I see the whiners have gotten their way and off topic topics have been removed from the home page! Though I’m not sure the topic listings of “Unwanted visitors” and “Idiots” on the front page look any better.
-Brian 
As a supporter of this website who contributes financially in a small way, I would prefer to see the “Off Topic” forum gone completely.
None of it has been very edifying and this is supposed to be a Large Scale Train forum.
However, if that is not to be, at least we are seeing a balance of political views for a change.
I enjoy this portion of the forums and also support this site financially, though probably not as much as you do Tony. I like the ability to have a place to discuss and move a conversation away from the trains portion of the Forums. I do wish we all had the ability to move the subjects here and keep them out of the train discussion areas.
The heavy handed approach at other sites has eliminated me even bothering to go to those sites, most of the time.
I posted a train question in general discussion–nobody responded!
I post a completely reasonable political opinion–of course all my opinions are all completely reasonable–everybody responds!
CORRECTION: I just noticed that Bob has eliminated the off-topic forum from the active posts listings on the home page. It was not by my request, but he must have agreed that it wasn’t helping attract new users.
Original post -----
Nobody removed anything from the home page Brian. The traffic has finally shifted to where there are actually some posts on train topics. The home page lists the most recent active topics. For about two weeks it continually listed the Sarah Palin threads. That was the source of my complaint. Notice I complained to the users, not to the site owner. I didn’t think I was whining, but its OK with me if that’s how you took it.
For Tony - I wasn’t advocating anything other than a bit of self control. Your advertising dollars might go further if the site was censored to trains only, but the free advertising you get from this group’s endorsement of your product is priceless. This group wouldn’t be here without the freedom Bob has provided.
For Ric - I agree about the moderation and I came here from there for the same reason.
mike omalley said:
I posted a train question in general discussion--nobody responded!I post a completely reasonable political opinion–of course all my opinions are all completely reasonable–everybody responds!
When Mike?
I can find 3 posts from you in the first three pages of the Genereal Discussion Forum. The most recent has 12 responses and 545 reads, the next has 13 responses and 468 reads, and the third has 57 responses and 1894 reads. That’s a long way from no response.
Your most recent political post has 26 responses and 335 reads.
based on those figures I’d say you get more response to the train topic posts. The temperature of the responses to the political topics are another story 
I feel that this is a very reasonable response from Bob and agree that the “Off Topic” forum does not need to be shown as an active topic related to trains on the home page.
Jon Radder said:
.................The temperature of the responses to the political topics are another story
That’s what’s causing the global warming!
:lol:
I was joking john
mike omalley said:No problem. Use a smiley and we'll all know :D
I was joking john
TonyWalsham said:
As a supporter of this website who contributes financially in a small way, I would prefer to see the "Off Topic" forum gone completely.None of it has been very edifying and this is supposed to be a Large Scale Train forum.
However, if that is not to be, at least we are seeing a balance of political views for a change.
Don’t worry Tony. The election is only two months away and I can go back to ignoring Steve’s posts here.
-Brian
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:Jon Radder said:
.................The temperature of the responses to the political topics are another story
That’s what’s causing the global warming!
See, I knew it. All that liberal hot air is causing Global Warming. From HJ’s fingers to G-d’s ear!
I was wondering where everybody went. I kept checking on “recent activity” Monday…and very little changed.
It goes to show as much as some have complained about the politics, this is where most of the activity is currently.
Brian is right, in a few months things will settle down.
Ralph
Hehe! In a few weeks there’ll be posts about who should have won, how the country’s going to the dogs and how the election was stolen! The only change will be instead of hanging chads there’s electronic tampering.
Richard Smith said:We in Maryland are well aware of not what I'll call electronic tampering but more electronic incompetence. Diebold, the make of voting machines, so royally f'ed up a primary election a couple of years ago, they had to change the name of the company to Premier Election Solutions Inc (or PESI).
Hehe! In a few weeks there'll be posts about who should have won, how the country's going to the dogs and how the election was stolen! The only change will be instead of hanging chads there's electronic tampering.
-Brian
Richard Smith said:Richard, Please don't forget about the dead people voting, after all Illinois is the land of graft and corruption and Chicago.
Hehe! In a few weeks there'll be posts about who should have won, how the country's going to the dogs and how the election was stolen! The only change will be instead of hanging chads there's electronic tampering.
Brian Donovan said:
I see the whiners have gotten their way and off topic topics have been removed from the home page! Though I'm not sure the topic listings of "Unwanted visitors" and "Idiots" on the front page look any better.-Brian
Nope, whiners didn’t get their way, Bob did. Over the span of a couple of days I looked at the “Whats new?” list on the main page and it was ALL political crap. Its overshadowing the train-related stuff on the main page (and was in the general forum, thats why I have an off topic area, so I can mostly ignore it) so I removed listing of.
Bob McCown said:Brian Donovan said:
I see the whiners have gotten their way and off topic topics have been removed from the home page! Though I'm not sure the topic listings of "Unwanted visitors" and "Idiots" on the front page look any better.-Brian
Nope, whiners didn’t get their way, Bob did. Over the span of a couple of days I looked at the “Whats new?” list on the main page and it was ALL political crap. Its overshadowing the train-related stuff on the main page (and was in the general forum, thats why I have an off topic area, so I can mostly ignore it) so I removed listing of.
Bob,
Thank you for just “hiding” us and not giving us the boot!
Ralph
Bob McCown said:Brian Donovan said:
I see the whiners have gotten their way and off topic topics have been removed from the home page! Though I'm not sure the topic listings of "Unwanted visitors" and "Idiots" on the front page look any better.-Brian
Nope, whiners didn’t get their way, Bob did. Over the span of a couple of days I looked at the “Whats new?” list on the main page and it was ALL political crap. Its overshadowing the train-related stuff on the main page (and was in the general forum, thats why I have an off topic area, so I can mostly ignore it) so I removed listing of.
That certainly is a winning plan.