Why Pilots of America rocks...

Below is what was published today on the moderated piloting group, "Pilots
of America". As you may recall, this is the piloting group that Dudley
Henriques, myself, and a host of others have switched to, now that the
cross-posting trolls have emasculated this once-hallowed group.

Over on P of A, off-topic posts are segregated to an area called "The Spin
Zone". Pretty much anything goes there (as opposed to the rest of the site,
which is purely about aviation), and it has been said that it is roughly the
equivalent of rec.aviation.piloting. Politics, crime, religion -- you name
it -- it's all fair game in the Spin Zone. Usually.

Lately, however, things have apparently gotten pretty out of hand there, to
the point where the moderators have taken the radical step of closing that
part of PofA down for a "cooling off" period. Below is the explanation the
moderating team has posted for all to read:

************************************************** *************************************************
Recently, the Management Council posted a general warning about the level of
offensive rhetoric in the Spin Zone. After dealing with five violations of
the Rules of Conduct in the Spin Zone in the last 12 hours, the Management
Council has concluded that too many participants did not take that warning
to heart. We have decided that a "time out" is necessary so that all Spin
Zone posters can reflect on whether or not they wish to play by the rules.
Therefore, the Spin Zone is closed for three days.

While the Spin Zone is closed, non-aviation related political, religious, or
otherwise potentially controversial topics posted in other forums in
violation of the rules for those forums will be deleted, and users who
persist in posting inappropriate material will be subject to full site
suspension.

If, when the Spin Zone reopens, all participants demonstrate a recommitment
to the principles of civil discourse upon which this this site was founded,
it will remain open. If this pervasive lack of self-discipline continues at
the current level, the Management Council will eliminate that forum
permanently because we are unwilling to continue spending the amount of time
required to manage the misbehavior of the small but significant number of
participants who do not abide by the rules.

Regards,

The Pilots of America Management Council
************************************************** *************************************************
If only something similar could be enforced here, this group would quickly
be restored to functionality. Since it can't, I heartily invite everyone
who is sick of the "Bertie-MX-Maxwell-Mikey-Rich Troll-o-rama Show" to c'mon
over to where the air is clean and fresh, and the management team knows how
to deal with children who can't play well with others.

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

On Sep 2, 11:18*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:

Below is what was published today on the moderated piloting group, "Pilots
of America"...... (the rest snipped)

Jay, I appreciate the invitation and I may take ya'll up on it but in
my 15 + years of Usenet I have never seen a web-based forum that I
liked enough to stick with it. For various reasons ranging from
complexity to shallowness of participants to overly-strict moderators,
Usenet has grabbed a part of my heart that has yet to be satisfied
with anything web-based.

I do admit, at the moment RAP is full of the worst kind of immature,
childish nonsense, some regretfully from highly-experienced pilots. In
the 4 Usenet groups I've been heavily involved with over the years
this kind of thing comes & goes. The other 2 groups I'm involved with
are on the upswing from a 2-3 year period of childish garbage &
trolls. I have seen them both go bad then good then back again a
couple of times. Excellent, legendary, knowlegable posters have said;
"to hell with this" and quit, unable to use their filters or just
ignore the manure, which is almost always the way an attention-starved
troll leaves anyway, by being completely ignored. I don't even use the
same I.D. there that I do here for fear of ushering thumb-sucking
idiots from here to there. It seems to have gotten worse in recent
years, though across the Usenet board. I remember a time when Usenet
as a whole was much more civil, mature, respectful and meaningful.

However, the unmoderated freedom of Usenet is a real treasure for me &
the millions who use it as it should be used.
It's simple, direct, no-frills, unmoderated and legendary. I use
Google for access which sucks real bad at times but I do have Agent,
which just requires an hour or two of free time for me to get it
configured and strangle some info from my server/ISP. I don't have an
hour or two free right now & haven't for weeks.
I'm sure POA is wonderful and I may try it. At the moment life is too
busy for lots of Usenet (or internet for that matter), anyway, so
perhaps when I finish A&P school in Dec. & have more time online I'll
check out POA. Just got a job at L-3 BTW working on C-130s & P-3s with
incredible pay & benefits & a flying club w cheap rentals to boot!
Just like flying, an A&P is a licence to learn as I'm realizing almost
nothing in the last 2 years of school has prepared me for what I've
done the last week in my new career. I've learned an amazing amount in
just 1 week.

