Indrid Banned?, what happened?

I'll think about it, dragos03. It certainly seems like an interesting idea.

If you are willing to embrace this idea, I will offer my IT expertise to help you put it into practice.

Well, I already located a provider with a great potential, so why not? I'll look into this problem this summer...

I can only find this statement as weird. What is the academical standards you are speaking about, and you cannot find on this website, and what prevents you to circulate the information under a random or a real name?

Personally I'm not interested in highly specialised subjects like what was the gauge of the trains during WWI or where exactly were the romanian army depots in transylvania etc.
I know how that works. Precisely because the academic community already published everything of relevance that was accessible in the archives, in highly authoritative books, only niche subjects are availabe or new explosive interpretations/theories.
As for the foreigners here, they may have a hobby or a personal interest in these things, but were they to actually engage in a serious endeavour, they'd have to do actual archive research, and read books for themselves.
Sure, they can be directed to important books. But seriously, that can be easily accomplished outside this forum too.

As for the second part, there are no academical standards on this Forum. There cannot be. Not structural at least; on the content side is debatable. Obviously quoting only a Taylor book for example, is good in an argument but it does not academically exhaust the subject, nor does it academically explore and present the complete historical situation. Its not authoritative on the subject, merely one book better on the bibliographical side.

Well, how do you explain that I've drifted in the GD part of the forum because another part of it was completely inactive?
When people exhausted subjects on the other parts of the forum they clustered were some action was going on. And that was the GD. I hope people understand that the GD is the "fall back to" part of the forum which I think ensures it keeps its dynamism reservoir, not its "black hole".
As for the mods, for one thing, they could stop complaining. We too have lives, we too have jobs and book projects. The fact that we take some time from us to engage in this forum is equal to them taking some time to take care of the forum they INITIATED but not created. The forum is created each day by each of us.

For me the problem lies in what I perceived as the first step in them eliminating the "noisy bunch" -- Indrid, Alex and me. I know they received plenty of suggestions to do this to "improve" the forum because otherwise it goes down the drain, and I know also from whom.
But I think me and Alex are forewarned and will not offer an excuse like Indrid did. If and when we'll get back to the rest of the forum. I personally will not, at least for awhile.

p.s. I havent seen extremist or racist posts here.

Hi Guys,

Purely as a matter of interest, how many people have been banned for over stepping the mark on the General Discussion section of this forum, and how many on the other sections?

If the General Discussion section, which is peripheral to the main purpose of this forum as announced in its title, is the home of most of the problems then this raises interesting questions.

Posters who use the General Discussion section almost exclusively, should have the humility to recognise that it is peripheral to the central purpose of this forum, and should, I suggest, be more ready than most to conform to the moderators' wishes.

Cheers,

Sid.

Some new numbers:

a) "The Elitists" (they have double or more posts in the Military Forums than the General Discussions)
dragos - 1335 posts (70%) in Military Forums, 617 posts (30%) in General Discussions
Victor - 2029 posts (77%) in Military Forums, 638 posts (23%) in General Discussions
Sid - 100 posts (71%) in the Military Forums, 44 posts (29%) in General Discussions
dragos03 - 116 posts (72%) in the Military Forums, 47 posts (28%) in General Discussions

b) "The Drifters" (more posts in the Military Forums, but less than double the number of the ones in the General Discussions)
Denes - 1523 posts (66%) in Military Forums, 669 posts (34%) in General Discussions
C-2 - 864 posts (65%) in the Military Forums, 457 posts (35%) in General Discussions
Jeff_S - 92 posts (52%) in Military Forums, 91 posts (48%) in General Discussions
Chandernagore - 818 posts (55%) in Military Forums, 670 posts (45%) in General Discussions
Iamandi - 915 posts (60%) in Military Forums, 503 posts (40%) in General Discussions
Imperialist - 356 posts (55%) in the Military Forums, 320 posts (45%) in General Discussions

c) "The provocateurs" (more posts in the General Discussions
Alexandru H. - 193 posts (20%) in the Military Forums, 1067 posts (80%) in General Discussions
Indrid - 425 posts (28%) in the Military Forums, 1195 posts (72%) in General Discussions

Observations:

