Please don't edit posts...

dustypuma5 said:Why on earth would I fight against the forum administration when they're actually giving me the space to foster a culture of high-quality debate and reasoned political discussion?

I really enjoy your grand, sweeping declarations😍—you certainly had a few of those earlier in this thread, and now you’ve served up this bit about a "culture of quality and discussion." It’s quite the performance... especially since you’ll write one thing, then pivot to answering something entirely different, or perhaps just quote some lyrics 😍😍 and half the people here immediately lose themselves in the sentiment.

The thing is, you've tried to link the forum's ownership structure directly to its level of democracy, but those two things aren't inherently connected, or at least they shouldn't be.

The next logical step in your logic seems to be explicitly claiming political persecution🙄😁, even though the subject—regardless of how we label it, and let's call it a TOPIC for now—is sitting right there in the Politics section. Would a similar thread survive anywhere else? It's currently on the front page, and I suspect you might even want it to become a "Top Topic," which would be a funny way to try and prove that this private forum is somehow perfectly democratic, 😍 haha.

Go ahead then, head back up the thread and respond to the posts that are actually mirroring your own points and contributing something meaningful to the conversation. 😛

northerntiger said:Oh, and I forgot to mention—you could really use some humility. Do you seriously think there aren't any decent, high-quality posters left on this site? Like you're some kind of hero or savior who's single-handedly keeping this place alive? You honestly think the whole forum would fall apart if you stopped posting?

Man. Total lack of self-awareness.

Every current moderator here is actually a great poster. And your little mob of fanboys? They're just the type that doesn't know how to have a real conversation, or just chooses to be destructive instead.

I totally saw this post coming, but I didn't feel like editing my last one.

I'm not saying I'm the only good one here, or even that everyone thinks I am, but I guess I just value quality and try to aim for it when I talk.

And I'm definitely not the only one feeling this way; a few others I actually consider way better than myself have said stuff similar to mine, which made me think about it.

It’s just a shame when a good forum loses its good users, whether it's me, or a regular like Pizza Hut (who's super liberal) whom I really respect, or whoever else.

I mean, losing people like that is a loss for the politics sub.

Just look at the words you keep using:

- mob
- brainwashed
- young (which probably means you think I'm just some dumb kid)
- delusional

and so on, and so on...

Sarah Wilson95 said:I dig your posts. just some bombastic wording, i guess.😍 I’ve already called them out on this thread a few times, and now this... "culture of quality and discussion," give me a break. You write one thing, and they respond with something completely different, or some random seventh point, or they just start quoting poetry like a weirdo. I guess. 😍😍 I bet at least five of them would pass out immediately... I guess.

nah, you're basically saying the forum's ownership structure dictates how much democracy there is, but that doesn't even make sense... like, those two things shouldn't really be linked at all, I guess.

Your move, I guess. Basically just straight-up calling out political persecution.🙄😁I mean, even if this whole thing—whatever you want to call it, though we’re still calling it a TOPIC—is sitting right on the front page of the Politics section (would a similar thread even survive there?), I don't know... maybe you're just trying to push it to become the Top Topic now. If that's the case, it kind of calls into question whether this private forum is actually democratic or whatever.😍 lol

man, just go up there and reply to the posts that are basically just copies of yours and actually add something to the conversation. 😛

I mean, I guess I just like a little drama. It’s not always a bad thing, maybe. 😳

They're saying this about you too:

Mauron dustypuma5 said:I guess Revka’s just out here moderating the forum without even having her name listed in the staff directory or whatever.

So, are your political views basically the same as the mods', which is why you're cool with how they run things? Or maybe what Mauron is saying is actually legit, I don't know. I guess I'm just naive enough to believe the first one. 😍

It’s honestly pretty weird how the mods only go after people who don't vote the same way they do. Like, they totally let their buddies slide while coming for anyone else. Makes you wonder, I guess...

I mean, we really should be talking about this more if we want anything to actually change. But honestly? This whole fight lately just convinced me that it's pointless. I guess.

Just so we're clear:

Edit:

I mean, I basically went through all your points and broke them down, looked at why things happened and what's gonna happen next, then just threw out my own ideas on how to fix it. I guess.
The song was just one of those things you can't really put into words during an argument, but I guess emotion is still a huge part of the whole thing.
Anthems exist for a reason, I guess. They're just there to trigger some kind of emotion in people when they play them at home.

If I’m actually gonna listen to this song, man... I don't even know what to say. Honestly, I'm just speechless.

People have actually gone as far as saying I'm just a carbon copy of Vesna Pusić 😂

As for that guy Marun, he’s basically a clone of someone who was permanently banned, which honestly makes his presence here feel like some kind of glitch in the matrix while he’s still posting 🤣☕ It probably isn't the best move for you to be drawing any attention toward him,
you really ought to focus on the game instead we need to make sure they realize we're still here😉

Sarah Wilson95 said:people say I'm just a carbon copy of some liberal pundit😂

and that guy Marun is basically a clone of someone who got banned forever, so honestly, he's just a freak for even posting here 🤣 ☕you shouldn't even be giving him the attention,
you should be focused on the game letting them see we're still here 😉

nah, you're wrong.
Everything I wrote on this thread wasn't for political clout or because of you, or Ryan Vaughn7, or Marun, or whatever "game" you think is happening...