I'm glad ya'll seem to have a good group but I've heard criticism of
POA in the vein of web-based group problems I mentioned above. I hope
it flourishes and I'm sure I'll come over for a visit sometime in the
near future. If nothing else, it may be a breath of fresh air, It's
really stinky in here right now!

Ricky

Fjukktards like Jay Honeck are there.



Bertie

I'm glad ya'll seem to have a good group but I've heard criticism of
POA in the vein of web-based group problems I mentioned above. I hope
it flourishes and I'm sure I'll come over for a visit sometime in the
near future. If nothing else, it may be a breath of fresh air, It's
really stinky in here right now!

Thanks for the thoughtful post, Ricky.

I, too, have loved rec.aviation for over a decade. I, too, have a hard time
giving up the ease and freedom of the Usenet interface. Web-based groups
invariably have more tools and shortcuts to use, which makes them more
complex, which often makes them a PIA to use (at first) -- and PofA is no
different. (Although, I must admit, some of those whiz-bang built-in tools
are very nice, once you figure the damned things out.)

I hear what you're saying about these things being cyclical, and we've seen
trolls before -- but never to this degree. The irrational bitterness, the
knee-jerk rancor, the personal attacks and downright meanness of posters
here is at an all-time high (low?). It is simply not possible to maintain a
thread of any kind here without devolving into the
"Bertie/Maxwell/MX/Mikey/Rich Troll-o-Rama Show", which -- after nearly a
year of this -- has left this group in shambles.

Which was their goal, of course.

So, I offer a great alternative to our friends who are still here. PofA is
far from perfect, but it's about FLYING and PILOTING, is chock-full of a
great bunch of pilots (many of whom you might know from here, from days gone
by), and the moderators keep a firm grip on the tiller when it comes to
children who won't play well with others.

http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
Ercoupe N94856
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

"Jay Honeck" wrote

here is at an all-time high (low?). It is simply not possible to maintain
a
thread of any kind here without devolving into the
"Bertie/Maxwell/MX/Mikey/Rich Troll-o-Rama Show", which -- after nearly a
year of this -- has left this group in shambles.

It's kind of funny but the only one here lately who starts aviation-related
threads is Mx.

The rest of the traffic seems to be the same characters making fools of
themselves over and over again, desperately trying to prove he is wrong
often by pointing out some miniscule detail in one of his posts. It used to
be entertaining but now it's just tedious and sophomoric - I no longer read
anything that that cast of characters posts.

Try starting an aviation-related thread and see what happens. Sure, you can
expect the predictable responses from the few here who have a hard-on for
you for their own childish reasons, but it's so easy to just skip past all
that that I'm not sure why anyone here has a problem (or such a hard time)
with doing so.

"Tim" wrote in message
...
"Jay Honeck" wrote

here is at an all-time high (low?). It is simply not possible to
maintain
a
thread of any kind here without devolving into the
"Bertie/Maxwell/MX/Mikey/Rich Troll-o-Rama Show", which -- after nearly a
year of this -- has left this group in shambles.

It's kind of funny but the only one here lately who starts
aviation-related
threads is Mx.

The rest of the traffic seems to be the same characters making fools of
themselves over and over again, desperately trying to prove he is wrong
often by pointing out some miniscule detail in one of his posts. It used
to
be entertaining but now it's just tedious and sophomoric - I no longer
read
anything that that cast of characters posts.


That's because Mx has a long history with this group, and many of us can
assure you, he is not a productive member and feeding his threads do not pay
off in the long run. Quite the contrary.


