Looking for moderators: Military History & Tech section

We aren't just talking about some trivial nonsense here—this is about something far more grave than mere jokes, which is precisely why they’re facing criminal charges before the District Court.

Bryan Harris10 said:Last night, they went ahead and banned a US Air Force pilot, while simultaneously trying to provoke another colleague with a promotion.

Go ahead—quote the exact post that earned him the ban.

frozendrifter7 said:We are talking about something far more serious than just some pilots messing around—which is why they are facing criminal charges in the District Court.

I am still waiting to see a single actual quote suggesting those pilots were just "messing around" up there.
Frankly, I couldn't care less about anyone's personal theories—as you admitted yourself, most people on this forum know next to nothing, if anything at all, about aviation.
Let's not play games here: if you're going to insist on this narrative, then Thomascat clearly has no idea what actually went down, and neither do you... so, I have to ask—where exactly is Thomascat getting the notion that the pilots were just "messing around"?
If they weren't there (and I'm fairly certain Thomascat hasn't sat in a MiG cockpit or worked in air traffic control), then the priority should be protecting the individuals involved, specifically the US Air Force as an institution, and ensuring such behavior is properly sanctioned.
Do you agree with that?

And one more thing... let’s wait for the verdict before deciding whether the pilots are being unfairly targeted or not.
This isn't the Soviet Union anymore, where a person is guilty until proven innocent.

I don't post here all that often—though I certainly keep a close eye on the discussions.

Gerald Reyes3 has been acting pretty condescending since his very first comment—snapping at people and shutting down any differing opinions (which is pretty obvious in this thread, isn't it?).

P.S. The funding aspect is actually central to this debate—after all, isn't the entire future of the supersonic component tied directly to whether or not we can afford it?

frozendrifter7 said:Feel free to quote the specific post that led to my ban.

Look, frozendrifter7—my issue here is the blatant double standard regarding discipline and sanctions.

I realize it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly who started the fire, but is it really acceptable that someone using the handle C. Đ goes unchecked? In a thread discussing aircraft selection for the US Air Force, this individual labeled anyone with a slightly different perspective as Nazis, fascists, nationalists—you name it.

My response was simply stating that I haven't lived under any of those regimes—having only known communism—and that I have zero interest in eating people or killing them.

Forgive any typos; I'm typing this on the fly because I need to be at the airport by morning.

I indirectly call him a "black devil" and get slapped with a 60-day ban, while he gets nothing—even though we’ve gone 100 pages deep on that topic without a single red card being issued to his side.

That’s the point: the cause is pardoned, while the consequence is punished.

I was hanging around another aviation forum recently, and this exact inconsistency really rubbed me the wrong way.

And yet, you have a decent group of people here: pp5d6, 9aplus, Hawk75, an encyclopedia of MiG-21 knowledge from Migac, Mikoyan, pilot Sova77, and military pilots like Gerald Reyes3 and Castela72 who rarely post elsewhere.

It seems like a shame that the regular contributors—the ones keeping the discussion alive like Sova77, Gerald Reyes3, and Castela72, who even provide a learning opportunity for the younger crowd—are the ones getting penalized because of a few outliers.

It bothers me that I’ll post some information and go through the effort of attaching a photo

only to be practically spat upon by a guy who hasn't even touched this thread in three or four months, only to jump in out of nowhere with a punch to the gut:

If I had pulled that stunt with him—or anyone else—on a politics thread, I would have been hit with two red cards for trolling and a 7-day ban immediately.

Gerald Reyes3 As requested:
Let’s just sit tight and wait for the District Court to hand down its verdict—then we'll finally see if those pilots are being held accountable for something legitimate, or if they're just being unfairly scapegoated.

I couldn't agree more. Absolutely.

I honestly can’t wrap my head around where exactly the issue lies with Thomascatov’s post—seriously, what is the actual problem here? From where I'm sitting, the guy was simply voicing an opinion he built using nothing but publicly available information. And frankly, he has every right to do so, provided he isn't breaking the general forum guidelines or the specific rules of the VPiT subforum. It shouldn't matter whether you, I, or some random third party thinks Thomascat is right or wrong; that's beside the point. In my view, his post wasn't an attempt to provoke anyone, and quite frankly, I don't see any reason at all to hand him a warning.

That’s all I have to say regarding that post—I'll leave it to the super-mods and the admins (keep in mind, I am a moderator here) to decide how we proceed from here.

I’d like to make a polite request to the mods—or the admin, if they’re listening—to please change the title of this thread to "Military history and technology moderation," or something along those lines... because, frankly, I don't believe we actually have a dedicated thread for this subforum yet.

Bryan Harris10 said:I realize it isn't easy to pin down exactly who started this whole firestorm, but honestly—is it really acceptable to let someone walk away without consequences? I’m talking about this individual going by the initials C. Đ. This person pops up in the thread regarding the US Air Force aircraft selection process and starts throwing around labels like they're candy. If you dare to hold a slightly different opinion than his little clique, suddenly you’re a Nazi, a fascist, a nationalist... I don't even know what else he's managed to spit out at this point. It's absolutely absurd.

