European Politics

Instead of engaging with my position (for example the rumours about Putin's health) you cast judgement on me and people who think like me. Magnus outright accused cowardice. Those are ad hominems.

As I've already told you, we are all just people on a forum. None of us are politicians. None of us can change anything. If me and the others are sitting in our "Ivory Towers", then so are you as well. Or are you at the frontlines fighting? ;)

(Edit because this is important: It's always the people who aren't fighting themselves who lust for war and escalations. Advocating for actions that will result in thousands upon thousands, if not millions, of otherwise preventable deaths is no different than the politicians who use their own people as pawns and sacrifice them for their ambitions. That's pure cowardice and a monstrous and deeply moronic. I get that it makes you feel better to vent your frustrations, but it is also important to call this shit out. Maybe it's time to start a diary or a blog, to get this out of your system instead.)

I tried to get back to the topic and to mention things we haven't really discussed before, but it seems our resident snowflakes are only interested in whining, ranting and repeating the same exact post for the hundredth time. Have fun, if it makes you two feel better, I guess? I'm out.
I reported this deluded bullshit (something I had never done before to a real member, only obvious bots) last week. Congrats, and thank you for helping me to evolve.
 
Once again, as per forum rules, can everyone steer clear of personal attacks and name calling.

It's been seriously considered closing the politics threads altogether, but it was felt that it would cause politics to spill into other threads, and there are already clear forum rules about conduct.
Or you could just ban the one obvious troll, who never shuts up and is always at the center of the discord and drama on this site, and solve it that way.
 
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Or you could just ban the one obvious troll who never shuts up is always at the center of the discord and drama on this site and solve it that way.
Genuine question: Is this your first account on here?

And let's not resort to labelling people you might have a profound disagreement a "troll". Vaenyr, if that's who you are getting at, (and note, Vaenyr isn't alone in the politics threads that gets heated) has adopted a confrontative and argumentative stance in this thread and others, sure, but isn't trolling.
 
Genuine question: Is this your first account on here?

And let's not resort to labelling people you might have a profound disagreement a "troll". Vaenyr, if that's who you are getting at, (and note, Vaenyr isn't alone in the politics threads that gets heated) has adopted a confrontative and argumentative stance in this thread and others, sure, but isn't trolling.
Pretty obviously it’s not my first account.

Agree or disagree, when a user’s behavior has even the mods of a forum fleeing and is on more ignore lists than not, maybe it’s time to do a cause analysis on why a forum’s dysfunctional.

Maybe Brigs is on the right track with just making this site about Iron Maiden and other music — or at least not politics. However, who, in your estimation, is the one likely to bring not just politics but their generally annoying traits to other parts of the forum?

Seems there’s always one attention seeking forum member who’s on a mission to annoy everyone else. Criedwhenbrucieleft’s successor in that role perhaps?
 
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Segwaying back to your first post: Do you think Jer should have been banned a couple of years back when he was repeatedly fighting with various members? No, he shouldn't have been banned, nor is there any reason to ban Vaenyr, who is about as argumentative as several other members. Should Judas have been banned for, I think, essentially causing Perun to leave the thread? No.

But we might have reached the end of the road with political threads, as you say. They don't really add anything at this point, but is stoking an endless circle of people being at eachother's throat. There are vast amounts of other comments sections out there on Social Media fort that instead. Maybe the mods should lock all these threads for a few months and evaluate. On the other hand, the same stuff is already leaking into the Maiden Interviews thread, so...
 
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Segwaying back to your first post: Do you think Jer should have been banned a couple of years back when he was repeatedly fighting with various members? No, he shouldn't have been banned, nor is there any reason to ban Vaenyr, who is about as argumentative as several other members. Should No5 have been banned for, I think, essentially causing Perun to leave the thread? No.

But we might have reached the end of the road with political threads, as you say. They don't really add anything at this point, but is stoking an endless circle of people being at eachother's throat. There are vast amounts of other comments sections out there on Social Media fort that instead. Maybe the mods should lock all these threads for a few months and evaluate. On the other hand, the same stuff is already leaking into the Maiden Interviews thread, so...

It may be for the best to delete the politics threads or lock them. It’d be a shame to restrict the forum, though.

The site’s core theme is a shared appreciation for Iron Maiden. I don’t see so many heated arguments on that topic.

It’s one thing to disagree on any subject, it’s another to behave in a way architected to annoy those you disagree with.

Did Jer, Azas, Judas, Magnus, No5 or any of the others harangue and constantly annoy people they disagree with? Perun, for his part, had a knack for respectful disagreement until forum fatigue got the better of him. Most others on either side of any debate seem to at least maintain basic courtesy. I don’t see you, Flaming, Garlon, Knicks, etc behaving in an annoying or trolling way.

Overall, go back and read some of these threads if you have the patience for it. Many of the disagreements are followed by conciliatory “agree to disagree but we can stay friends” sentiments.

Then there’s the user who appears to want to be the last person posting here after everyone else has gotten fed up and left.
 
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Segwaying back to your first post: Do you think Jer should have been banned a couple of years back when he was repeatedly fighting with various members?
Geez, talk about false equivalence. My disagreements were on substance, not constantly condescending, virtue signaling nonsense…
 
Alright. I logged on here today after weeks of absence to see if there's any clean-up work I need to do. And then I find that speculation about my leaving has been used as an argument. I don't know who @Krampus is or what he believes to know about me to make a statement about me. So let me set this straight:

I removed my persona from this board after over 20 years of posting because I have been finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate certain other members and their behaviour. Since this is a "me" problem and these people remain blissfully unaware of the hurtful nature of their conduct towards me even after I point it out directly, I came to the conclusion that I am no longer wanted around here. This is a good fit, because I no longer want to be around here.