Try starting an aviation-related thread and see what happens. Sure, you
can
expect the predictable responses from the few here who have a hard-on for
you for their own childish reasons, but it's so easy to just skip past all
that that I'm not sure why anyone here has a problem (or such a hard time)
with doing so.


I think you are absolutely right. I don't understand why people stop talking
aviation when the bull**** starts. It's easy to either skip or delete the
offending message, and keep posting the good stuff. When the honest
contributors go silent, there is nothing left but the nonsense.

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
Fjukktards like Jay Honeck are there.



Bertie

Just burns your butt when people find ways to avoid your nonsense, doesn't
it?

Now lie to us.

"Lonnie" @_#~#@.^net wrote in message
...

"Tim" wrote in message
...
"Jay Honeck" wrote

here is at an all-time high (low?). It is simply not possible to
maintain
a
thread of any kind here without devolving into the
"Bertie/Maxwell/MX/Mikey/Rich Troll-o-Rama Show", which -- after nearly
a
year of this -- has left this group in shambles.

It's kind of funny but the only one here lately who starts
aviation-related
threads is Mx.

The rest of the traffic seems to be the same characters making fools of
themselves over and over again, desperately trying to prove he is wrong
often by pointing out some miniscule detail in one of his posts. It used
to
be entertaining but now it's just tedious and sophomoric - I no longer
read
anything that that cast of characters posts.


That's because Mx has a long history with this group, and many of us can
assure you, he is not a productive member and feeding his threads do not
pay off in the long run. Quite the contrary.


Try starting an aviation-related thread and see what happens. Sure, you
can
expect the predictable responses from the few here who have a hard-on for
you for their own childish reasons, but it's so easy to just skip past
all
that that I'm not sure why anyone here has a problem (or such a hard
time)
with doing so.


I think you are absolutely right. I don't understand why people stop
talking aviation when the bull**** starts. It's easy to either skip or
delete the offending message, and keep posting the good stuff. When the
honest contributors go silent, there is nothing left but the nonsense.

....sez the biggest bull$hit monger of the NG.

"Lonnie" @_#~#@.^net wrote in message
...

"Bertie the Bunyip" wrote in message
...
Fjukktards like Jay Honeck are there.



Bertie

Just burns your butt when people find ways to avoid your nonsense, doesn't
it?

You sure as hell don't. So how do you categorize your posts, Maxie? Do you
think they AREN'T nonsense? At least Bertie offers something substantive
now and again. You offer nothing BUT nonsense. In your case, that's
probably for the best. No doubt you discovered your flight sim knowledge
would only carry you so far without getting put in you place by actual
pilots like Bertie.

"Lonnie" @_#~#@.^net wrote in :


"Tim" wrote in message
...
"Jay Honeck" wrote

here is at an all-time high (low?). It is simply not possible to
maintain
a
thread of any kind here without devolving into the
"Bertie/Maxwell/MX/Mikey/Rich Troll-o-Rama Show", which -- after
nearly a year of this -- has left this group in shambles.

It's kind of funny but the only one here lately who starts
aviation-related
threads is Mx.

The rest of the traffic seems to be the same characters making fools
of themselves over and over again, desperately trying to prove he is
wrong often by pointing out some miniscule detail in one of his
posts. It used to
be entertaining but now it's just tedious and sophomoric - I no
longer read
anything that that cast of characters posts.


That's because Mx has a long history with this group, and many of us
can assure you, he is not a productive member and feeding his threads
do not pay off in the long run. Quite the contrary.


Try starting an aviation-related thread and see what happens. Sure,
you can
expect the predictable responses from the few here who have a hard-on
for you for their own childish reasons, but it's so easy to just skip
past all that that I'm not sure why anyone here has a problem (or
such a hard time) with doing so.


I think you are absolutely right. I don't understand why people stop
talking aviation when the bull**** starts. It's easy to either skip or
delete the offending message, and keep posting the good stuff. When
the honest contributors go silent, there is nothing left but the
nonsense.



That's what you do, isn't it?


Bwahahwahwhahwhahwhhawhhahwhahwhahwh!

Bertie