OT died a little inside.

A free exchange of ideas, regardless of topic--be it tame or controversial, was what made this BBS great. There are plenty of topics I chose not to discuss. I simply didn't post on the threads and over time I figured out which ones not to read.

Sorry, I left out "inconvenience".

I guess what has been seen cannot be unseen and more "inconvenience".

It did.

But, I will now step off my soapbox.

Sorry if I seem a little testy.

Best to all,

My issue is that OT was becoming a political forum.

I logged in the other day and the first 15 or so posts were all political rants and they were posted by 5 people.

It's simply evolutionary, the new thread was needed as a few regulars were taking over OT as their own little soapbox.

That would be me too... A little "Cliff Clavin" goes a long way, and I wouldn't go to Cheers either if there were 8 of him hanging at the bar all day. Frankly, the Cliff's had driven away many of the other interesting characters here and I had just about lost total interest in returning even though I wanted a beer REAL bad :). For many of us who've been here a while, it had lost it's appeal and had just become a juvenile soapbox for a handful. I do understand what some of you are saying (about simply ignoring threads), but many (myself included), were simply not hanging out here anymore, and that was a damn shame. I've learned a LOT from this place over the years, and have a lot of respect for the intelligence, compassion, and diversified perspectives and experiences of a WHOLE bunch of you guys/gals, and hopefully it will regain it's former appeal.

Thank you Wayne for getting this done!

I don't understand the new sub-forum, but then again, it's not my board. I liked the old way, but I'll live with the new way.

The only person here whose speech counts is the guy paying the bills. We are, as always, free to go if we want.

It's an election year. That's going to happen. It would have died down afterwards.

I have no issue with 15 threads by 10-12 diff people.

When you have the same handful of actors monopolizing the board it gets tiresome.

Election year or not.

Monopolizing? How so?

Go back up a couple of posts, thought I was pretty clear on my position.

So?

Were you unable to post? Was your scroll wheel broken on your mouse? Those little slidey things on the right side of the screen not work? Next page link broken?

My point is that I see lots of threads that I could care less about. I skip over them.

To the contrary, I think Wayne is doing what he can to keep the OT alive. We can still debate energetically in the new forum. If things continue to degrade further (name-calling and insults instead of intellectual debate) Wayne may yet pull the plug on the Rel/Pol board. Then there will be no place here for what is often provocative (mostly just provoking) points of view.

My feelings exactly. I like a good political discussion as much as the next guy. But sifting throught the same BS day after day got real tiring.:(

Thanks Wayne!

I also am glad this was done. I hpe it did not take too much time or trouble.

We did not have a free exchange of ideas. These guys were not writing for the Nat'l Review or Amer. Spectator; instead, the lowest forms of name calling were combined with a few elementary debater's tricks and a remarkably juvenile screed to create nothing worthy.

I hope those same people will enjoy their new play pen, and resist the urge to turn this area into that one, by interjecting political or religious comments.

Back on my soapbox. :)

What "we" have lost is genuine discussion and debate on political and religious topics, topics which touch on more issues than one may be able to initially imagine!

In my own final analysis, that is the true loss.

A handful of "surgical" bans or serious reprimands might have prevented this loss, IMHO.

I feel like the passenger in the backseat directing the driver; I don't mean to show a lack of appreciation for Wayne providing these forums in the first place! :)

Uh...after the election, it's just gettin' started.

Excellent idea PP! I hope other P forums will follow suit.

Psst, Kurt. It's already been done. So debating whether or not it was the correct decision is moot.

In my opinion, a separate political forum has been needed since the current president's 2nd term. And even as I participated in many of those subjects, I concur with others who were turned off by seeing a slew of politically-bent threads each time they opened PPOT. It was tiring.

I also find it hard to say PPOT continued as a place of "free thought." When, as one poster put it, 15 of the top OT threads were politically-themed and posted by 5 people, I can understand how one can come to a conclusion that "free thought" was seriously lacking in large part on PPOT.