Indrid Banned?, what happened?

Usually you don't just copy a document from this forum and use it in your paper. First you contact the owner, ask for permission and conditions to use the document, then ask for sources and additional references, and so on.

I refuted this statement, but now you make a shift and start another issue, dealing with the credibility of the documents in electronic format. This is a totally different story, but if you have evidence of fake photographs or scanned documents posted in the serious topics, please present them. Otherwise, your allegations can be considered as an attempt to discredit this forum.

Yes, I said that:

You then argued that there are parts of archives not yet available, but obviously that was not what I meant to say (that archives have been published in their entirety). I dont think you refuted anything.


I also agreed that certain photographs have been published here, and some documents. I didnt dispute their accuracy nor did I say they are fake.
All I said was that it doesnt mean the people that dont publish photographs or documents are unauthoritative, in fact they could have very well written good academically reviewed papers.

You did not address the fact that NONE was interested in making those foreign sources available by networking with eachother, not being exclusively dependent on trickle-down posts from good-faith and respectable foreign posters, who unfortunately with all their good-faith cannot replace the raw source (book for example) with their own review/summary of it.

As for my attempt to "discredit the forum", pleeeease... This is the comments and suggestions section, and I have very politely commented and suggested things. I dont intend to discredit anything.

No, I havent dealt with the credibility of documents in e-form, but with their completeness and academic reliability (I cannot give as reference in my paper the URL of this forum, sorry). No matter how many documents have been published here, if I want to write something I'll have to go in the archives myself and form a complete picture on a subject, not rely on several documents posted on a forum.
There are electronical archives on the internet too, but those are as complete as available and published by professional institutions. This is a Forum. Not a "consult the archives" site, sorry.

My point was that if you want to impose academic standards on the members its OK, but when we make some suggestion or comments about the academic standards of the Forum, dont say we want to discredit it.
And we wont use academic standards on everything we say here, because this is a Forum, not an academic network. Sorry if you dont like that being said. We are from different backgrounds, we dont have to face academic pressure from other people from different backgrounds that maybe read a book or 2 more than us. At least we wont flame them (I wont) but that doesnt mean we're irrelevant or ignorant. We are here to talk, exchange info, comment some books or current events/articles, not face the academic pressure we can encounter in the real life.

thank you

I dont insert copyed documents in my papers. The info from documents can be used on condition the source is properly specified in the bibliography.

Hey, you two, get a room! Your usage of the word "bibliography" is an insult to the rest of us....

I refuted this statement, but now you make a shift and start another issue, dealing with the credibility of the documents in electronic format. This is a totally different story, but if you have evidence of fake photographs or scanned documents posted in the serious topics, please present them. Otherwise, your allegations can be considered as an attempt to discredit this forum.

Yes, I said that:

You then argued that there are parts of archives not yet available, but obviously that was not what I meant to say (that archives have been published in their entirety). I dont think you refuted anything.

Not only not available. There are also parts of archives available but not yet studied, or studied but not yet published. Therefor, the academic community did not publish everything of relevance that was accessible in the archives, in highly authoritative books.

I agree, but I did not say anything like that. Where did you get the impression?

Again, what has to do the personal review or summary with a bare document or photograph? This is not the point of the discussion.

This depends. If you require many documents for a complex study, personally consulting archives and sources is mandatory. Even in this case, using forums like this can help as a starting point. However, if you require only a piece of the puzzle,
it is much easier to consult a specialized forum than make an expensive travel for consulting archives.

As I said, this is not how it works. See the example I gave.

Nobody claimed that this is a substitute for archives, just a mean of exchange of authoritative information, when this is available.

In the name of whom are you speaking, since you are using "we", and I am also waiting for you to nominate the people you are refering as maybe having read a book or two more than you. This is clearly a derogatory statement.

This post has been edited by dragos on June 17, 2005 07:53 am

In the name of whom are you speaking, since you are using "we", and I am also waiting for you to nominate the people you are refering as maybe having read a book or two more than you. This is clearly a derogatory statement.

I agree with most of what you said. In fact looking back, I think I did say its a place to exchange info. But, if you say there are people here that need a specific piece of info (picture, document) its OK, I have nothing against it. I'm just one member that isnt interested in this kind of specifics, or if interested, I'd rather have access to the original books or archives so that I can use the reference if I needed so much, and have a complete view on things said there.

As for the "we" part. I dont know what you want explained. "We" is referring to the members in general. I dont see what makes this a derogatory statement.

[edit -- and using "we" doesnt mean speaking in the name of anybody. I said "we are from different backgrounds".]

This post has been edited by Imperialist on June 17, 2005 08:07 am

Fear not The worst that can happen is that your talents will be appreciated elsewhere. I have come to the point where I don't give a rat's ass about Dragos banning me or not so he can't even impress me. One day he will perhaps understand that every forum has a few think tanks, fall back options as someone said. The majority of people swim there most of the time and occasionally jump on some serious subject. Scratch the GD and you drag the carpet from under your feet. But then it's my understanding that the moderators, from the height of their infinite wisdom, don't want to moderate anything anymore. They don't have time. They're too busy whining and complaining that their own vision of forum rules don't match the atributes of the heavyweight posters. Oh, the horror. Solution ? : ban the non-self. So mature and effective.


What is crystal clear is that they don't want a forum, in the original sense of the word. This is turning into something else, a downgraded version for pussilanimous and pompous reference show (preferably those that you find in the bibliography section of Taylor's book and that you can throw at others without having consulted them yourselve). That's quite the opposite of a forum. Enter the "elite" (haha), exit the human being...

This post has been edited by Chandernagore on June 17, 2005 09:52 am

Like I said earlier, I am already having a deja vu with forum members that think that without them all will be lost forever. At least show some dignity upon departure.

Btw, think deeper on who is actually whining here and this has gone on long enough. Topic closed.