Hyperbole is all well and good to "hook" members into a thread, but being factually inaccurate on the basis of a topic is just misleading and unfair to the folks who don't have a lot of time in their day to check THR.
As has been pointed out, THR is a private website. Derek and Oleg pay for the place with a little help from contributions. There are no banner ads, no corporate support. No fees. Everyone here is playing for free (A HUGE thanks to the folks who contribute. Every penny helps.). Folks of all persuasion are allowed in (whether they get to stay only depends upon how they conduct themselves). And everyone that signs up has agreed to follow the
Forum Rules. It's not a public square with soap boxes. So, there are no 1st Amendment issues in closing or editing or limiting threads. That issue was dealt with when you signed up and isn't available for debate.
Being vulgar or profane or insulting is inconsistent with the mission of THR. The place was opened to provide an RKBA website that was unlike others out there (otherwise why go to the trouble just to open another "me too" gun forum) where civil discussions on firearms and firearms rights were required. THR wants people that are undecided on firearms issues to be able to come here and be won over to our point of view without being turned off first by how some folks on gun boards tend to express themselves. Winning hearts and minds. Inevitably, some people's idea of what "civil" is can be very different with someone else's idea of what being "civil" is. Maintaining that standard can be difficult. We try, but we obviously can't accommodate everyone on this.
Since the place has a focus and is run on limited resources, threads that don't fit or have any further beneficial purpose get closed from time to time. L&P threads tend to be the worst about this. Non-firearms threads start there. Threads on topics that the posters are angry about start there. Threads where posters have forgotten, or just ignored, the rules of conduct get started there. They tend to get closed. General Gun Discussions tends to have it's share also. Topics on Airsoft or batteries or cameras or... are not usually related to firearms. The rare ones on airsoft being regulated like firearms or what brands of electronic sights use AAA instead of CR123 batteries are the exception. Threads just bashing one group or the other pop up. They're not the high road regardless, but people's prejudices and they're desire to scape-goat someone can't be resisted at times.
Threads that are a rehash of well covered topics are a different problem. I don't really have anything useful to say about them. New members shouldn't have to go through a training session on all the wisdom of the ages (on THR
) to make a post and folks shouldn't beat up on them too hard for posting on a topic that was exhaustively discussed the previous Thursday. But, new posters should realize that everyone eventually gets tired of seeing a topic easily looked up brought back to the table (especially if it's been brought up every ten days) so a little reading and poking around in the archives is just good manners. If you see the issue discussed, but some detail is still puzzling you, bring that part back up. You never can tell how many people are wondering about that too.
Try to keep in mind that THR can't be all things to all people. It's not intended to be. That's why I'm a member on other forums, but THR is my "home base".
By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-oriented, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.
The owners of THR reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.
Perhaps folks would rather we expand this so folks could see more of what's expected before they sign in.
