By Chuck Woodbury
Editor
Last Saturday, our big day at RVtravel.com when we open our cyber doors to about 40,000 visitors (readers), some readers’ comments got nasty.
For the record, we won’t tolerate that sort of self-expression on this website or on any of our others. It will either be intelligent, thoughtful, considerate discussion or no discussion at all.
This website is where I live most of the time. Of course, I don’t really live here because I am not a digital creation. But my words and thoughts live in this space, as do those of our other writers and many readers, who contribute thoughtful, usually helpful comments. Since we moved our website to a new server in 2016, readers have contributed more than 11,000 comments. About 99.9 percent of them were respectful and added value to the discussion.
But other less intelligent creatures show up on occasion to slam others with nasty, ignorant remarks, basically saying “I’m right and you’re wrong, so screw you!”
Well, that is simply not acceptable. So what we do is delete their displays of ignorance, banishing their obnoxious missives into distant cyberspace, where they die and are sucked into the dark matter of the Universe, never to be witnessed again by human eyes.
So, here’s the deal: Be nice. Be fair. Please, say what’s on your mind, but honestly, without spite, and consider that maybe, just maybe, you could be wrong and the other guy right.
Thanks.
##RVT832
Just be civil. State your point, keep it relevant To say free speech is unlimited, that you can say anything you want, consequences be damned, is the old ostrich head in the sand.
Thanks RP. Well said!!
I don’t know why we ar not seeing more campgrounds. I have been to a few almost new
RV parks here in Oregon, very nice and not cheap.
I think that is the way it will go..expensive RV parks.
We are going to sell our less (just slightly) 1 year old Winne ERA 170a 4×4. We both had a much different expectation on what the whole RV scene was like.
Wish it was different.
thanks,
Eric
You are right about Oregon RV parks being greedy.
Unfortunately there are nasty people who troll the internet looking for anyplace they can post a nasty comment on whether the subject interests them or not. They use profanity and name calling which ruins it for the rest. Sorry you are a target of them too.
Its raining in Richmond today….Well I thought about going to the RV show in town this weekend….. My wife said….. after four units we’ve owned in the past, she would not go and I must leave the checkbook at home……case closed…..where’s that book “Killing England”, I’ve been reading……..
“Distant Cyberspace”. The modern equivalent of the circular file.
Steve its very costly to add sewer & elec,. plus you have get it passed the zoning bd. county, state & local, every one has a say in your project. we had a campground this was in the 80″s more rules now..
Chuck keep up the good work!
Thanks for the “rant”, Chuck! Well done and I completely agree with you. I come to this website to learn, to get ideas, and to be an informed RVer. The nastiness and political commentary from some readers just doesn’t belong here. There are plenty of other websites where those inclined can engage in such behaviour. We don’t always have to agree with each other but let’s all do our part to keep things civil and apolitical.
Steve
I’m interested in the answer too.
From April to October we enjoyed camps in 9 States with our 33 foot TT. Wintering at a fine CAMP in the Arizona desert has added four couple’s to our list of true friends forever. It has been good to park awhile and get acquainted.
Chuck,
A few issues back you were commenting about the number of new RV’s, which I see was over a half a million in 2017, and campgrounds. It is common knowledge that sites are hard to find at certain times of the year and is expected to get tighter as more boomers retire on the road and more families find camping as a cost effective way to enjoy time off.
One thing I have noticed is how many campgrounds cater to the seasonal camper, the people who take their camper to a campsite and it stays there all season long even though they are not at the camper most of the time. Some are there but many are weekend campers with a permanent site set up. I am sure there is a financial advantage to both CG owner and camper alike, but it is not appealing to me! I want to move and see this great country!
You also mentioned that there are few new campgrounds opening and certainly not enough to meet current and future demand.
So my quandary is “Why is that?” Why are we not seeing more new campgrounds? And why do you think many of the existing CGs are not upgrading things like electric and sewer? Is it expense and I am sure that is part of it? Too much work for the money to be made? Are there so many campers looking that they don’t need to make the place better? (Sorry if that sounded cynical)
I am not a CG owner so I am asking for your thoughts. What do you think it is going to take to get a boost in new CGs? We are a year from retirement and will be part Full timers and looking to workamp – sounds like fun!
Thanks, and thanks for a great newsletter!
Steve
I believe in the First Amendment. Period! I really do not think it is our place to curtail free speech anymore than it is our place to take another’s life.
When we rant about another’s right to rant, isn’t it a bit hypocritical? And when we believe another’s viewpoint isn’t valid, but only ours is, don’t we cast ourselves as bigots?
Who’s to say that someone’s comment is obnoxious? SCOTUS overturned obscenity laws because there are as many definitions of obscenity as there are people on earth. And of course SCOTUS hasn’t yet overturned the First Amendment, against the wishes of the growing PC police no doubt.
A while back Chuck ranted about RV refrigerators. And a whole lot of people gave him an earful, too. Had the thought police somewhere deleted Chuck’s post because it offended the RV industry, some of us would be a lot dumber about refrigerators because we wouldn’t’ve had the benefit of reading many thoughtful comments about residential units in RVs.
Recently some old gal posted a comment saying my comment was dumb. Well, she has a free-speech right to say whatever she wants about me or what I comment. I could have challenged her if I wanted, but I didn’t because, well, you can’t win playing with spoiled children. Besides, there were others who thought my comment was thoughtful, to her disappointment. Ignoring a child can have far more impact than shedding light on one.
The way I see it, we have no right to prevent someone from going on stage and making a fool of themselves. Besides, opposing viewpoints are very entertaining. There’s enough boredom in the world without homogenizing speech. If we are going to demand respect, we have to be generous enough to grant respect, too.
If someone rants about me, I want to retain the right to deal with it myself. If we’re capable of posting online, we should be capable of defending ourselves online, too, even eviscerating an offensive stooge if we want to. But when someone intervenes and deletes the comment, then our right to respond has also been deleted, not to mention the loss of potential valuable information, such as we saw with residential refrigerators.
We’re all adults here. We can choose not to read someone’s post, but I don’t think we should curtail free speech, much less even discourage it, making us no better than the bigoted bullies we despise.
rp. Just don’t start calling someone names because you disagree. Disagreeing is fine. I think most of us can tell when someone makes their point with careful thought, or when they do it because they’re right, by God, and you are wrong and that’s just the way it is! Being nasty or disrespectful has no place on this website.
100% agree. We are all adults here. I believe we can all separate the childish foolishness from the relevant.
I write as someone who has watched “comments” on the Internet since, litterally the beginning of Internet Time. The “right of free speech” always comes up when someone wants the “right to use a forum designated for a specific purpose for their own purposes”. This forum’s purpose as I understand it is the reasoned exchange of ideas and information about RV’s and RVing. That inludes rants, as and expression of one’s feelings about a particular topic but does not include gratuitous attacks on particular persons. Nor does it inlude return attacks, and defenses and so on and so forth. IMO, its ok ot say an idea is dumb, but not that a person is dumb. Even so, if a response is required (and we all can often tell when a response really isn’t required), one might explain why one’s opinion is backed by experience instead of simply responding in kind to a person who obviously more concerned about attacking people than real discussion. While there is a tendency to claim forums such as this “public” and therefore “without rules”, I don’t believe it is. Its more like someone’s living room or club meeting room. It comes with rules, which of course should be as flexible as possible, but rules none-the-less.
Saying society should accept anything goes is foolish. If someone jumps into the middle of an internet conversation swearing, ranting and raving, and making a complete {bleeped} of himself, the group has a right to tell him to leave. It’s basic school ground knowledge. If you want to play; play nice.