Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I like the hillbilly barbarian threads better than the Bitchfests that we have running now

It sure seems that way. Divide and conquer---down to the man.

Well put, and in what world is it not a fools errand to believe that a "moderator" is always going to be on your side....?

It's merely the one's that can't weather the storm that 'cry foul'.

Wonder why?

Truth ! Yet , here we all are !

Fair question.

I have been on sites that have given absolute pinheads absolute authority. Not all moderators are like that but once you get one that is, it's like living under a dictator who ruins a country. I'll take free speech over that. You may have to learn to live with it to enjoy it, but that's what free men do.

So this really is a bitch thread but with nice words.......

Give it time

We need to hold a Campfire Rendezvous. People are much less bold when they're within striking distance. I'd pay money to see CashisQueen and Ballz debate in person.

I'll bring the keg!

Sneaky Bastids !

You have always had a way with words.

It's like I've explained before, moderation is normal and healthy in everyday life.

Think of it in tribal terms. Elders lead youngsters. Youngsters don't lead elders. Societal order is respected and maintained by this one simple mantra, in it's most simplistic tribal terms, by the simplest form of respect based only on age.

Our society was maintained by the family unit and respect for the rule law, both of which have broken down to the point that a complete lack of respect (due to no consequences, I.E. a lack of an authoritarian figure in the household, or internet forum) and a lack of self-restraint.

It's an all-out, winner-take-all mentality that ignores healthy checks and balances provided by some form of sustainable authority figure.

Speaking for myself, I wouldn't be upset to have a moderator maintain civility, while allowing full vent of the exchange of information and ideas. I'm not sure why posters like JeffA are so intent on being able to belittle and cut down someone on the internet. Why is that such a big deal?

Are you afraid your position can't be defended on it's merits, therefore name-calling is required to shut down your opposition? I'm not talking about the censorship of ideas as seen on some "moderated" forums. I'm talking about the full exchange of ideas while maintaining civility, that's it. Seems pretty simple to me.

I would never have expected to sit at the dinner table as a child and bad mouth my mother without my father moderating me into next week. I'd be surprised if someone's household did allow it, and I would call it unhealthy.


Why are you afraid to be required to be civil in your internet exchanges? Can't your ideas stand on their own w/o insults?

Some elders need to be lead.

Well, in some locations they would need to an alternative metal.

Among the top 10 posts of all time.

One of the things I like about the 24 Hour Campfire is the lack of moderation. People are allowed to make a$$es of themselves if they so desire and I can choose to read their posts or skip over them. Along with freedom there is responsibility.

People would still be able to make an azz of themselves with a moderated forum.

You would still be able to skip over anything you don't want to read.

Not sure how any form of moderation would change your examples.

What's happening on the 24 Hour Campfire is the same as what we're seeing where the rule of law is ignored in American cities. A breakdown of an authority that maintains civility leads to chaos and violence, or more accurately, a concentration of nefarious players intent not on the maintenance or betterment of the venue, but the exercise of their own form of totalitarian control, under the guise of "freedom".

I would suggest that freedom for the individual truly exists only in the absence of other people. Even then there are external limitations, for example the environment. One wouldn't run naked through Alaska in winter w/o dying of exposure, so even freedom in it's purest form is moderated.

When other people are included, at the minimum there must be some form of self-control. As humans have shown for millennia, that is never enough. Barring self-restraint, external restraint of some form is required to maintain order.

Get on heavily moderated forums.

Little to no BS.

I don't mind it as I know how to move along if I see something I don't like. I only use ignore for a few azzhats in the classifieds.

If you want to maintain freedom, exercise self-restraint, or eventually, some form of external restraint will need to be applied to prevent total anarchy and chaos.

If you want total freedom to act out, don't expect stellar results.

I've not tried another forum, but it seems like the guys that have come back here and tell how awful it was.

I'd bet dollars to donuts it wasn't the moderation per se that was oppressive, but the agenda of the moderator. Moderation like that is no more than it's own brand totalitarianism. Maybe it's so prevalent on other forums for the reasons I mentioned, a lack of self-restraint, but on the part of the moderator.

Like Paul Harvey used to say, "Self-governance won't work without self-discipline".

He was right.