I would like to briefly ask that we all think a little before we fire off any posts that may be antagonistic or provoking to another person.

I have been guilty of the above in the past and I have resolved to never do that again. Well with the exception of the off shore spammer "We got All Drugs" website in the Philippines, but I digress.

Mainly, if we do not specifically know the person we're writing, we have no idea about what their current life forces or personal situation maybe. He/she could be blind, in a wheel chair or in a situation that the only thing they enjoy is posting on a forum. So it's much better to be nice or just ignore any comment that may set you off. From personal experience it's more pleasant to be nice and not angry or mad about another person and to try to ruin their day.

Since I became involved in racing 6 years ago, I have gotten sideways with two individuals and I now realize that I would have done better with sugar than with venom.

In particular I have come to acknowledge that Don Stegal can contribute to our efforts and to modeling in general. He has shared with me some of his personal issues and I assure you you would not wish anyone to go through what he is going through.

Many of the threads he has posted regarding the building techniques he is exploring are informative and worth reading and I for one, have benefited from them on this forum as well as from of the other great submissions by others.

Best Regards,

Stan Douglas
N75E

Stan,

Well stated. Most people come by their opinions honestly (or think they do), whether or not we agree with them. Racing rewards quick reactions and not giving the other guy any slack, but that's not exactly the prescription for harmony in a group ... especially on a Web forum when a heated put-down stays out there long after your anger has passed. Maybe a good guideline for us competitive types would be: "Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength."

No offense, Rudeboy. I still think your avatar rocks.

DHG

The last post on this Forum was last Friday in support of "Getting along". Since then nothing!

I suppose that says it all.

Ed S

Since this post is primarily pointed at me, I will say my peace and end it.

As far as I can remember (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong), nearly all of the antagonistic posts over the past 2+ years have included one common denominator.

Off the top of my head, I can name 10 positive contributing posters that have since stopped (more or less) since one of these internet squabbles with the "common denominator".

Now you can add my name to the list as I have resigned as a moderator from the RCU forums, and do not intend to contribute (I know, that could be debated) to the internet as I have in the past. I have bitten my tongue for the last time, and feel it best that I step away before this escalates any further.

Ed,

We go through cycles of activity and inactivity. Who knows why?

There was an unfortunate disturbance here on Thursday night. And that could be the reason things have slowed down. Or it may not be. [sm=confused.gif]


Stan,

I highly appreciate your comments. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you better. And I believe we're both much better off as fellow modelers who can share, collaborate, and enjoy our communications.

You are absolutely correct that the forums are an important conduit for some and probably many people. Over the past couple of months when my medication trials made me irritable and irrational, I stayed away from the forums. It felt like I was missing out in a big way, but I knew that it was not a good idea for me to get online and fire off a nastygram.


Duane,

You are SO right that the very attributes that make us competitors can also make us irascible online. I personally have been trying to make an effort to avoid those kinds of postings. Sometimes I write something in Outlook and save it to think it over before posting. Some messages get posted, some get revised, and some get tossed.

Dave,

I don't believe Stand is pointing finger at you or anybody in particular. What he's trying to say is just basically for "anyone" to think twice before firing off any aggressive posting respond in the forum. Although, you may feel that it's directly to you, actually, it's NOT! All Stand saying is, he realized the past and he learned from it, and just wanted to inform others to not do the same thing by jumping into conclusion and response in an aggressive behavior because we don't know what the other person is like on the other side.

I for one do agree with Stand on what he mean because I am also guilty in that area (I think we all are). As you know, we are all in this racing hobby as competitors and our nature are driven by our competitive nature. Therefore, we get aggressive when we feel threaten and we post those response in returns. We may not intended to mean it that way, but that's how it comes out when we don't think twice, cool off and then post. It's just human nature when feel challenge.

Dave, I want you to reconsider again as the forum moderator because you have done tremendous job and help many others in your posting, building technique and the know how. Look deep within yourself and pat yourself in the back and smile. Your work is thankful by many others... Keep up the good work man!

Dave since those earlier days on RCO when you a few others and myself had expended so much energy keeping the 'pylon thread' (you remember the 'Thread') going just so we all could have a place to talk as well as a few other sites, You have been probably the most valued contributor on all of them. Always a gentleman, probably more than myself and some others at times. Your contribution in many of your construction threads are of immense value to the racing community as well as your response to the guys who just want a go fast airplane.

I feel that Stans post above had nothing to do with you. As far as some have left the site. If I am one of the ten that you mentioned then in my case that is true but I want to assure you it had nothing to do with you or the race forum. My decision to leave the site and go elsewhere came with the big format change when the administrator decided to unlesh that abomintable feature on us called 'rate this post' that opened up a hugh can of worms allowing less than rational people to travel all over the site and vindictively destroy any creditability a large number of the best contributors had painstakingly developed. Many sensible posters had pleaded with the administration to eliminate that destructive feature only to be told "Oh you will love it". That response in my case was enough to realize this is an irresponsibly run site and to realize everything the administator had said from the start had been untruthful and not the place I care to be nor waste my efforts on.

