Indrid Banned?, what happened?

You are important to me! ... but don't tell anyone I said that, I am a wanted poster!

You female poster? Wow, didnt know that!

Oh yes, over-robust posting is a serious issue here.
Well, I too will take a break, like Alex H did. Hope the forum will improve without us annoying people.

About Gabriel, your first doubt was about him ever coming with some useful input. Your doubt has been refuted. You now want a proportional appreciation of that input with the total number of his posts. "Nu o mai intoarce ca la Ploiesti!"

take care

Btw, only 61 posters with over 50 posts...

Bye, bye!!!

Last clarification:

My first message:

Your reply was to this one, not to the one accusing you of what you said. And your reply was:

So, no, you were the one to first react like that to the quality of the idea, not to any of my accusations. I havent accused you of anything at that time.

Now I'll enjoy my vacation.

take care

This post has been edited by Imperialist on June 15, 2005 11:52 am

Alexandru H., if you open a topic/poll with a question "Indrid to be un-banned: Yes or No?" for sure you will find a lot of forumist posting... aaaa... clones, posting against Indrid. Sad but true, there are a lot of clones, even if some of them are hidden in shaddow, to be used at the right momment.

Iama

It is not for the first time me or Victor are saying this, but I recommend anyone not confortable with the Forum Guidelines or the manner this forum is moderated to find some other place on the Internet where he has chances to fulfill his needs better.

As for the examples you gave, I will not waste my time commenting them.

The entire topic on the Irak war has more replies than the Navy section. Yet I hardly find 1% as interesting as my discussions with Sergey and Kirill on the ChF sub and Axis ships losses in 1941-44. Number of posts in a thread, just like the number of posts made by a member aren't important, unless you are interested in quantity, rather than quality.

Alexandru H., this isn't the Paraddox Games Forum you frequent. People generally come here to ask some questions or share info and that's usually it.

Indeed, what some of the members do not understand is that us, the owners of this forum, do not find important the number of posts, how old is someone on the forum or the level of temper authorized here. We have things to attend more important than surveying chat-style fights that has nothing to do with the main subject of this forum. We can be happy with one post per day, if that single post contains valuable information for military historians. We did not restrict General Discussion. But from there and to allow a handful of members to disregard any civil conduct and throw aggresive words and personal attacks in every direction is more than we can allow.

That's strange, Victor! In that particular forum, we also share info, trying in the same time to be as interesting as possible. We founded the first on-line magazine on the web dedicated to AAR writing, we read excellent novels and stories inspired by historical games, we feel just like a community. In no way have I ever entered in conflict with a moderator, which means I don't have a problem with authority, just with the badly-used one...

Well, some of us found the Iraqi subject more interesting... What is your point? Fewer means better? I don't think so, since you lead the pack with the number of total posts. Or does this mean that something that a moderator participates in is always more interesting than what a lowly member does? We are here talking about the General Discussion subforum, not the Navy one, which is deserted, not because there are no questions, but because no one feels any urge to stick around...

First of all, congratulations for your sincerity. You are right, this is what you want from it. But remember, all of these could have been possible without a forum, just a simple mailing list, guestbook etc... When you have a forum, the role of posters change, because the only purpose it has is to "force" them to stay a little longer than necessary....

The Paradox Forums kept the address of your site as a sticky on the first page of Hearts of Iron I subforum. The moderators from there thought of you as pretty darn important for knowledge about Romania and WW2. In many posts, I urged people to visit your place and read about it, and most of them were pleased with the results.

... when I quite remember that I pointed him among the good members of the forums a while ago, along with mabadesc, Denes, horia, valachus, Chandenagore

Hey! You misunderstood me! I didn't say I hated you -- far from it. I often find your posts interesting, and when they are too argumentative for my taste, I just stop reading the offending thread.

I was only saying, of the remaining, un-banned regular posters to the forum, that you seem to be the most disliked. And I believe it is your argumentative streak which brought this about.

Zayda,

While I can agree with your mathematics, I can't agree with your reasoning.

Certainly Indrid's ban gets people's attention -- he is a long-time and active member.

In my opinion, the reason why the historical parts of the forum do not inspire long threads is that they are much more likely to relate to factual questions. Yes, there are many good examples of opinions there too -- the recent "Was the Dresden Bombing a War Crime" thread for example, or the one about Germany's most valuable ally. But that doesn't change the truth of my statement. Many of the threads in the historical sections start with factual questions or factual statements. If it is a question, somebody who has the answer provides it, or they recommend where to look. Maybe there is some discussion, but it ends.

As for the Romanian Navy thread example, it is small because the Navy was a relatively minor part of Romania's experience in the war compared to the Army and Air Force. If this was the "Japanese Military in World War 2" forum, I guarantee you the Navy section would be significantly larger.

Also, unlike the US in Iraq (for example) there isn't new World War 2 history being made. Yes, new books are printed, new discoveries are made in some archives, maybe some new interview with a veteran takes place (though the time for that is sadly drawing to a close). But the facts and events of that era are not going to change.

