"More on Anyone Out There..." Topic

I have jumpstarted this topic for a restart after a week of no comment. I am just seeing it!

Guilty, guilty, guilty!!!! I have fallen for and been a major contributor to some topics that are really a stretch as far as miniatures go. This is most common on the Ultramodern board, and the ACW board – as apparently the ACW still has not ended.

Some of us have become a reflection of the Great Divide afflicting the US and can skillfully drag topics into quasi-historical political debates. Other topics seem like pure provocation and immediately become confrontations. The Napoleonics Board now seems tame by comparison.

To the extent that miniatures and gaming often reflect history and real life situations, maybe this is hard to avoid. Even fantasy and sci-fi reflect human values and conflicts. But in these traumatic times, emotions run high.

I don't really know the answer. Bill has advertisers and a business to run. Traffic matters. I used to belong to the old Perfect Six Napoleonics 6mm forum, which folded. When I moved to LAF, I found that unless I owned 28mm British Colonial Infantry, I was not really part of the group.

I was initially drawn to the ACW and Napoleonics Boards here because these periods were my original interests 60 years ago. There are still many good things on Napoleonics here, and the ACW – though if anyone so much as breathes on a statue somewhere, a lengthy discussion breaks out like a fire fight.

My tastes have shifted. I now game and collect only Victorian ironclad warships, Franco Prussian War (which may never get a board here) and WW2 Pacific naval. Not many conversations. My own fault? Maybe.

I do know something of modern naval matters and that has give me something interesting to discuss on Ultramodern. But I own no miniatures for this. And we never discuss miniatures for these current and potential conflicts. Somehow, maybe that's a part of the problem. And maybe I am part of the problem, too….

What are you asking? Meant politely as I am not sure. BTW I also like the Franco Prussian War.

Franco Prussian War (which may never get a board here)

It will get a vote if the pre-poll discussion ever stops.

Okay!

I am not asking a question, Perris, I am commenting on change on TMP and some of the reasons and ramifications that I see. Also ruminating on my role as a frequent poster and how that has evolved. And thinking about what the OP of the previous post has said….

Ah. Well that clears that up. Thanks man. I just thought the "Anyone out there" in the header was a question.

For what it is worth, if this is to your comments, I think TMP is much more civil now than in the past. People used to get very nasty with their comments to other posters. Yes, there can be strong differences of opinion now but usually they are respectful in their disagreements.

Political discussion on tmp can be toxic IMO.
I worked out the best way for me to manage it, is to be generally logged out. That way, if I read something I'm minded to unwisely comment on, I'm logged out & can't be bothered to log on to add my 2c worth.

However, it also means I rarely comment on anything for the same reason. I'm on, at the moment cause I posted some photos of a game but will shortly log out. Undoubtedly, in the next month or two, I'll drop by to read but I won't be a part of any discussion. "No great loss" you may accurately say.

I am weak. I fully admit it.
I don't post a lot, but I do tend to read the more contentous threads and add a comment from time to time, against my better judgement.
Personally I would rather the site stuck more strickly to fun and wargaming but I understand the majority have voted to include more. Yep, I can unsubscribe to certain boards and ignore certain topics, but if they're there, I'll read 'em – as I said, I'm weak-willed, lol.

If there is some sort of discussion for new boards, I'd vote for a Franco-Prussian War (FPW) board. Also would like to see one on Russo-Japanese War (RJW) now that there is a serious line out in Pendraken 10mm figures. I know that the war is covered in 20mm by a company in the UK but (forgetting the name of the company), their figures are virtually non-existent in the USA. Yeah, LETS TALK THE FUN STUFF OF HISTORICAL MINIATURE WARGAMING once again!

I too am weak and am drawn to the contentious threads like a moth to a flame, though I refrain from posting.No one ever changes anyone's mind and we go round and round.
If nothing else I learn how polarised opinions are. Out in the real world I would think very carefully before opening my mouth unless I really WANTED an argument

I agree with forrester.

I stay away from discussions about historical occurrences where people start arguing about what REALLY happened, my sources are good and yours sucks, etc.

Very few people agree with my non-traditional approach to designing and playing games but that's fine because I do occasionally learn something from an opposing viewpoint. I don't learn anything from people who agree with me.

Wolfhag

Good point, Wolfhag.

And yes, we do re-argue a lot of topics here, round and round. I have changed my mind though! I think twice!

I am also finding in my old age that I just don't have as many miniatures or gaming questions. The internet is a wealth of info on painting and history, uniforms, etc. My Napoleonic and ACW are long since complete, I use only portions of what I have for gaming.

I own dozens of rule sets. There is no Holy Grail. I have combined the best of what I personally like into rules for each era.

I may never finish painting what I own over perhaps eight distinct genres or eras. I feel like I have done enough.

But I am still drawn to it and what better place? I think I should refocus on gaming instead of the state of the world here. It was always meant to be a refuge….

"Guilty, guilty, guilty!!!! I have fallen for and been a major contributor to some topics that are really a stretch as far as miniatures go. This is most common on the Ultramodern board, and the ACW board – as apparently the ACW still has not ended."

You can add the AWI Board to that list.

The difference between the "Old Days" and now is that before the arguments tended to be something about wargaming, uniforms, and military history. Now it is all political. A few members like to post something provocative disguised as a hobby-related issue. When in fact they just want to provoke an argument and make a political point. I think we all know who these individuals are.

Yes to the AWI. Our headquarters for arguing the Constitution sometimes, along with slavery.

I think there are a couple of folks who post because they have political agendas and they truly imagine that they might have some influence. You can tell by how they will argue over facts and data, for which they are happy to produce their own or use sites that are known to be not just biases but fake. This is similar to what happen a many years ago when there was a religion section, we got folks with agendas trying to prove that their belief was correct. Bill wisely got rid of that section, while politics was also supposed to go, Bill has let it creep back in.

It is 100% possible to talk about a political subject (like war) without being political (that is, taking sides). If the subject is war, in many cases the discussion about the politics is necessary.

People choose not to have an objective discussion about politics in many fora, Internet or not. I say "choose" because nobody "has to" post to a topic.

TMP link

Given the above as a primary source of reasonable reliability (which doesn't say what period the averages are), there are something north of 2,000 topics (not posts, topics) added to TMP each month (only the discussion forums, not the others). I have a hard time believing that anyone is substantively reading and evaluating all the posts to conduct a longitudinal analysis.

I have occasionally posted on a thread about "TMP/Forum A is X" or "TMP/Forum B has become Y". Those posts usually go on to identify <5% of the topics having <5% of posts with the offending behaviour. (Note "usually" before responding.) There are, of course, some thread that become a show. But even in those outlier cases, there are usually actual useful discussions going on interleaved with the blather.

The visceral impact of such conversations tends to have a more notable impact on people reading them than rational discussions, so they tend to be perceived as being more frequent than they really are.