- There are in fact three different camps right now on this forum, even if, when problems arise (like the one we are discussing right now), the members of the second tier tend to ally with one camp or another
- For Jeff_S, I have some bad news: using the percentage of posts, it's obvious that Imperialist uses the Military forums more than you do (55%/52%). In fact, Imperialist can only be grouped in the second tier, even if his place is obviously at the bottom
- With the departure of Indrid, I am clearly the only one left in the bottom camp, with allies, but clearly a marked poster. From now on, it will be very hard to even utter a word without fear of retribution
- one of the mods, Denes, clearly interested in the ARR section, has nonetheless earned a place between the drifters, thus proving that an equilibrium can be obtained, even by a moderator. Good work!
- dragos could have been brought as another good example of coexistence, but unfortunately a great part of his posts in the GD section are administrative warnings!

Alex, nice analysis!

But I think theres something wrong with the software there. I noticed some time ago that suddenly the "most posts in" function was taken over by my posts in GD, though I didnt consider that I posted that many in GD. It was weird. I dont think I had the physical time to post another 300+ posts in GD, as already posting 300 posts in the Military section in 4 months was pretty much.
I think I've reached maybe 100-150 posts in GD. I'd be really surprised to have 300.

I dont know, maybe Dragos could say if the count "takes off" at a certain moment.

take care

Sid, the General Discussions don't bring many problems, it's just that the moderators keep showing in every little thread, demanding respectability! Even if there is no need of moderating! We are a happy bunch that contradict for the sake of contradiction! We don't want to learn nothing new, we like to read witty answers and give witty replies...

The General Discussion subforum is not peripheral to the central purpose of this forum, don't think that. Why do you think dragos and Victor created it, just for fun and entertainment? A community doesn't form only on specialised threads, it forms because it interacts every day with its users. The GD keeps people around, keeps ideas floating, gives us better perspectives on our colleagues... What are you suggesting is some kind of leash...

One more thought: alexkdl, who proved such a nuinsance, came from the elite part of the forum. You know why he turned into such a jerk? Because he never commited himself to one day in our own small world of controversy, he couldn't take it being mocked by his peers. Sid, it's easy to post objective info, cold, bare facts and expect congratulations! It's harder, though, to be caught in a friendly discussion with somebody that doesn't agree with you! In our GD world, not a bibliographical mention makes you king, a joke, a remark, a sarcastic response, an image gets you the kingdom....

Hi Alexandru H,

Excellent stuff!

Now that is the quality of post I am loking for on this forum.

It contained verifiable hard facts upon which to form and check an opinion and it was expressed in an articulate and calm manner.

On top of that, it has pulled off the minor miracle of drawing approval from Imperialist and me simultaneously!

Cheers,

Sid.

I think you just liked to be grouped with the mods.

Yes, I know, it was a dissapointment. If Victor agrees with you, I think I will leave the forum forever!

The General Dicussion section was for the members to get to know eachother better in casual discussions. It wasn't supposed to become a source headaches. It was a mistake that we didn't limit the acess to that section to only those who posted regularly in the other sections, like Marcus does on AHF.

I find no pleasure in the policeman job and like I said I would have better things to do. But because this is my forum I have a responsibility and I survey the discussions as well as I can, intervenening when I find it neccessary. The fact that you don't consider it neccessary does not matter, simply because it is my decision to take, not yours. That is the brutal reality. You don't like, just walk away. It's no use spending your energy every day for a lost cause. You are a very intelligent individual and I am sure that you can put yourself to much better use.

So this is your problem? The fact that the "elites" have the nerve to have different opinions than you in fields where you consider yourself an authority? Strangely I encoutered this idea at another SNSPA student I used to know.

Let's get some facts straight.

Rarely any historian, professional or amateur, academician or not, has access to all the archives, books or resources dealing with a subject. You say that the archives has been exhausted. This is not true. There are in Romania documents in the archives that have not been accessed, this has been stated by real academicians. Add to that tons of papers worth of archives in Moscow, that were seized by the Soviets after 23 August 1944 and not yet returned. Indeed, there are comprehensive books in Romanian dealing with Romanian military operations, but they are also based on the sources at hand. I mean, there are comprehensive studies dealing with an operation, but without the sources of the other side, which would be required to make the whole picture. The losses, units involved, detailed plans and intentions of the enemy are only approximated using the Romanian sources. Without the foreign sources, the picture will never be complete. Besides, many Romanian historians and academicians had their own agenda, as this is the nature of man, and not seldom their published works are biased. That means that some of the information presented is truncated or twisted in order to fit their views.