I’ve been interested in the military history since I was a teenager; it could have been a residual influence from the childhood (we know that almost all kids - boys - are interested in sports and militaria) but also a refuge from the social-political reality which I started to perceived as being grim (the period was the late 80’, the country was Romania). There is some time since I started to visit this site. I have done that from its very beginning (this site appeared by moving/merging another two ww2 sites if I remember correct), and in time I’ve started to do it on a rather regular basis. First my only interest was to search its different sections looking for new data or photos, but then I’ve started to read the various contributions from the forum. Probably this first period was somehow the most useful from the point of view of the new information I have accessed; I use to pay little or no attention to the members, being interested only in new and interesting data, and I never wandered in the General section. There were many months until I subscribed as a member; and in my first week (or was it the first day?) after the registration I posted a remark to one of Alexkdl contributions and the madness erupted on the forum. Maybe Sid Guttridge should read that particular topic (Alexkdl vs. Agarici) before labeling Indrid just because he disagreed with his opinions. And since that topic was in the “General” section I implicitly started to visit (and post in) it. The whole thing consumed a good share of my spare time (more than it reasonably should, on occasion) so I kind of stepped back a few weeks ago. This does not mean that the general section was uninteresting or did not bring forth solid arguments for the different aspects debated, or that I stopped reading what was being posted in here. It’s just that sometimes the argumentations and reactions seemed to me redundant, and it was too time-consuming to keep up with the mini-essays (many digressions included) witch was developed in here (just like this post ). Though let’s face it, the most guys in here (not including myself) are well above the average from their information level, intelligence and civic attitude point of view.
Only that from some time on the General section started to be the main focus and point of attraction, at least judging from the number of posts. I wanted to point this out in a topic, just before taking this break… and to challenge the moderators to express their point of view about this trend. Also it is quite easy to identify two categories of forumists, “the specialists” (those active mostly in the specialized sections like C-2, Cantacuzino, Denes, and of course not only them) and “the essayists” concerned by more general and contemporary aspects (among which the trio - Indrid, Alexandru H. and Imperialist - was composed by arguably the most visible ones). I think we should be frank to admit that they animated most of the debates and I can hardly imagine this section (and quite honestly the site) without them. It is true that Imperialist and Alexandru often used (exasperating ) over-argumentation in their debates and would settle for no truce, but does that caused any harm to the forum or its members? I don’t think so. Sometimes their remarks became provocative, personal and maybe too sarcastic (isn’t it true, Alexandru?) but I think they did not really offend someone from the site; they were to much involved in their own wars to be seriously concerned about other enemies . Let’s face it, I don’t think we could expect that if they would stop posting in the General section everybody will rush to the specialized sections and tomorrow will bring a flow of relevant new facts and data about WW 2 , or an influx of new active members. I think a reason for this switch of interest to the general section is that most of the available info about Romania in WW 2 is already on the site/forum and new info became less readily available. The only real problem (and that is a problem indeed, in my opinion) is that the moderators have to deal with a forum within a forum, which exceeds the scope of their main interests and which, because of the amount of new posts, engulfs too much of their time. To this I think that a reasonable solution is pretty hard to find, and banning one or another for a minor offense is only a palliative…

Now a few words about Indrid. I think he was one of the most inteligent, creative and honest (with his own opinions and with the others) person around here. In my opinion he always knew when to pull the brakes and contain himself to the area of civil behavior in order not to upset/offend the others, although he received enough flack from other members (so I guess that up to now the winner of the “sarcasm prize” would be Alexandru); and his never ending fight for freedom and emancipation against the moderators (together with Alexandru H., Imperialist and Iama) accounted for much of the fun from the forum. I really do not see how Indrid could have been capable of something so serious that he had to receive a permanent interdiction and I could not agree with such a decision. But since this is not my site and it’s not me the one who use his time for the not so funny job of moderating, doing administrative job in here and appeasing the people any argumentation is futile. In my opinion tough it would be a good thing for the forum, if his case is revised; you should just make a simple comparison with Alexkdl situation and you’ll see what I mean. Kicking people out easily (people incapable, in my opinion, of any structural harm - like insulting, threatening, seriously offending others) will solve no problem and do no good. And folks, don’t forget about your tolerance and sense of humor…

In the meantime I will refrain myself from posting in here, apart from the specialized WW2 sections (when/if I have something relevant to say or ask). I have a plan for the Pre-WW2 section (which, if the people would care could turn out pretty interesting) and a few shots (answers) left for some issues currently in discussion. But it all depends on my available time…

You’re right; Romanian Royal Navy actions in WW 2 meant:
- two major naval engagements, one in 1941 and the other in late 1942 (the former actually being rather a Soviet ships- Romanian coastal artillery engagement)
- a successful torpedo hit by Delfinul submarine in 1941
- probably the most visible operation/success, “Operation 40.000”, the evacuation of Crimea

But for this reason the info about Romanian Navy is less common knowledge than the data about the Romanian Army or Air Force, and particularly for this reason I think that this section could be the most interesting for me… only if someone could find at least some answers for all the unanswered questions.