The Godfather
 

Sorry to detract from from our regularly scheduled freakout, but has anyone heard from oldmako as of late? I think we could use a bit of his wisdom and perspective right now.

I checked his profile page and saw that he hasn’t posted since mid-December of last year. That takes away a significant elder statesmen voice in the United forum. I hope all is well.

Coronavirus got him.

Not unless it allied with H5N1, SARS, MERS and the TSA

He pre-announced his scheduled hiatus a few weeks ago.

^ What He wrote^
Texted with him after my little tit for tat with the moderators and unfortunately he's hit his limit with those guys.
It's too bad, as he was both insightful and funny. An all around good guy.
Maybe he will be back when things get REALLY good, in the future.

Chances are I'll get a ban at some point in time, or get censored to the point where I say **** It too.
It should bother everyone when mods decide what we can or can't say, or what you get to read.
hmmmm

OldMako, if (hope) you're reading this- Stay frosty!
Prost~

Fly Safe, Fly Professionally & Fly the Contract
Motch

What did he say that was so bad???

HA!
I don't actually know. I was taking a hiatus in the month of Jan to lower my blood pressure, lol.
Happened then I heard

I'd guessed he was sleeping with the fishes.

That is, on a long fishing voyage in the Caribbean. Can't wait for his vacation pictures.

I understand your frustration. I too have been reprimanded here, and had my posts edited by the Mods.

But I don't let it bother me since I have no expectation that unfiltered posts will be allowed on this, a private forum. Their forum, their rules. "Freedom of speech" does not apply here. I was the lead moderator on another aviation forum 4 years ago before I quit the organization... and learned a lot about why I'll never do that job again.

The owners of APC have a set of standards they want the Mods to adhere to. If I get to the point where I don't agree, my option is to go elsewhere.

I may disagree with the Mods over what they are willing to accept on APC... but it is their right to decide.

Like water off a duck...

Some of the moderators are very touchy about politics. I was warned about talking politics when I said republicans are conservative and not labor friendly. Dem's are much more labor friendly and we may have to wait for a Dem president to get anywhere in contract talks. So, of course I won't say stuff like that any more.

They took that to mean I was politicking. Pretty touchy.

I always very much appreciated Mako's vacation pictures, his wisdom, and wit!

Maybe they removed it because that statement was false.

In other news... the Green New Deal looks interesting! Discuss....

Could be!...….

Agree. Hopefully some one is getting to enjoy his insight and wit. Wether his crews, family, or fishing partners while he's happily inverting bourbon bottles and chasing the snapper.

If he is, good on him!!! Need more fishing pics, that's for sure.

A union rep once told me "everything's political. even the brand of toilet paper you buy." It took me a while to get my noggin around that concept, but I finally get it. You can't really separate the people from the politics from the policies.

I am taking this aviation security class. Get this they got people in the class that are against profiling at airports even though it may prevent another terrorist attack. why you might ask? Because their politics get in the way of common sense.

it is true. Everything, every opinion, every decision has political tentacles. Likely the basis of your value system does too.
It's not easy to take the politics out of toilet paper, but I will say this in a strident and steadfast manner. My wife says we should buy two ply TP even though it may offend those tree-huggers out there who buy single ply. You gotta stand up for what you believe in!

The GND is a political hot potato. i'd rather discuss the migratory habits of pilot whales. can't get in trouble there.... But, since you mentioned it, I hear we're all switching over to algae powered aircraft. Since Algae is "green" we can get a waiver.

I don’t think the problem is politics as much as it is the collective inability to express differences in a productive way. Obviously this forum is representative of society in general and considering perceived user anonymity here the no politics rule is probably a good thing.

That said, a forum moderator is useless if all they do is play whack a mole.

I believe in two ply. Why are there toilet paper rolls in public restrooms that are as big as C172 tire and force you lean opposite your normal lean? Because someone decided to “save money” with one ply, not considering that you now have to use twice as much, or more, resulting in little rolls littering the stall (even on makeshift wire hangers, remember those?), or a giant roll that MAY last between janitorial cleanings. Not to mention that once that large roll starts rolling it’s inertia prevents you from grasping the loose end. Plans are currently underway to cross purpose the 737 Max nose wheel snubber to slow the roll down to allow easier grasping of the end.

Useage is mathematically depicted in the following "ply angle" graph, where E-x describes the quantity of two ply use over time and E-y describes the quantity of one ply use over time.

Which is exactly what the “moderation” on this site is and has gotten worse.

This is how you get banned. How dare you?!!

Once you get yourself under a certain mod’s pipper, like I have, expect to be knuckle rapped often. The standards are not equally applied.

Feels more like old Catholic school sometimes.