So, the factual history of the period covered by this site and forum is far from being consumed. These are the facts. And you can find here information that may be unknown or untold by the Romanian academicians, limited by the archives at hand or their own agenda.

But I'm still interested in an answer to this question:

What prevents you to circulate the information under a random or a real name? This given the fact that you are accustomed with the academic community you keep talking about.

Victor, I hardly consider myself an authority in anything. And for the love of God, don't call me SNSPA material. Those guys are boring, I wouldn't approach them in a million years.

No, I'm not. This place is the only true home I have ... How could I leave you, guys?

Victor, is this what you have understood from the previous post? We questioned their shady elitism: on one hand, they expect from us to kneel a little more in front of the mods, because what we do is not good enough, but, on the other hand, they fully participate in the GD debates, wanting to prove us that we are wrong to even open our mouths in here. In other words, they criticize us for playing in the mud, but don't hesitate to jump in when they feel we are having too much fun by ourselves.

Yes, the GD still retains that original goal. But, so as you know, we are not all normal like you and dragos. This is why we don't like the same level of control you are imposing on us. Either make some new rules, that prevent such situations occuring in the subforum, or you leave us to our own small, insignifiant talk.

As for the authority problem.. the moderator interventions in the GD section can be at best described as "divine interventions". You own everything, therefore you know everything, therefore (Ban/Ban) no one questions your decisions.

Not a problem. Here is a way to ignore the threat (I call it the Alexkdl Gambit):

1. Open a DVD with a WW2 documentary
2. Save frame after frame
3. Post every image on a special thread, not forgeting to ask stupid questions and, more importantly, never to post two images in a single post
4. After the first 500 posts, rinse and repeat process with another documentary
5. If someone tries to question my methods, I use the unexcessive swearing method. For the ones that don't know about it, here is some info on it:

If excessive swearing (like in alexkdl's case) gets you the minimum punishment (a week ban), a simple, "unexcessive" swearing is, apparently, of no consequence for the poster.

6. Obtain the right to mock the posters in General Discussion with my "elitist" point of views (that necessarily have to contain a reference to a type of medal awarded by Tutankamon and a Panzer tank that was seen by a romanian soldier in Bessarabia)

There is a God after all.....

I was talking about generally accessible archives (not the ones with "problems" -- unopened yet, excessively classified etc.).
But even in those cases, you mean this forum provides access to that type of documents? Come on, I cant write a serious paper and submit it to academical "peer review" using documents from this forum. Like I said, I can discuss books, articles on given subjects (like that from "Dosarele Istoriei"), try to give some info to those who havent accumulated a lot of books read on the subject, etc. Useful in these areas, I didnt say no, but over-shooting its importance in some kind of academical network or publishing place isnt quite working in a Forum.

My silly proposal of making it a place for those interested in the WW subject to network with eachother and see how they can split the cost of foreign books the info of which they could then freely share with eachother, went totally unanswered. Whatever the cause, none was interested in at least asking a question about it.
IMO that was the only jump this forum could have taken, because the other things (archive research place, academical newtwork, academic magazine/publishing) it cannot be.

Because its not mere info, its my analysis. And its a massive undertaking. I've already worked on it more or less continuous for the last year and a half. And I feel that I've just scratched the surface. Only this summer I think I'll finally get deeper on the subject. Then next year I'll have to bring in contemporary data and analysis on it. Only after these steps will I explore the publishing possibilities.
Hopefully, I wont get expelled from college this autumn for running "restante" on several subjects due to my research obsession with my own subject of choice. If that happens it will only prolongue the time it will take to finish it, or completely put an end to the endeavour.
Sorry to bother you with this sketchy and "secretive" info, but I'm saying that if I go through so much headaches, consume energy and risk my whole situation for it, I certainly wont publish it under a real or false name on an internet Forum. The risk would be too big IMHO.

take care

This post has been edited by Imperialist on June 17, 2005 04:50 am

Thanks to this forum, we have seen documents, photographs and information not accessible in Romania. The same goes in the opposite direction. The proofs are here.

You said that:

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.