Originally Posted by
tcook052
I see; the supposed majority who want such a forum couldn't be bothered to voice those opinions here citing feelings of disenfranchisement. When given the chance to make their opinions heard to the FT powers-that-be, they yawned. You'll have noted by now that that opinions are one thing I'm never short of and while it often wrankles some I would rather risk ruffling a few feathers than not to have shared it and look back later and wished I had.
I appreciate straight talk and have enjoyed that aspect of our exchange. What did "wrankle" me occasionally was not your differing opinion, but your mischaracterization of my statements. Immediate example: I always used the term "large number", which you just upgraded to "majority" and then took a shot at your own creation by referring to "supposed majority". Such tactics lower the dialog and if we can avoid them in future I shall be grateful.
I...noted yours were several of the threads closed so can guess you have a direct interest in such a forum. I also noted what I thought was a reasoned response a Mod. passed on to you and it didn't seem to me all that dismissive, but again I didn't read every thread or know all of the background. You have a cause and are championing it and all within the FT community and its rules which will ultimately decide whether your & the OP's ideas are worthy adopting. If they are I'll still contibute where I can and share my opinions of course and hope you'll do the same regardless of the outcome.
It is reasonable for you to suspect that I am "fired up" because of that experience, but I am not---it is just one anecdote; the moderator was only following the policy and in a civil manner as you noted. My opinions are based on a wider and less personal collection of observations; on interaction with many newcomers; and also on my judgement that the policy itself is flawed, attitudes behind it wrong, and any "travel agency" fears baseless.
People who have dismissed FT are behaving normally. I too didn't try to "improve" Indian Airlines or Walmart or some newpaper or musicians I didn't like. Instead, I flew Jet Airways, shopped at Target, read other papers, and bought CD's of other musicians. That is free market; its goal is to improve the market, not any particular shop.
As one fellow said to me, "FT is like feudal Europe, Yahoo groups are like America. I'll visit Europe but I have immigrated to America!" His judgment, his action.
It is quite an exceptional situation when we feel that a particular individual or organization is both capable of improvement and worthy of our energies towards that goal. I feel that way about FT. Pushing the previous analogy somewhat, maybe that makes me an EU type person.
