Originally Posted by villages07

Hmmm...not sure what the indignation is about. As best as I can reconstruct...

A topic/thread was begun in General Villages Forum regarding a suggestion for moratorium on political posting. That led to a number of replies, many of which ventured into political and freedom of speech issues.

Admin (Jan/Talk Host) decided to lock THAT thread in THAT forum before it unravelled and degraded any further and he moved some of the hijack spinoffs to the rightful political forum. Admins have locked controversial threads before to preserve the peace. It's never an easy call and I'm sure they do their best.

Perhaps the subject line of his 'moved' post led to misinterpretation. It's not like the admins have locked the entire Political forum...is that what y'all think happened? As far as I can tell, it's business as usual.

Did I miss something here???

07....I beleive you are correct. It was in the wrong area...should have stayed in the Political Forum....I don't think it was locked to keep us out....just the it got out of hand in the wrong area....so it was moved and dispersed.

I really don't think this is too big a deal....I don't think they are trying to quiet us....Dem or Repub.....

Let's all breathe a little....after all.....

It is a beautiful day in The Villages!!!!

I do have to point out that though this thread has been "moved" now, it was locked most of the day and I could be wrong, but I think the original intent was to leave it that way. :dontknow:

Originally Posted by villages07

Hmmm...not sure what the indignation is about. As best as I can reconstruct...

Well 07, as the instigator of this thread, let me explain my indigation. I don't know about the rest of the responders, but my reaction was purely personal and mostly visceral.

Yesterday afternoon, I read all the comments about putting the political forum on hiatus. The last msg was from Host suggesting that possibly the subject should be moved to Political. Might not agree, but I don't have a dog in that fight and it is his website. It moves, it moves. I didn't care.

Anyway, I gave the initial problem (moratorium for Political) some thought and came up with several brilliant observations on the issue. They ranged from the makeup of TOTV to the importance of politics in everyone's life whether they wanted to admit it or not. The piece was absolutely fabulous. Had it been published as an essay, critics would have sworn it came straight from Walden Pond. Emerson, Thoreau, and the others would be spinning in their respective graves in envy. Even Boomer and Barefoot would have approved.

So finally complete, I did hit the spell check button. Eventually that came up and I was able to correct a few typos. Then I hit the preview button and was able to review my masterpiece one last time before going live. Dare I say it again, BRILLIANT! So I finally hit the post button to release this magnum opus to the general public, or at least those on TOTV.

Guess what happened. I get a screen back that the thread is now locked. And my message over which I have slaved for about an hour, typing one-handed? It's gone, flushed down the urinal that is life.

Soooo yeah, I was a tad incensed. All I could think about were the poor souls on TOTV who would be denied the enlightenment of my words, that they must continue their lives in abject ignorance. Ah well.

But this situation has taught me well. No more long expository postings for me. From now on, only one or two line quick hitters making sarcastic witticisms about foolish positions of others or, should I actually cocur with someone's position, I could reply with the ever popular in some circles and totally meaningless

Muncle I love reading your posts too much to let you even consider making them short. I often agree with you and even when I don't I just like the way you string the words together.

I have lost posts also...and it must be a rule, that it only happens to the ones you have slaved over and made exceptionally brilliant.

So now, what I do before spell check or preview...I copy and paste it into a Word doc. Then I do the checking. Should my tome be lost I can cut and paste it again from my Word doc and not suffer the lose.

Just an idea...but please do not cut your posts short. I like them too much.

Originally Posted by Susan&Tom

Muncle I love reading your posts too much to let you even consider making them short. I often agree with you and even when I don't I just like the way you string the words together.

I have lost posts also...and it must be a rule, that it only happens to the ones you have slaved over and made exceptionally brilliant.

So now, what I do before spell check or preview...I copy and paste it into a Word doc. Then I do the checking. Should my tome be lost I can cut and paste it again from my Word doc and not suffer the lose.