The only game is this .... 😉

Anyone who actually understands how modern media works—and I mean really gets it—knows what I'm talking about. It probably bugs you guys because you realize how massive the audience is that's searching for this stuff, which is why you're attacking me so much. 😉

That's the only game worth playing. Everything else is easy when you're just typing from the heart, I guess... 😍

I generally step in to edit a post when:
1. I need to scrub a link or an image containing adult content (I’ll include the reason why in the edit).
2. 🤔

Actually, scratch that—there is no number 2.
Depending on how bad things get, I’ll either wipe the post entirely or just issue a warning and leave it be.

I also tend to tweak or completely overhaul titles if they are unreadable or just pure chaos—you know, those frantic posts titled "HELP," "PLEASE HELP ME," or "IDK WHAT TO DO!!!!!!!!!111ONE341!!!"
That's pretty much the gist of it.

Nicholas King said:The second a moderator starts debating what counts as "good" versus other parts of a post, things get awkward.

Just so we’re on the same page—even though I used quotes—by "good," I mean they aren't breaking any site rules, not whether I personally like them or not.
For instance, someone writes a perfectly fine, relevant post without any trolling, but then tosses in a random jab or a tiny insult toward another user in the very last sentence. It feels like a waste to delete the whole thing, but it also feels wrong to issue a formal warning just for that. So, you just edit out that one sentence.
But, like I said before, and like hollowtrucker77 suggested, I really don't have an issue handling these things differently. At the end of the day, how people handle discussions in the General Forum or over in the Ban Hammer corner is up to them; it doesn't affect my life one bit. I've dealt with people hounding me about why I deleted their posts, and then once I stopped doing that, they'd hit me up in the Ban corner asking why I didn't just edit them instead. Honestly? I couldn't care less.

Ryan Vaughn7 said:It would be a waste to delete the entire thread or issue a ban just to fix one single sentence via an edit.

What issue a ban... what kind of "waste" are we talking about here? If someone is acting out, they need to be reined in.
It’s like being overly polite for a second just to land a cheap shot or some snarky comment later. That’s not being civil; it's just being calculated.
For example...☕

Let's just be real here.

What even got edited in my post?

And I'd really appreciate if Ryan Vaughn7 would actually answer my other specific questions instead of just dodging them for some reason.

P.S. Look, when I break the rules, I know exactly what's coming. If I step out of line, there's usually a reason for it, and I'm fine with taking the hit if I have to. But whatever I wrote stays right where it is because it matters enough to me that I'll risk a ban for it.

As for this whole thing about giving me a strike instead of just deleting the post so I'm stuck begging for answers from the banned corner... well, it's either going to go my way, or it's going to go my way. Take your pick.

And I don't really like making choices, so it's probably gonna go my way anyway. 😉

dustypuma5 said:Let’s just be completely honest here.

What exactly did you change in my post?

No big deal. They went ahead and edited that personal attack against me right out of the thread.

dustypuma5 said:I’d really appreciate it if Ryan Vaughn7 could finally address my other specific questions. For some reason, they seem to be getting bypassed.

What kind of questions?

dustypuma5 said:I’ve never been much of a fan of elections. To be honest, I don't care for them one bit. Which is exactly why things will end up going my way in the end. 😉

I mentioned in my very first post on this thread that things would end up exactly how you said they would. Do I really need to go back and repeat myself?

Sometimes you just have to step in and edit a post when the text becomes a complete mess. Honestly, it happens more often than you'd think.

Ryan Vaughn7 said:Whatever, they just edited my stuff because of some ad hominem attack on me.

Wait, which part of the bold text in your post was supposedly an ad hominem against you?

What questions?

Missing posts from this thread too. Especially since last night. I'm asking the mod to explain why my post and Saurus's post were deleted, while all these trollish, useless counter-posts stay up and contribute nothing to what I thought was actually a decent discussion.

Maybe if someone could just quote my deleted post and the one from Saurus here, we could actually figure out what was supposedly wrong with them. 🙂

How many of my posts have been edited, if you can even remember?

We should be allowed to talk about people who might join the HRAST movement, right? Including showing the public who they are—which is basically what I did by linking that video of Šutra reciting his patriotic poetry.

Which rule does that break or make it off-topic? Because this morning's debate led by the mods about voter rolls and dead people on them was totally on-topic and productive.

I'm just looking for some clarification, so I won't bug anyone else. 🙂

brightridge59 said:Editing a post is a necessity when the text becomes an unreadable mess. And frankly, it happens more often than you'd think.

