Obsession with A net

[mikecweb]

OMG Josh that is the funniest thing I have read in years. I have never gone to their forums so I wouldn't know. But I just can't stop laughing!!!

[Avianca 757]

This is also my homeland, of course I knew first of Airliners (some years ago) but I will never pay 5 bucks just participate in a Forum....no way!!

FREE INTERNET!!!

[GloBaLeXpResS]

JCS17: I recommend you add the following to your list:

5) Over-enthusiastic Americans: There is no such thing as being over-patriotic and people that know me know that I love America. But then, there are people who spoil it for you. Those people get uppity at normally any kind of criticism of their country and call it bashing. Yes, there are some very extreme views about America on the forums (I don't visit them often). You must take them with a pinch of salt.


6) "Jumpy" folk: People have to accept that opinions differ. If they can do this then everyone will avoid a lot more of the arguments. Arguments that mimic those between two women on PMS with a problem about something petty.

But then... you've got some idiots pretending to be patriots falling in their trap, looking for a way to discredit America and Americans.

There are a lot of problems with every country. America included. Some people take discrediting countries too far. I mean look at my country - my government can't even agree between themselves.

[B757300]

I've given up mostly on Airliners.net although I'll still post there a little if its something interesting but am trying not to be very active anymore. I think the main reason why people talk about it a lot is because it was the first website of its kind and it still the largest at this time.

As for the major problems with the site, I think it’s already been well covered by the previous posts. However, I'll say the two biggest problems are the members who much attack anyone who doesn't agree with them and the moderators who give them a free pass on their behavior. Some members have to attack everyone who doesn’t agree with them and for some reason it tends to be the anti-American members who usually do it. If the mods don’t like someone they can ban them for violating the infamous “unwritten rules” which of course you don’t even know you’re violating until you’re toast.

Airliners.net could continue to be an excellent success but only if Johan will truly recognize the problems with the site and attempt to correct them.

[ptbodale]

I've got a pretty good idea now. Thanks for all the input. I hope we can keep this site informative and civil.

[a78jumper]

I refuse to pay $5 a month to become a "First Class Member" there, like it was something special, and they are not allowing people to join the forums unless they pay. Kinda snooty in my books. Someone is interested in $$$$$ above all. Nor do I have any credit cards to pay the $5 with.
________
Granny Fucking

[schoenorama]

B757300:

Some members have to attack everyone who doesn’t agree with them and for some reason it tends to be the anti-American members who usually do it.

Strange, as a European, I have the exact opposite impression as I believe its the pro-Americans that tend to overreact. But lets not forget that with the international situation going on lately, there has been lots of stuff to discuss about, and a.net non-av was just another place to have these discussions going.

I believe that the problem with a.net non-av forum, or any other similar international forum just as this one, lies in the language. The access to these forums and actually taking part in the discussions is much easier for those users who come from English speaking countries. Any 12, 13 or 15 year old native english speaker, who knows how to read and write can take part in any discussion he or she wants. You will not find such a large group of 'teenage' users from non-english speaking countries as these kids simply do not have (enough) knowledge of the english language to be able to take part in the discussions. The users from non-English speaking countries that do take part in the discussions are normally (much) older. This large age difference is what makes discussions on any serious (i.e. political) issue not only very difficult, it also contributes that many discussion become complete off-topic by reply # 2.

I must agree with what GloBaLeXpResS said above: users have to accept that opinions differ. Now this might be harder to accept for a teenager than for a more mature person. Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that the majority of American a.net users are teenagers. But the teenage group does exists and tends to profile themselves in their posts as patriotic Americans. There's nothing wrong with having such a group, as long as there would be a similar age group from non-English speaking countries taking part in the same discussions. This will never happen, unless teenagers worldwide improve their knowlegde of the English language within the next few years. For the time being, the best one can do is just ignore those posts and threads one finds too childish.

[herpa2003]

Is the chat ever going to be back up???

[Boeing4ever]

I'm also somewhat of a refugee, though I still actively participate in the a.net forums. I'm one of a dying breed of users who still use that site for free, and I've seen many friends leave in disgust over the way the site is run. All I can say is that the a.net forums are heavily polarized, and can be pretty much summed up as the cesspool of internet politics.

B4e-Forever New Frontiers

[aloges]

Sorry for bringing this back to the top, but I felt like it wouldn't do any harm.

It's pretty interesting to see how much of an impact the airliners.net non-aviation forum seems to have. Without it, there would probably be no airwhiners.net, some users (including myself) wouldn't be here, and a bunch of threads wouldn't be here either. So, is it really such a controversial issue?

I don't think so, at least no more. I've had a pretty interesting discussion about the Euro, Britain and the EU lately and it remained civilised, albeit both me and the user I argued with most (EDIT) didn't seem (/EDIT) to understand the other's point. I feel like it's like that more often now, but:

I really miss some true non-av pointlessness over there, mostly due to a lack of people who loved to drool around and drive Johan crazy with those long, long threads... Some of them have been banned or left, and the rest hasn't posted in quite some time. To sum it up, that place doesn't seem to be as much fun as it was when I started posting; me being a user who never cared much about flamewars and such, "don't like it don't read it" works extremely well for me.

[DeltaASA16]

Amen Aloges!

Immortality to the Pointless!

DeltaASA16

[NWA 757 351]

I'll say the two biggest problems are the members who much attack anyone who doesn't agree with them and the moderators who give them a free pass on their behavior.

I have to agree with that comment as I had that problem EXACTLY last year.

I had made a response on college affirmative action policies based on a experience my friend had, and a particular Washington beltway lawyer "Jay***" decided to assault me verbally, so I notified the mod mail regarding him. I can take criticism, but he went way over the line. Then Hepkat responds saying "Please show me the offending content,and if it's warranted, I will take action". I responded with the link to the post, and he came up with a B.S. response saying "His response was borderline, and I am not going to delete his posts." In the end he just put a response in the thread saying "Please refrain from attacking other users whose views you disagree with"

A few weeks later, another moderator learned of the incident, and contacted me regarding it. After he reviewed the thread, and e mails from both me and Hepkat, he was also at a loss at why Hepkat responded (or more appropriately INTENTIONALLY FAILED to take action)

Hepkat's words does not follow his actions.I think I know the motivation behind his failure to act now, but I'm not going to get into that here though as it would DEFINITELY set off a firestorm.