My observations about Railway related threads

I've spent a few months looking at rail related threads across boards, and I notice that the same few posters who have a vested interest in rail seem to dominate the discussion. Some of these outed themselves as members of various pressure groups, some as journalists, and some are simply seriously interested in the railway system of our country, or wish to see it changed dramatically, and want to convince us all that their method is the right method. In many of these threads these enthusiasts bring the discussion through many topics, some of which were completely tangental to the topic the thread was started for. In the past, I lost the rag over this, as I believed that casual boardsies were being pushed out of discussions by these same posters and their beliefs. I believed that they were acting as if their opinion was fact, and that they were deliberately using posting language & tactics that are seen used on political forums by the most partisan of posters. I believed that they were being allowed get away with it because they were being moderated by those who shared their views.

In Commuting and Transport, I have received a one week, two week, and monthly ban, all for losing the rag in rail-related threads. A thread was closed permanently, a user was banned permanently, and others were given other temporary bans like mine. Things were threatened and said that could not be unsaid, by them and me. If I lose the rag again in Commuting and Transport, I will be banned from it permanently. During my one month ban, I found myself unable to contribute in various weather-related transport discussions. I work at Dublin Airport, and I am a regular traveller from Galway county to Dublin and back. I cannot afford to allow myself to lose the rag again. I have something to add, and I wish to gain from discussion there.

I started writing this post as part of a suggestion to add a Rail forum under Commuting and Transport, much as there is an Air Transport forum for their enthusiasts. But as I wrote, I realised the above would detract from the good reasons for a dedicated rail forum, the myriad of topics stemmed from one thread that would fill pages upon pages, the dedicated posters who would go to it day in, day out, and argue back and forth until the end of Boards.

So I post it here, in Feedback. I am unsure about proceeding with the Rail forum request, as I wonder if, because it is me suggesting it, it will be panned by the enthusiasts it would cater for.

I will not argue with these enthusiasts anymore. I can't afford to.



Edit: Do I beleive the above still applies today? I don't know, they seem to be behaving themselves, so I can't fault them. But certain things have been accepted as fact by both the enthusiasts and the moderators, and I beleive that someone who doesn't know the history (much as I did) will wade in and be mauled.

tbh

the things people lose the rag over. Anyway man - sys -> forums is your best bet.

Sparky

As TBH has said, you can always start a request and gauge interest in a forum for rail in the forum requests forum.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=461

flahavaj

I thought the "Railway" in the thread title was an analogy for trainwreck threads that get out of control. I was disappointed to find otherwise.

popebenny16

Maybe the C&T board could do with a sub board for railway enthusiasts where debates could be had on infrastructure and historical issues as well as things like excursions, meetings and the likes can be mentioned. There was a sub forum on infrastructure in general which was a sub forum of C&T a couple of years ago.

It may clear a lot of the threads out of the C&T forum which may be off putting and a bit "Hard Core" for some.

As for losing the rag, we all do that from time to time, but i have no idea about why you got banned. Maybe you should compare yours with DWCommuter :cool:

mike65

May I suspect Personal Issues would be the best place for the OP?

Its quite mad to start spliting off certain subjects into sub-fora simply to please those who a short fuse.