Just an idea...but please do not cut your posts short. I like them too much.

:redface: Aw pshaw.

Talkshow,

What did I mean by that? My only interaction with you on this forum has been exposure to a combative and sarcastic attitude when you didn't agree with, nor take the time to understand the nature of the posts I participated in. The fact that i "wasn't surprised" was simply a reflection of my experiences with you in particular thus far. I do not know you personally, only what you have shown me.
I was waiting on the "I see you only have x amount of posts", as if that affects someones ability to intelligently reply or otherwise participate in conversations.Every veteran here likely had 22 posts at some time. My impression from the vast majority of the members on this site led me to believe the cliquish nature of "I'm somehow better because I'm a 'veteran poster' is not a predominate attitude here. One of the things that drew me to this board was the lack of such "high school" attitudes.
Anarchy? Had no idea things were that dangerous. I was simply looking for a place to learn about my new home, and perhaps learn some other things in the process, maybe even have a good laugh here and there. I also had no idea that stating things that were not in agreement with the ad ministators would draw such personal ire and fears of anarchy. I am used to a friendly exchange of ideas, experiences, and differences of opinion that allow people to learn and grow. Life is to short for sweating the petty stuff.

Originally Posted by Muncle

:redface: Aw pshaw.

Oh Muncle....you really are loved!!!

They like you....they really, really like you....

Me too!!!!

There is a time and place for everything. With the election coming up, this should be one time when politics should be discussed. Now that religion has become so intertwined I guess its time for that too. I think a moratorium after the election would be a good idea. The problem with the politicians is they are always running for office but hardly ever working.
I have noticed a number of posts do get deleted. Perhaps instead of talk of the villages this should be renamed the Daily Sun forum.
Don't mean to be too gloomy though, must be all the storms we are having.
I do thank the providers for all the time, effort and money they have put into this.

I’d like to make some comments regarding brightspot's first amendment, legal action comments just so you are all clear.

First the nasty part.

The First Amendment / Free Speech has no bearing on ANY privately held forum / discussion board on the internet no matter the subject or the content. TOTV or any other forum is here and operational at the discretion of the owners who created it including the content that is posted on it.

The forum owners / creators set the subject matter, focus, tone and direction of the forums. If it’s a forum about flowers they do not have to allow discussions about changing the oil in your car. If it’s a forum dedicated to automotive repair they do not have to allow discussions about flowers. Any post any thread can be closed or deleted at any time for any reason.

One press of the delete button can make the political board go away forever and it is completely within the rights of the forum owners to do so. Forum owners also have the right to refuse access to any member or potential member at our discretion.

Given that, as Jan said we have close to 80,000 posts here and only a very tiny hand full has ever been closed or deleted in almost three years. In fact our wish is that no post, no thread, no member would EVER have to be deleted. Maybe in a perfect world that would be the case but as I’m sure you ALL know we live in a far from perfect world.

As most of you know there is a vast array of personalities on this forum with vastly different views. Some play nice and some don’t. Some can express differing opinions with each other and enjoy a lively debate. Yet others can’t blink without getting insulted or their feelings hurt. Sounds just like life outside the forums to me.

TOTV admins have a VERY fine line to walk when looking at what may need to be moderated. Some member(s) demand behind the scenes that a particular post or thread be deleted and when it is, others scream “We’ve been censored.” If we don’t close the post the complainers will leave. If we do close the post then some feel they are being censored. No one is being "censored" but we do have an obligation to all members to control the forums when we feel it necessary.

TOTV is a great place to be and we hope everyone will be happy here. Some never will and that’s just the way it is. Relax and enjoy TOTV for what it is and why it was created. Life is way too short to get bent out of shape over posts in a forum.

Take it easy on each other folks… and us to.

dk I can take it.

DK :bow: :bow:

And may I add that we are all extremely grateful for all the time and effort put in by the Admins to make this such a wonderful site. You've made over 5,000 people happy!