Right, so you're talking about hitting the enter key here and there to fix the formatting?
Fair enough, I completely blanked on that.
But let’s be clear: that doesn't actually delete anything; it just makes the post look less like a wall of text and more like something a human can actually parse.

brightridge59 said:Editing a post becomes absolutely necessary when the text is just plain unreadable—which, let’s be honest, happens more often than I'd care to admit.

Now, if we are talking about an Enter key malfunction or some minor technical glitch like that, well, that's just pure technicality and shouldn't really count.

When I use the term "editing," I am referring to any actual intervention made to the substance of the content itself.

Aside from fixing quotes and merging posts, I tend to steer clear of the edit button for the most part.
If a post is loaded with insults, trolling, doxxing, or any other kind of nonsense, I’m deleting the whole thing and issuing a ban 😳—it doesn't matter if there was a single brilliant or logical point buried in the mess.
Put simply, if you want your contribution to actually stay on the board, the easiest solution is to just watch what you say. 🤷

hollowtrucker77 said:dustypuma5, seriously, stop being so dramatic, please
you aren't gonna impress anyone with that
I read through the whole thread today and I gotta say the mods did a killer job, especially keeping things from getting totally out of hand
They left some posts that probably would've been nuked otherwise, but since they were tangled up in replies, deleting them would've trashed half the discussion and all those good posts explaining stuff people didn't get

while trolling posts are still hanging around that don't add anything to this conversation, which I think is actually decent.

Wait, let me fix that. Just scrolled back through and wow...
The thread got cleaned up more today, even though the posts I complained about were still there after my post and the one from Saurus got deleted. 😍
Now they're gone. Crazy turn of events, right?
I guess I'm glad my little intervention worked and the mods are actually making this readable again.

The only thing that still bugs me is them editing my posts. How many did they change? I have a ton in here, too lazy to scroll and check because it's such a wall of text. 🙂

And the worst part is the post from Saurus and mine that got deleted for no reason—they were super detailed and clearly marked as tangents, but they had actual substance. Saurus had one really solid point, and mine was basically an analysis based on my own experience asking if people would actually vote for HRAST. It just shows what I was trying to say, which matters to me, so we don't just get this image pushed that this whole thing is just some group of rigid right-wing maniacs.

dustypuma5 said:Which part were you referring to in that bolded text? It felt like an ad hominem attack, and I'm honestly just trying to figure out what exactly you were aiming at there.

So, what does it actually say? And more importantly, who is it really targeting?

dustypuma5 said:If I could just ask to have my deleted post and that one from Saurus put back up here? It might help us actually figure out what the issue was in the first place. 🙂

It’s getting late, so I suppose I’ll allow myself this little tangent.
It’s a bit of a tangent—or what we usually call an off-topic detour—regardless of what time the clock was showing when it happened.

dustypuma5 said:Well, I have to eat my words on this one. I just went back through the thread and realized how much I missed. My mistake.
The thread was given another thorough cleaning today. It’s a bit frustrating, though, because even after my own post and the one from Saurus were wiped away, the specific comments I flagged were still sitting there right where they always were. 😍
They're gone now. Just vanished. It’s a pretty wild turn of events, don't you think?
Well, I’m actually relieved to see that my little nudge regarding the moderators worked. It looks like things are finally starting to settle down, and the discussion is actually becoming readable again.
Now, all that’s left is this whole questionable business regarding my posts being edited. How much of them actually gets changed? I’ve written quite a few on this thread, but honestly, I can't be bothered scrolling back through everything to check. There’s just too much text to wade through. 🙂

I’m glad you decided to set the record straight. Honestly, it’s probably for the best, especially since there hasn't been a single moderator stepping in since you first started this thread. I have a feeling that little course correction was prompted by that earlier post from Sasha.
I honestly have no idea how many posts of yours have been edited. To be truthful, I don't even know if you've touched anything else besides that one single sentence we've been dissecting all day long. My memory isn't exactly what you'd call sharp when it comes to these things.

Ryan Vaughn7 said:So what's the deal, who's he actually aiming at?

Are we really gonna act all innocent now?
I mean, sometimes staying quiet says more than talking. 🙂

You mean that post starting with: "It's late at night, so I'll allow myself this digression"?
The digression is controversial (or, you know, off-topic), regardless of what time it was posted.

Okay, fine, everyone gets the digression thing. And even if the post is technically off-topic, there's one line in there that makes it totally relevant...
Here's the whole thing, since you clearly want to quote it. 🙂

The bold part is super on-topic. 🙂

Saurus said:It's late at night, so I'll allow myself this digression.

Looking at it from the outside, love often sounds pathetic, even though there's nothing pathetic about it.

Whoever manages to put a smile back on a regular person's face—love for your neighbor, an acquaintance, a stranger, or just life itself (no matter how small)—is going to start a revolution in this little town of ours.

So just keep going with your "pathos," it's honestly the best part of your posts!

Was my post about Ante gotovina being a consultant for someone in the HRAST movement deleted for the exact same reason?