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[...quote from Willy...]Willy, your participation here has been valued, and believe it or not it has been a nice change of pace. No, not everyone agrees with you politically here. Then again, how many people here are in exact agreement? Probably none, in my opinion. I think I have been at odds with pretty much everyone here at one point or another, and I think that's the nature of the world we live in. No one agrees with me on everything except for me...and future me might take issue with present me on certain issues.....
I think Phid speaks for us all on this, if you care to stay we will be better for it; having opted out of a forum (far less civil than this one in its treatment of the minority opinion) before I understand what you are feeling though. My humble apologies for any hurt I may have given and know that it was unintended.
And I for one did not mean to run anyone off… even myself… I understand discussions on one subject, especially history, can lead to a discussion that can get quite heated (politics and religion) and my hope was that those discussions stayed out of the discussion at hand in turn keeping the thread relevant. Too many good discussions end up in right and wrong arguments and the original topic gets lost in the muck. That has been my experience online, and quite frankly I was getting tired of it. I stopped visiting any forum that was history related because every discussion ended up degenerating into an argument over left and right, God or no God.I'm glad that there is a place here to take these sort of discussions and let em rip... that way, the other areas are free to stay on topic and if you choose to debate a political/religious debate it is segregated enough to allow you the freedom to choose to do that or to bow out, keeping the rest of the forums free of strife.I'm not a Liberal...I find most things about liberal thinking as far off-base as they can get...that being said I agree that differences in viewpoints can spice things up, especially in a forum-type setting. The trick is to keep it from degenerating into name calling and getting personal. Been down that road...On the same hand, my viewpoint, being much further to the right, probably finds liberals thinking I am as far off-base as I can get... Again, that?s why I think we need to try our very best to divorce that part of us when we are discussing a topic and realize the other person in the discussion most likely does not have the same viewpoint.Anyway, said way more than I planned, and still probably rambled... Point is, if I offended you willyD, it was NOT intentional. It was for my own sake of trying to find a history site where I could talk history and not politics/religion.If I did offend you I offer my apologies.
There is a site mostly for writers called Absolute Write. Their “water cooler” breaks writing into dozens of categories, and it has a political thread section. When a left wing admiited lesbian took over the site, things changed. Conservatives were routinely kicked off the site or piled on. Things soon became dull when the conservatives stopped posting or were driven out. Also it began to acquire more virulently anti-American Americans and Brits. It became a waste of time for me to post and educate there because all minds are closed.Other thanone idiot who no longers posts here, I have had a positive expriene on his site. Keep it open.
A well moderated site that I also occasionally post to is the Veteran's Benefits Network. It is a forum for people pulling their hair out dealing with the VA can vent and even get some good advice. They have a water cooler area but will no hesitate to ban partisan commentary. They also don't allow straight venting, they understand that dealing with any bureaucracy is maddening and do a real good job of keeping invective to a minimum while giving helpful advice to veterans caught in the Tar Baby that is the VA.