Dont **** off or criticize the retired deltoid. You will be banned faster than a premium pickup disappearing.

Retired Deltoid uniform

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f3/96/c9/f...8e98038e37.jpg

Where’s their hat???

Hat is a bad habit.

Which mod? PM is fine.

This is a community where most people fall under the bell curve of good intent and sound judgment (even if most of you are wrong!! :D ).

There’s a retired deltoid moderating the United forum? That explains a lot.

THIS^^^

thank you

Yep.....

This place loves to give out tickets for 5 over.

that was pretty good!

The rules here, posted in a somewhat convoluted way, are pretty simple. If you’ve been on here any length of time, they should be obvious. These are the majority of infractions:

1. Don’t flame someone, usually by insults. (And/or profane name-calling).

2. No profanity, or disguised profanity.

3. No nudity, whether PG or full pornhub.

4. No Politics. I think we collectively view this as as being of a specific nature; either extolling or eviscerating of particular pols or parties.

5. Religion. As 4 above.

This site was started by two airline pilots. It was and is moderated by current or former airline pilots, save for one.

If you didn’t know, the Mods are just volunteers who were regular posters like you. We were asked to Mod because other Mods felt our posting histories were generally within the Terms of Use, coherent, and free from vitriol.

The site was sold to Internet Brands (IB) a few years ago. Administration, as well as legalese matters regarding the publishing of the rules, has become more difficult for the Mods. Further: the one Employee of IB we had contact with for help and guidance was suddenly terminated two years ago....with no replacement. This rudderless ship is kept afloat by the collective efforts of the Mods.

With maybe one exception, none of the Mods have met each other, spoken by phone, or even know what they look like! There is no formal “training course.” We have PM discussions, and there is general consensus and uniformity to our actions.

Perfect? Hardly. There are grey areas. If you use profanity to insult someone, I’ll clobber you hard. If it is used to emphasize a frustration with a system or process, I might let it slide...although f-bombs and s-bombs get particular scrutiny. Politics: if you say we have a bicameral legislative process with three branches of the Federal government...duh!! That’s OK! But endorsements or castigations of candidates and parties? Nope.

Other grey: a guy who is technically inside of the rules...but is constantly beating the hornet’s nest. I can think of a few. Don’t be a Richard Cranium.

I peruse this site a couple of times a day. If somebody has reported something, I’ll look at it. If a clear violation: no problem. If not so clear? I ask the other Mods.

In the decade-plus I’ve been on this site...there has been a steady erosion of decorum, manners, the polite art of arguing with logic instead of emotion, and just following of the few posted rules. Internet generation and the “I can say what I want on the internet!” syndrome? Maybe. But it doesn’t fly here.

Lastly: if you think a Mod has acted inappropriately, you can PM an Admin or other Mod. But if you think you can denigrate a Mod by beating around the bush and try to publicly throw stones at him?

You’ll get yourselves banned by the other Mods. Guaranteed.

It’s simple. Stay inside the rules. And don’t be a jerk.

That's all fine and well, but........

....when you have reputable posters, in multiple sections of the forums, all complaining about the SAME thing, maybe the problem is THAT SAME THING? Never mind what we may share user to user via PM, or personal convo since many of us here know each other. Never mind what 2 former mods shared with me years ago that gets discussed in the private moderator section.

When someone gets the nastygram with a "well, you have a history", etc yet other notorious AND frequent posters never get edited/modded, well, not sure what to say.

I'm not saying someone has gone the way of de727UPS/ICALL of old. But I'm just sayin'...

I know, I know, "if you don't like it, contact forum admin...."

All that being said, I hope the Mako is doing fine and well!!!!

riiiiight. The GND is DOA. Just enjoy the awesome, once in a career contract won during the disastrous, bad for business, previous administration. ;) You likely won't see any better anytime soon.

How often does an Admin reply or even acknowledge a message? So far I’m 100% nordo anytime I’ve sent a message to the “Admin”.

Send to Vagabond.

There’s more there than I can address from a cell phone but let me ask you as a mod. What needs to change to right the ship? Technology, policy, training, more volunteers? What?

The non-pilot pilot mod?

Are y'all really worked up about having your APC posts edited or removed by a mod?

Wow.

It's just not a big deal.

1. A reachable Human interface or “boss” with IB to settle TOU or policy questions, or provide the “Supreme Court” interpretation.

2. Tighten user rules via Mod feedback when Mods find loopholes that are exploited or ill-defined.

3. Real-name vetting when setting up an account so spammers, and Richard Craniums who have been banned, can’t create a new username.

4. An increase in forum users who actually abide by their “I agree to the forum rules,” instead of operating under the mistaken belief that their feces has no detectable odor.

Thank you.

maybe the wisdom of some of the rules should be revisited