatta enthusiasts is (in my experience) the best automotive forum I have ever experienced. Other than the obvious reasons why this place is so great (good info, lots of traffic, helpful members) is the sense of friendship and camaraderie that one experiences here; perhaps because of that, the AACA has deemed it fit to leave us alone to self-govern and ignore some of the formalities that are strictly enforced in some of the other areas of these forums.

I love arguing politics probably more than anyone here in Reattaland, in fact I was the moderator of the old anything-goes section called Rants & Raves, later Misc. Chat. where heated political discussions represented 90% of the posts. As much as I enjoyed fighting out the political issues of the day with my fellow car nuts, the AACA simply didn't and doesn't have the stomach for such bomb-throwing.

The AACA's mission is not furthered by hosting discussions that are not car-related, are full of acrimony, and given today's political climate guaranteed to alienate 50% of the casual viewers of a given conversation, or if heated enough close to 100%.

I believe our sense of our Reatta community benefits from the occasional non-Reatta post: other cars, car-related information, a sporting event, major news item, your vacation pictures, a GOOD joke, even gas prices (assuming we can control ourselves). Of course it is completely subjective, but I believe a little bit of ephemera gives the community a glimpse into the 95% of our lives that isn't Reatta (Y%MV) and fleshes-out our identities.

Posts that you KNOW are going to freak people out are simply not helping foster an inclusive community. Cons vs. Libs, Racism, the wars (pro or con), comparative religion.... You get the picture.

I'm saying this as someone who LOVES to fight it out on the above subjects with people who disagree with me. When there was a section here for this I spent many an hour doing just that. Discussions of this type here within the Reatta Forum simply will not be allowed by the AACA and like it or not, I am required to remove them when they get out of hand.

Please try to cooperate and continue to make this our favorite corner of the internets.

[Guest EDBS0]

so information that 1 in 5 GM dealerships will likely bite the dust in the next 5 to 6 months is not discussion worthy?

[Guest Greg Ross]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Rawja</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson </div></div>

[DAVES89]

Just ad "I wonder how many Reattas they have on their lots"? and you are home free.

Seriously just go to the General Discussion page of the forum list and you can talk about it there.

[Guest Mike_s]

With fewer dealers I see less competition and probably higher oem Reatta parts prices.

I used to buy REATTA parts from a specific dealer because the parts guys were good and put forth exta effort to find the correct/superceeded/alternate part #s, find the rare items, and gave compeditive pricing, that dealership closed up but not due the parts dept.. The next dealership I tried in the same area gave little effort and was very expensive. The place I use now is apx 20 mikes farther away than the first and more expensive, so closing dealerships have impacted my Reatta owership.

[Rawja]

I'm the first to admit that I'm far from infallible and whatever "moderating" decisions I make are admittedly subjective, but in the context of the past couple of weeks (or so) IMO these posts were not a positive addition to the forum. This is not me being "tyrannical" (thanks, Greg ) but readily and easily verifiable based on the posts and correspondence surrounding the threads in which I have exercised editorial control.

to wit:

I received PM complaints about a vacation photo/gas mileage thread.

My response:

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body"> ........ While you are absolutely correct that it is not Reatta-specific, we've always enjoyed a certain degree of laxness in rule enforcement in our section of the forums, and it has been a benefit as a whole.

I don't think the occasional non-Reatta post detracts from the enjoyability or usability of the forum. Of course, it needs to be policed when/if it does become a detraction, but personally I don't think this thread rises to that level.

Please don't take this as me blowing you off, but the consensus has been every time this has been discussed that our little community prefers a bit more latitude and freedom in posting. </div></div>

Then there was the vent window thread, where a member's story of personal troubles were greeted with hoots of derision and <span style="font-style: italic">Bush bashing?!?.</span>

Followed by thread on the financial crisis, which included blaming Bush & Co., which was answered by the assertion that it was the Democrat's fault.

Finally yesterday,

The dealership closing thread popped up and was roundly rejected by a number of posters to the thread who included name-calling in their responses.

Meanwhile, the thread on the 25 Billion to the automakers, which started out OK-ish had degenerated into a series of anti-Bush/anti-Democrat finger-pointing.

So, I purged both and posted the message that started this thread.

All the deleted threads are still available for review by my superiors here, and I suspect my PMs are accessible to them as well. If anyone has any complaints about my actions, I encourage you to go over my head. I will have no hard feelings, and if my actions are deemed to have been inappropriate, I will extend a public and heartfelt apology; as I stated at the beginning of this post this moderating thing is subjective by definition and I do make mistakes; Otherwise let's keep the parameters outlined above in mind when posting in order to keep things productive and friendly here.

[charlie1]

ZZZ

Edited August 2, 2009 by CHAS1 (see edit history)

[Vincent Vega]

Thanks Roger. I apologize for the 'name calling'.

[Guest EDBSO]

Not even thinking of going over your head.

Frankly this forum is not completely a philanthropic adventure. I would suggest that it is for profit. Why else are there all the links to vendors?

Being banned is not a bad thing.

back to car news ... September worst auto sales month since 1993

[Ronnie]

Captain Roger, I agree with CHAS1 when he said "The moderator is the Captain of this ship!". You are doing a great job of guiding us when the ocean starts to get a little rough. Keep up the good work. I apologize for any ripples that I cause from time to time on a normally calm sea.

[Guest Drake]

That's what makes this Forum SPECIAL. The Members are all Gentlemen & Ladies.

(Oops, should have listed the Ladies first. Sorry.)

[Guest steakneggs]

That thread was great while it lasted. There's nothing as fun as arguing. Steak

[Guest steakneggs]

Hey, someone lopped off the end of my second sentence! Generally I hate arguing. Steak

[Rawja]

Lopped off for "feckless". Sorry if the edit changed your meaning, it was unintentional.