Listen, Bryan Harris10—I’m going to pass on commenting on that specific file and the thread itself. To be perfectly blunt, I wasn't running the show as a moderator back when all that went down.

You actually stumbled upon a decent crowd here—truly. You've got pp5d6, 9aplus, Hawk75, and that walking encyclopedia of MiG-21 specs from Migac—plus Mikoyan himself, the pilot Sova77, and those rare breed military pilots who actually bother to write things down, like Castela72 and Gerald Reyes3.

And honestly—hats off to them—for all the contributions they've made across so many different threads. Truly. 👍

Let me make one thing absolutely clear to you and everyone else participating in this debate: it doesn't matter if you happen to be Chuck Yeager or Viktor Pugačev himself—and I am certainly not implying that you are—you have no right to resort to insults, throw provocations, or hijack topics that don't belong to you. Furthermore, suggesting that citizens from certain parts of America are somehow disloyal—I can't recall his exact wording, but it was pointed—or attempting to drive other forum members away from a discussion is completely unacceptable. Even if your views are 100% contrary to theirs, that isn't an excuse. If you disagree with someone, then fine—do it properly. Beat them with logic and arguments, not with petty behavior.

Look, if someone comes at you directly with some baseless provocation—and believe me, they will—just hit that little triangle icon next to the post to flag them for the moderators. Don't engage. Seriously. Whatever you do, don't bite the bait or start hurling insults back at them, no matter how much of an overwhelming urge you feel to tell them exactly where they can shove it. It’s just not worth the headache. Just a quick heads-up, though—reporting a post isn't a magic button that guarantees instant deletion. That's entirely up to the moderators' discretion (and I'm certainly not the only one pulling the lever around here). Most flagged posts end up getting scrubbed or resulting in a strike against the user, but that isn't a universal rule. Not everything gets nuked.

You also have the option to simply block XYZ. Honestly—if you add them to your block list, their posts vanish from your feed entirely, which means you spend way less time getting worked up over the nonsense they post. It’s a lifesaver for your own peace of mind.

Bryan Harris10 said:It really grinds my gears—I try to share some info and even go through the trouble of attaching a photo

and then this guy—who practically spits in my face, mind you, having not said a single word on this thread for three or four months, only to suddenly swoop in out of nowhere with this:

If I had pulled that stunt on him, or anyone else, over in the Politics section, I’d have been slapped with two red warnings for trolling and a seven-day ban, easy.

I suspect we're looking at a misunderstanding here—honestly, I think you might be misreading the situation. Even though eZec quoted your post, he wasn't actually targeting you personally; he was addressing the author of the text itself. And frankly, it doesn't seem like that was you.

True, his tone was a bit rougher than necessary—uncalled for, if you ask me, though still not quite enough to warrant a formal warning—but his core point stands. Your post is technically off-topic for this specific thread; it would have fit much better in the HEMS discussion. His post is also wildly off-topic, but I decided against issuing any warnings because, let's be real, handing out bans doesn't actually contribute anything to the quality of the debate.

I'll say it once more, as I've said several times on this forum: if you feel you've been unfairly penalized, you can file an appeal here where your grievance will be reviewed.

Best regards, and have a pleasant weekend. 👍

frozendrifter7 said:...an opinion formed based on publicly available information.

No—because there isn't a single official source suggesting that the pilots up there were just "messing around" and took things too far this time. If he actually managed to deduce that from official documents, then he has serious issues; his place is in a classroom or a hospital, not on a forum.

...even if it were Chuck Yeager or Viktor Pugačev himself, you have no right to insult, provoke, or hijack topics being discussed...

I agree—it doesn't matter who anyone is.
As for provocation and insults, that's a two-way street. An argument should be met with an argument and nothing else—regardless of what you think of someone. To paraphrase an F-16 pilot from the USAF: "When we meet at a bar in the evening, we don't have to like the F-22 pilot at the counter, and we can mock him all night for holding his breath for ninety minutes or for dealing with black spit—but we cannot dispute his air superiority, because that is a fact."

It’s the same here: more facts, less "I know better"—because you don't. Less ego, and maybe we won't have these moments.

Why hasn't Trooly been banned yet?
I've been following this thread from the jump, and up until now, nobody has just shown up purely to troll. There’s been plenty of heated debate, sure, but this is just straight-up trolling some "neighbor."
I really hope I'm not the only one who officially reported his message/messages...

Look, we aren't exactly sitting here glued to our screens 24/7—especially not during long, beautiful holiday weekends like this one—so we can't exactly jump on every reported post the very second it happens.

Trooly has been banned.

frozendrifter7 said:Look, the mods aren't glued to this forum 24/7. Especially not during long holiday weekends like this one, so we obviously can't jump on every reported post the exact second it happens.

All five of them, I just wanted to throw a bit of a curveball. 👍

Trooly is banned.

👍 👍 👍 👍