The topic of this group has always been narrowly defined by design.
Over the...what...13 years (the old rbw list migrated here to google groups
in March of 2007) in which I've moderated the group, I've taken down all
manner of threads which were off topic and got weirdly nasty.
Mostly they were about SUV's or bait versus fly fishing, sometimes about
helmets. Innocuous topics that suddenly lurched sideways. Good people
saying hurtful things for little reason other than getting caught up in the
call and response of the internet. I usually manage to get the nasty
threads deleted, but sometimes run out of energy and time before I can get
rid of others which are kind of on the bubble. That's not the same as tacit
approval.
Before the COVID situation had developed into even a quarter of what it is
now, we had an exceptionally nasty thread which expanded here. Caused folks
to post some very angry things and leave.
The current demonstrations and responses and actions are playing out on a
scale I don't feel we can ever hope to cover in this group.In the short
time following the original post, I deleted responses in the the moderation
queue which had already crossed the line of civil discourse. Not to mention
the growing debate simply about whether or not the post was on or off
topic.
There are plenty of places online to have those conversations.
I do understand the anger and the pain and frustration going on right now.
But there are much more appropriate venues to directly apply yourself to
begin to address these issues in our culture than talking (or arguing)
about them here.
Thank you to those of you who contacted me directly - some of you were
concerned about the growing adversarial tone of comments, others the
non-RBW content of the post. Others have asked directly why the thread was
deleted. I hope this gives some insight to the decision.
I guess I come back to the idea: the topic of this group has always been
narrowly defined by design at the beginning.
Stay safe and act fairly.
- Jim / Cyclofiend / list admin
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