Warbird Information Exchange

The way it stands anyone who wants to use their actual name can do so. I was pointing out that there is no practical way to enforce it, as some were proposing, on a board such as this without changing its entire nature.

If the oafs who pollute the place with nonsense posts (or worse) were intent on continuing to do so, "real" names wouldn't stop them as stated above. There may be good and valid reasons why someone wishes to remain anonymous, and if they behave and abide by the TOS I don't see why that needs to change.

Wally B********

In truth, some of the folks posting under "other" names have some fairly valid reasons to do so, especially in their history. That said, it's not a big secret who they are.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Thank you, Ryan. I expressed the reason for my reluctance to give name in the last go round of this subject. But my identity on WIX is not a secret to those that know me or those who have seen the plane in the picture. I do not hide my name in 99% of PMs I send or reply to on WIX. However, that being said, I will say on WIX anything I would say to your face (whoever you might be). In fact, I probably am much nicer in my comments on WIX than I might be in real life

Now I'm off to the airshow where I can explain that my plane really was painted black during it's time of combat in Thailand/Vietnam

and ps......I think lots of the suggestions are very good in this thread....others......well so-so

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I've always looked @ this forum as a living, dynamic thing. People come together, blend with those already present, and either stay or depart along the same lines as real life or your place of employment. There are good folks, so-so folks, bad folks, and some who are always a half beat off the music. If everyone stayed in place and no one joined as a 'newbie' then essentially we'd all be wearing the same clothes and reading from the same book like a fringe sect of people who believed in what the rest of the world would think, is an odd idea or group of ideas. (and I get enough of that from those outside aviation anyway)
I've always made a conscious effort to keep my political beliefs to myself, even to very long time close friends as I was taught by my Mother that your political beliefs are yours and discussing them in public will twist the knickers of someone who has the power to see you aren't 'there' anymore. I do however resent on various levels those who seem to think that every statement they make must carry some sort of political point of view barb. And unfortunately this mindset has more and more become the 'norm' given the extreme divisions promulgated by what passes now a days as the 'press' and all it's built in mud throwing and automatic 'anti whatever he just said so I can get my face on TV too'.
I had some pretty intense discussions with ICLO during the Tanker contract discussions, but I respected his point of view 99+% of the time and I know he returned the respect. I respect and enjoy the inputs of 99.9 out of every 100 posters, some apparently have issues and they pop out every now and again, some you can tell are just adversarial in nature and aren't happy unless they are jabbing someone in the leg all the time, the type 'A's and Theory X believers of the world, they don't realize that they face their own worst enemy when they shave or put on their makeup in the mornings but they are just predisposed that way, and we've all worked for or with them, some are 'Uncle Ralph' who everyone shys away from @ family gatherings because he's such an abrasive indivdual.
If this is a living, flexable, dynamic forum and we wish it to stay so and stay on line then perhaps things could be tightened up a tiny bit but not clamped down on hard, that's caused me to leave other forums. I enjoy the semi freewheeling discussions that take place here. One thing I do miss are the 'goofball' chain discussions where some one would post a silly statement or odd picture and the silly, tension breaking one liners would go on for a week, what happened there? Has everyones sense of humor gone on vacation? People are more likely to let go of things they know if they don't feel that they wil be scorned or chastised by someone else, I spent a lot of time I really didn't have to explaining to a now banned indiviual the ins and outs of ALODINE application because he was receptive (along with others who added more info) and appreciated the passing along of the info, if I felt that someone was going to wag their finger or go neener-neener then I would not have been so open and willing to pass along things I've learned or taught over 4+ decades in this silly business.

Remember, people who live in glass houses should do........some things in the basement.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

I think the one of the biggest things is that some need to learn that it is OK to not agree, but that it can be done so without being insulting. I like those who say that you shouldn't say anything here that you wouldn't tell someone if they were in person. WIX has so much knowledge and fun to be had. I have had the honor of meeting so many folks here, and many of them I now call friends. Politics have no place on this forum. We all know that when we go to a party, that is one of the subjects we try to avoid. That should be the same here. It is OK to disagree with someone even if he is an warbird owner/pilot/mtc crew. But once again, respectfully disagree. When it comes to paint schemes WIX has a great deal of knowledge to be had. Same with those who build models. If a warbird owner wants a very accurate scheme, maybe it could be talked about here. Then if a guy doesn't want an accurate scheme and just wants to name his P-40 after his wife, then that is OK too. But have the honesty to say that this is the case. If there is a thread for a disagreement, leave that disagreement in that thread. Don't carry it on to other threads. How many times can the P-82 be mentioned anytime someone mentions Dayton? I think another thing needed is to wait for a a full story to break rather than react to part of a story. My Father always told me that there is almost always another side of a story. So rather than getting mad, just wait to find out some details. WIX is a great place, there are so many things I have had the chance to do because of WIX. Let's continue to make it great.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

It's more than just naming names. Letting the OBL thread run and run on the main board was a horrific error of judgement. It should clearly have been bumped to the OT forum straight away.