There is nothing else to it.
 
I don’t understand these repeated calls to shut down political threads. Am I missing something? Are we already living in some kind of dictatorship? Everyone has the option to ignore these threads if they want to, or read them without posting. We’re living through incredibly turbulent times—it’s only natural that our discussions reflect that. Why shut ourselves inside some metaphorical Ivory Tower or pretend everything’s fine in a Pleasantville fantasy?

It’s normal to vent here. Yeah, sometimes we all act a bit stupid—so what? That’s part of being a full-blooded community. It should be okay to offend (within reason), and it should be okay to be offended. Why this obsession with being endlessly polite and 100% politically correct? Dear Westerners, stop cornering yourselves into sanitized silence. It's okay to be noisy and flawed sometimes—at least, that's how I see it.

Honestly, I’d even suggest that the mods open a special thread where members can let loose, bash, joke, and rant at each other (within limits). It might actually be healthy. :D (No, I’m not going to open such a thread myself.)

I understand that it can be frustrating to read endless rants, but isn’t that just part of the game? Let the forum remain as it is.
 
I don’t understand these repeated calls to shut down political threads. Am I missing something? Are we already living in some kind of dictatorship?
Because the threads have turned into poison. There is more than enough space on other platforms for toxic discourse.

(and the Mods can do what they want. This is a privately owned and run message board about Iron Maiden. Shutting down threads that turns people off coming onto the board and make them want to rip other members' throats off isn't a dictatorship anymore than a school admin shutting down the school's soccer field because the pupils can't handle playing together in a civilized fashion without constant fights and violence).
 
The moderators have never considered shutting these threads. We did it once to allow overheated tempers to cool off, but we only ended up making things worse.

This constant vilification of the moderators and accusations of what they are planning to do added to my determination to let it be. You don't want moderation - you won't get it. Not from me anyway. Just don't run and whine when you're getting what you bargained for.

Goodbye.
 
The moderators have never considered shutting these threads. We did it once to allow overheated tempers to cool off, but we only ended up making things worse.

This constant vilification of the moderators and accusations of what they are planning to do added to my determination to let it be. You don't want moderation - you won't get it. Not from me anyway. Just don't run and whine when you're getting what you bargained for.

Goodbye.
Huh, I just asked a question. I did not implied that moderators want to shut down political threads. I meant that some users call for this.. And yes, we all should be moderated- mods have this option, i did not called for zero moderation. Jeez...

EDIT: My post followed Perun’s, which might’ve led to some confusion. Just to be clear—it wasn’t directed at Perun in any way. I was responding specifically to Krampus’s suggestion about deleting or locking political threads.
 
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Let's get something straight, because I'm tired of the hypocrisy.

When Krampus/Sheriff of Huddersfield originally posted, I pushed back against some of his claims and wanted him to post some kind of source to support some of the more outlandish or inflammatory claims. He didn't like that and got increasingly more erratic, to the point of constantly trying to provoke me, even in other threads (like the "New users, who are you?" thread or whatever the hell it's called). Since then he kept trying to provoke me, which makes the accusation of me wanting the attention quite funny. This eventually led to Sheriff/Krampus rage-quitting the forum. In other words, a member who kept attacking and provoking me left the forum due to my behavior. Let's remember this.

At the same time we had members like Magnus and Judas complain about the mods banning people. Magnus in particular made it a point to keep calling me out and claiming that conservative users who'd be acting like me would've been banned, without ever explaining how he came to this conclusion. It's incredibly puzzling, considering the mods have repeatedly explained that they have not done that and aren't doing that. Yet despite that, this blatant lie was pushed constantly and he kept ignoring whenever I asked for any kind of evidence. So much so that Perun decided to quit the politics threads. So, ironically enough, despite the claims of folks like Krampus, it wasn't me who ran off a moderator; it was Judas. Not only that, we have Sheriff returning to this thread after having admitted that he went too far before and that he wanted to let things rest, to what, rile me up? Get me banned?

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If you think my posts aren't in line with forum rules, report them. It's that simple. If the mods find something questionable they can remove it. They can give me a warning. Hell, if they decide to ban me, then so be it. If that's not enough: Use the ignore function, that's what it's for. There is no pride in never using it. I don't get why so many have to make a show of "ooooh, Vaenyr's such a troll, he's the only one I ever put on ignore". Congrats, I guess? Should I be flattered? Thank my friends and family without whom I wouldn't be here? I thought I was the one who is supposedly "virtue signaling", yet we have multiple members here doing exactly that.

Enough jokes. Not everyone can get along with everyone. That's not realistic. I have a few people on ignore. I know other members ignore folks other than me as well. It's not a contest. Yes, I'm not the most pleasant person to interact with. I never claimed otherwise. But to try to pin all hostility on me, while ignoring who keeps engaging with me and in what way, is simply disingenuous.

With this I have said all I had to say on the matter. Go ahead and report whatever you wanna report and let's be done with it. This constant circling back and accusations of trolling (especially by someone who came back to attack me, while I'm contributing to a variety of threads on the forum) are getting quite boring. Virtual XI's still a masterpiece.
 
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