That Other Board

Guys, I sent the following private message to JQP over at TOB this afternoon. If anyone disagrees with what I told him, please let me know publicly. It might make for some valuable discussion.



JQP,

Today marks the three-month anniversary of the day I and six other conservative posters left this forum and formed our own. Today it has grown to 17 members, 12 of whom contribute regularly every day. I think it’s only polite to say goodbye and give you some idea of why we left, with the hopes that the input can be used to improve this site.

In a nutshell, this site became very unwelcoming, or even hostile, to anyone with conservative views. Any conservative post, regardless of subject, content or viewpoint was immediately attacked by the usual suspects, whether it was warranted or not, and usually accompanied by personal insults. Since we left, things have not gotten better. Of course, since the remaining posters are almost universally liberal, there are many fewer personal attacks. However, the content of the posts has become even more disappointing. Last weekend, I did a random reading of one hundred posts on the political side of this forum. I found that between 85 and 90 did nothing more than (a) call Donald Trump a stupid idiot in various ways, (b) call those who work(ed) for him stupid idiots in various ways, or (c) call those who support him (both nationally and on your forum) stupid idiots in various ways. If it were my site, that is not what I would want, and I suspect it will eventually lead to boredom and more people leaving.

It has become very rare that any kind of discussion or debate actually occurs here, and I think that’s a natural result of all the remaining members being of like mind.

I can’t help but think this site has become what you always wanted, at least judging from your heavy-handed banning of conservative posters while allowing others like Wabash and Vilepagan to remain.

In the last two weeks, I’ve been engaged in two lengthy discussion on our new forum, both with a poster banned here long ago. One was about the differences between the greatest athletes and the most talented athletes in professional sports. The other concerned itself with the origin and nature of inalienable rights. My opponent and I disagreed at every turn, but their was mutual respect, there were no personal insults, and the debate remained at all times academic and cerebral. They almost made my head hurt.

John, this forum could have been like that. Now, I don’t think it ever will. We left with the intent of boycotting this site for 30 days. It’s now been three months and there has been no visible improvement or any other reason for any of us to return.

I wish you the best, and I sincerely wish things would have gone differently.

Best regards,

MDDad

Yeah, fun to watch. Luca even got in a dig about us forming our own board (without a link). Since they intercepted my PMs to Cruiser and Tommy Tar, I assume they would delete any post with a link to this board. And we probably don't want just anybody to know of this board.

Tommy Tar looks like he is getting fed up. He just offered to send JQP "a bag of dicks." If anyone knows Cruiser or Tommy Tar, you might consider letting them know.

JQP's entire forum is a bag of dicks.  I'm not sure he needs another one.

Agreed. What a maroon! What an ignoranamus!

You know, Dad, I feel sorry for JQ. I suspect he is a pretty nice guy in person. He put a lot of work into building that forum. Initially I thought he was pretty even handed. He said that at one time he was a Republican and what I believe happened was that for some reason he went over to the dark side and has joined the race to the left that has been precipitated by all the anger at Donald Trump (not that this is completely unjustified). And he seemed to lose his ability to handle the increasing animosity in an even handed fashion.

I pretty much dropped out last year when I tried an experiment. Fordama called somebody a racist once again. I got a little tired of the name calling so I responded with a post implying that someone had a suspicion of inappropriate sexual contact with minors in the past. My plan was, when he registered a complaint about the implication, that I would point out that it was little different than what he had done. A little heavy handed, agreed, but JQ said not a word about his behavior but that any future such implications from me would result in banishment (banishment, I say) at which point I diplomatically told him to FO and went silent.

It must be disappointing for him to see his efforts wither away while he is left talking to Wabash and vilepagan. My God, that would be anyone's room 101......................................Luca

JQP seemed like a decent enough guy. I intro'd him to the guy running the local hs audio streaming fb games to help drive more traffic to his site. I think his biggest mistake is he chose sides and became an active combatant, and then followed that by using his Mod privileges in a clearly unobjective way. No one likes playing against a stacked deck - especially not the guys who migrated this way.

How did RSM become a "Senior Contributor before me? I invited him here. LOL Even when I go back to the board with my victory dance, I still have Wabash on ignore. I actually know a person that was his fire captain. Yep, he is a useful idiot.

I don’t expect JQP will respond. I sent him a few such missives when I was a member but if he did respond at all, it was a snarky “opinions are like a**holes...” sort of thing. I’m sure he shared your PM with others there, but not to get their feedback. I suspect he would share something candid like that to congratulate his vile but-buddy that their plan to drive off all the conservatives had finally worked (no, not really).

I haven’t been back for years, but from what you guys say, nothing has changed, unless it got worse since vile-baby invented secret rules for me to transgress.