Consistancy at all times is required. Perhaps some 'names' will come back into the fold in such case.

This may have been covered but at least having the mods know who's who rather than
the entire world wide web would be a better solution to that problem.

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Don't touch my junk!!

I think something should be done about some of the butt ugly avatar´s people have on this site Jack Cook should be repremanded for having the worst of the bunch ... This ain´t no pee wee football .. lol

Bill Greenwood hated my snake avatar so I changed it.
I'm done listening...la la la la

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Don't touch my junk!!

So not to cause too much wondering...... like when will the WIX mods take on all the more useful ideas on this debate which Ztex opened up for our feedback?

I think someone before said the best thing was to really clean the forum layout up and make it easier and more appropiate.

You dont need some many topic areas like sci-fi / funny and off topic. It is a warbird forum last i logged into check!!!?????
If you want a warbird forum - have only appropiate warbird topics like main forum, restorations, photos gallery, reenactors and so on. Anything else is truly redundant i believe.

There are many other modelling, defence, military, funny and off topic forums run on the internet. If people are CRAVING this stuff, go to these groups and post there.
Anything NOT directly connected to warbirds - like modelling forum is so so but having military and funny on a warbird forum i believe isnt right.

If i owned this forum - id run it like my business - keep it to the bare minimals and enforce the topic areas. Anyone or anything rude or inapporpiate just gets removed. Learn to respect people and dont argue or harass opthers just because they shared information you dont have or knew about.

If politics is discussed shut it down unless FAA. Poliitics is what has ruined many topics.

So Mods needs to and more importantly Scott needs to overhaul and reduce the size of the many topic areas as a first start to really claim "WIX listens" to the feedback Ztex heard on the outside....

If they enforce better behaviours - and ive seen many appalling stuff such calling Obama racist and carrying on with such bizzare rants so on - you wont be seeing people reading or posting ... it shows this site is a potential "redneck" site to many....that is something you dont want getting into mainstream public knowledge do you. Or has it already?

Phil

Jack, put that dam-n snake that Gary sent you back up, & then lets go fishing for those Spotted Weakfish!!!!!!!!
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

When I view the WIX, I view the new posts. Doesn't matter which forum it is in, I still see it.

I don't think the reason our "warbird celebrities and heroes" seldom post is because of the unwanted opinions given in off-topic posts or the "paint color on the gear door" folks. I think it is because these (mostly wealthy spending most of their time counting or earning their money) people are too busy. When there was only one forum and a hundred or so members, it was easy to quickly surf the postings and respond to them on occasion- think ten minutes once a week for WIX. If you look only once a week now, there are probably fifteen pages to go through. For someone that doesn't have hours at a sitting to spend on the internet, it is overwhelming. For many, the internet in general is now a time waster. Ten or fifteen years ago the internet was kind of new. Now there is Facebook and text messaging and iPhone apps to be distracted with.

That would probably work... although folks have to trust the mods - which shouldn't be a real problem with our current group of good guys like Zane.
Also, the truth is that matter is that Scott and the other Ryan are busy, but ARE working on some solutions. I talked to Scott on the phone yesterday, and I'm sure he is aware of things, but he has to make judgment calls on how to try and fix them. Of course, they have real jobs, too, so it may be a bit before everything is implemented. In the meantime, we can all police ourselves, and maybe the changes will prove unnecessary in the short term.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

zane you posted eloquently on the start of this thread!! thank you!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

When I started my thread in 2007 it was after I had a conversation with Gary Austin. He told me that he found WIX to be a great way to promote the B-24. That was my original motivation to promote the PBJ restoration. I had also hoped that WIX would be a great way to network with other restorers as a way to exchange information as WIX implies. To some degree the networking aspects have met with some success. However after four years the thread has become primarily a “status report” and it has quite a few followers. The thread has over 77,000 hits so I feel obligated to keep it going. I maintain the thread for them. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to keep things as current as some would like and to those I apologize. For those that are seriously interested in what we do I recommend the Maintenance Hangar. The WIX Hangar is mainly a “gab fest” but I do admit to checking it out from time to time and for the most part I find it innocuous. I will also tell you that I can personally confirm that many of the movers and shakers in the war bird community check out the site from time to time. Remember war bird INFORMATION exchange should be the main priority if you want them to take the site seriously.

My two and a half cents,

Dan

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