Originally Posted by mdaniels4

This, and many other comments, such as by Beaner, Spotsbimmer, Franc, Cathy, John, Night, Rad, and many many others was the reason I came here, and stayed. In my view I had found a home and neighbors that I could talk to, argue with, agree with, keep my distance from, some who liked me and some who didn't-kinda like real life. Sharing a common interest in the cars, yet life is much more complex and interesting when there is more than one topic.

In fact, I have made a very good friend on this forum, as a result of the politics section who is decidedly on the other side ofthe house from my viewpoint. How odd is that? He is a man with many interests, his own viewpoint, yet one that realizes that he is among friends who can talk from different views yet hold the respect of each other at the same time. He is a man with a large mind capability, not the small-mindedness of what we've become accustomed to today. No matter what happens, he will always be my friend now, because of all of this, and had it not been for the common interest in the car, yet the interest and the ability to seek out other interests I would not have been fortunate to have met him, and I would have been lesser for it.

The "moderators" said they didn't know about the earlier poll. I find that hard to believe, as they are moderators, and that's a hard thing to keep up with, but that's the job they signed up for. That they didn't do it then is another issue. At one time I offerred personally to take that job on because I knew that it bothered them, it wasn't their gig. I never got an answer on that. Well, I guess I did by silence, but if you're going to do it, then just do it. I felt I would have, and could have, reminded others of both persuasions to take it down a notch if necessary, without malice or bias.

As people have pointed out, this sub-forum generated ALOT of interest. Judging by the number of views versus postings, and those posting were made by only a relative few, there were many many of us who stopped by, looked at postings, judged for themselves if there was merit in the topic, and either posted or not.

Either way, they had the opportunity to do so. Nobody said they HAD to check in, or don't go there, but if it wasn't your thing, as obviously it wasn't for James and others-then don't go there. But even James dropped in at times to say it was all a bunch of crap. We get that, but if it's crap to him, then I'd like to know why he'd even bother to take a look at the topic. I think comments about LED bulbs and VW bugs are crap too, but I also know that it's important to some of my friends and neighbors, and therefore it's important to me beecause it's important to them. I do hope, that at least for some, as I know it was for me, that there was lots of learning involved to as you picked through the pepper to find the fly ****.

This section was in fact being policed by it's own, and for the last 3 years that I was here it was fine. Yet recently, one person in particular, and participants and non know exactly who that poser, I mean poster, was. His commentary was vulgar, crude, and offensive to all, and I believe he did it for exactly this purpose. I, for one, if you'll notice, never responded to his comments, and his tactic was then to INCREASE the spite. If the moderators had been doing their job, that should have been stopped immediately. To ban this section as the primary action for the crudeness of one says alot about how problems are dealt with in alot of other areas of your life.

In many posts of the past, it was clear that cases were being made to Julian, and Andrew, and gosh knows who else, to no avail. Yet all of a sudden, with perhaps even more forceful lobbying, the subsection gets yanked without comment, merely days after strict warning was given, which I and others agreed with. Yet in only one case, Spud, which I truly appreciate, and even here in this thread, Spud is the only one on that side who even commented at all, (odd at best when there were so many postings by others) so I've got to wonder who is running who?

I had suggested many times that the section have a gatekeep that you agree to the terms, there is a separate button to ignore that section if you want to, the technology is there, but there was no interest in that at all apparently, but there IS interest in yanking it down as easier than the daunting task of dealing with bullies, and difficult people. Too bad. But if that was your goal, then you can consider this mission accomplished.

There were folks here that I considered friends but found that I was wrong. Not because they are bad people, I'm sure that they are fine people. But I also found that they are not to be trusted to stand strong and firm, openly and honestly, and in that I have lost confidence in them to be called friends. That's too bad, it really is.

Since this thread is to be closed tonight, I wish all of you the best in the future. As a whole, it was a really great community. Happy motoring, all.