John

Team Coldies

The bigger question is, who is the second individual that Stan "Got sideways" with?

Stan, put us out of our misery, before the rumours run wild!!

Ed S

Dave,

I'm with Sam. Your posts have been consistently positive and helpful -- I always look forward to what you have to say. I don't even know what other posts, forums, or contributors you or these other guys are talking about. If you said something intemperate, well, I guess the thing to do is 'fess up, which it seems you've already done.

I got into it with a couple of guys during a previous rule cycle, when we had some contentious issues on the table. Then the board voted and that was that. If I could erase some of my comments from the archive, I would. I'm sure the others would as well. This is still a new medium & we're all sort of feeling our way through the etiquette.

As for the "rate this post" business: Again, I have to plead ignorance. I have neither the time nor the desire for comparison shopping -- I started with RCU several years ago because it was the only forum that was functional -- these days I'll glance at NMPRA and RCPRO occasionally but in the time I have (lunch hours and coffee breaks) this is the only one I visit consistently, and it's been OK. Call it brand loyalty, call it laziness, whatever. I would miss you if you quit contributing. I hope you'll reconsider.

DHG

p.s. Maybe one of these days if I get really ambitious, I'll invest enough energy to actually post an avatar. Too bad "Rudeboy" is already taken.

I don’t have the time to participate on a bunch of forums. I will put my time and effort on the ones I think potential pylon racers may read. Currently, I believe the RCU pylon forums get the best exposure. If that changes, I will move.

On the lighter side, maybe we need to spice things up here by taking turns being ‘Bad Cop’ for a month.

Go Fast and E

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I will speak for myself. I definitely was not trying to single out anyone in-particular other than myself.

Dave if you're going to withdraw would you at least e-mail me directly your experiments and developments in model building as I have benefited from your ideas and documentation! I have incorporated many of your building techniques into my own.

Enough said on this topic.

Best Regards,
Stan D.

PS. Ed my other excursion was way before RCU existed and involved another struggle to keep the NMPRA domain names as a property of the NMPRA. The NMPRA.net address was actually a porn site for awhile! Not good. The NMPRA has just about finished gaining the owner ship of all the possible address's of .org, .net and .com. Had I handled the thing more diplomatically it would have probably been a done deal already.

Thank you for the support above.

I did resign, but was asked to come back.

I only agreed after a few changes had been made.

I would really like to see this forum take off once again, without the back and forth potshots that have occurred in the past. I claim full responsibility for escalating certain arguements and regret having done so. I think many of us have learned some restraint in firing back, lets keep it that way.

Hopefully we can attract back some of the higher profile Pylon Experts that we have pushed away. Some of these racers have more tricks up there sleeves than 99% of the flyers out there.

Where you at Ed?

- I've missed your insight, candor, and humor. Even though I am certain a backwards tank is "backwards thinking".

Where you at BV?

- You helped many new racers get started by putting out an inexpensive Q500 plane kit that flew great.

Where you at RB?

- You and your Father have ALWAYS shared the tricks to not only go fast (thanks for the head spacing numbers for Phoenix), but to also build a STRONG, FAST airplane.

There are many, many others out there, and its good to hear from you. Lets make this forum thrive again!

I am still here! But who wants to listen to a "Backwards Thinker"?

We can tell each other what, why and where we do things for only so long and so many times. Without new people joining both the Forums and Racing and making contributions, the Forums will fizzle out.

I am not much of a one for idle chatter. On the Forums just lately, not just this one, there has not been much to talk about. I believe that there are now four Forums for racers. I think we cannot sustain that number. It is like having too many different rule events, there is still only the same number of participants and they are spread too thinly.

Ed (Reverse Theory) S

I agree there are too many forums for racing topics, but I also believe that the Pylon Universe forums get the most traffic by both the experienced racer and the new-comer. We get many questions by new-comers.

A couple ideas I had for posting to get things going revolved around:

How to ship planes to a race?

What you need to know before taking them on the plane?

Can you carry on your transmitters?

Can you bring a Radar Gun with?

If you ship them, what service is best (safest) ? UPS / Fed-Ex / USPS / Greyhound?

Do you need a wooden box, or will cardboard work?

Should you modify a gun case to fit your q40 wings?

Do you need to remove your fuel tanks from your planes?

What do you REALLY need to bring to an out of town race? I believe many people over-pack things they never use, or could beg-borrow-or steal from a local.

Any new word on some of the NEW Composite ARFS coming in from Asia??


I guess I just never get tired about talking about racing planes, and continually want to expand my knowledge, whether its been beaten into the ground or not.

Dave

Dave

Don't leave rcu. I have so many questions that i forget on race day and also at the meetings. to lose you and others here would be a shame we need someone with experience and the knowledge to lead us in the world of compition,building and techniques. Sorry for bad spelling. I fly airplanes i don't type. lol thanks everyone for all the help!
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