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Decline of Baseops.net (aka The Wrath of PYB/Mods gone wild)


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So does anybody have thoughts on my question? Are differing political stripes and ways of life converging into agreement that a police state violating our rights is not acceptable?

POLICING AMERICA: SECURITY VS. LIBERTY

Where's the line between security and liberty? American police are now armed like the military; they use their power more often and forcefully than ever before. The state has new and expanding powers to spy on almost everything you do.

THE WARRIOR COP: SWAT teams were once called out only in emergencies. Now there are almost 100 raids a day. The weapons and tactics they use come straight from the military. Sometimes innocent people are killed. Why use so much force so often? What would you do if armed men in masks broke down your door in the middle of the night?

CONSTITUTION-FREE ZONES: Lots of Americans are getting upset about being detained by armed border patrol agents not on the border but miles away from the border. Some push back, sometimes with violent results.

MANDATORY MINIMUMS: Do mandatory minimum sentences work? Prosecutors like them because they give them more power when they plea bargain with suspects. But judges often object, and sometimes people serve long sentences for trivial crimes. Or no crime.

NSA SPYING: New revelations surface almost daily on ways the Feds spy on Americans. Does this make us safer? Or invade our privacy in destructive ways?

I SPY: Government spying is one thing. Now new, cheaper "personal" drones make it easy for anyone to spy on anyone. Some say: "I've got nothing to hide. Why should I care?" But then why do you have drapes? Stossel goes to Florida to test the spying power of personal drones.

LEGALIZE WEED: Washington State and Colorado just legalized marijuana for recreational use. Could this be the start of America's trillion dollar drug-war coming to an end? Former advisor to the president Kevin Sabet says: "Colorado will show why legalizing marijuana is a mistake."

Guests

Radley Balko, "Rise of the Warrior Cop" Author
Sr. Cpl .Steve Claggett, Dallas SWAT (Ret)
Maj. Steve Ijames, Springfield, MO SWAT (Ret)
Sgt. Charles Huth, Kansas City SWAT Leader
Joe Lipari, Home Raided by SWAT
Kevin Sabet, Fmr. Sr. Advisor - Office of National Drug Control Policy
Tony Ryan, Retired Denver Police Lieutenant
Rep. Peter King, New York ®
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky ®
James Duff Lyall, ACLU Staff Attorney
Rick Rynearson, Iraq and Afghanistan War Veteran
Lis Wiehl, Fox News Legal Analyst
Greg Newburn, Families Against Mandatory Minimums
Lawrence and Lamont Garrison, Served Mandatory Minimum Sentence
Kurt Knutsson, CyberGuy.com

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  • 5 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Well, I wasn't going to put it that way. I want the history perspective of HiFlier, 'olEWO and the like. I want people like Steve Davis to be able to access this site they all give valuable input and I don't think we should discourage the ORF's to show up and add their $.02. Their input is way too valuable to discount. I do think the negative attitudes need to be kept in check and that our last influx of members came from a group (Rightfully) pissed about the VSP process as a whole. I don't have time to expand right now, as I have to do some more of the Afghans work for them as they are accustomed to, but wanted to throw in my disagreement with USAF Pilot right off the bat on those subjects.

The moderation of the forum is something I feel needs some tweaking, however. If folks can add useful inputs and suggestions of how it can be changed, I think that's as good of a place as any to start.

Edited by discus
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I have one recommenedation: close BODN to the public. There's no reason BODN needs the anonymous and potentially dangerous viewing of AF Times, anthropologists, scoobs, BQZip's mom, Chinese and Russian spies, or anyone else not in the community.

Right, because a username and password are stopping the Chinese. Heck, scoobs is probably just some high school hacker anyway. If the discussion can't happen in the open, take it to the vault.

2 on historical perspective and Steve Davies, etc. Plus, this can provide a lot of information for prospective candidates with no military affiliation (like the whole accessions forum). Attitude adjustment, probably; "exclusivity" and a dressing room curtain, no.

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I'll bring an example later, since people don't seem familiar with this.

It's not that I don't understand your idea, I just disagree.

Edit: you can't handle a simple Border Patrol question and you want to ask for someone's identity just to post on a forum? Really?

Edited by SurelySerious
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Awesome. I just finished typing a lengthy reply and then dropped my laptop. Here's the highlights:

Membership is up, page views are fairly steady with a slight decline in September (normal fluctuations). I've built apps and I'm still trying to find a way to get people logged in from work (if you're into that kind of thing).

I would be open to setting up a sub-forum that is "approved members only", but it takes a lot of time and effort to manage something like that.

Guardreservejobs is a giant pain in the ass. Every time I get it working again, within a few weeks I'm working with a three letter agency to figure out who keeps hitting my database. I love the concept, but it's going to be a while before it's ready to re-launch.

JQP is more than welcome to post on BODN forums! I wish he would, maybe it would breathe some new life into our forums. If he's interested in writing a column on the new BODN website, I'll definitely be hitting him up when the new site is ready.

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DFRESH, nobody is arguing with what you have done for the forums, that's for sure. You took over a huge part of what Rich used to do in sustaining the technical side.

Just a quick look at my "New Content" page for the day is reflected here. Looks like it will be an informative place and covers topics many would love to hear about. Let's dig a bit deeper with each one and I'll throw in a personal review of the topic:

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--Great information about getting your ATP, current trends and requirements. Good discussion about possible future posibilities of the airlines.

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-- Great information on how to make the system work for you and good discussion

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--Good discussion on Altus. Filled with it's share of KLTS bashing which is both funny and valid

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--Turned into a classic "Nav Vs. Pilot" argument in more than one place, still some good information here that has to be dug for a bit after seeing cross airfraime bashing. Could be moderated better.

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--Good discussion about P-Cola. Informative.

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--Funny, good natured discussion about military jets Vs. Civillians living on the ground

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-- Good info about AMS. Have no way to verify

-Buying investment property during UPT (aka the second ret...

--Good mentorship of perspective pilot. Constructive critisizim all around

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--Awesome if you are in the states and have decent internet. I have not been able to look for a while

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--Good info on current trends. Occasionally degenerates into bashing, but can be fixed with better moderation. (Has been fixed before with posts deleted by moderators)

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--Not a popular topic, but an interesting read

-http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/20166-upcoming-boards/

-- Good information for perspective UPT students.

These are just a quick summary, and laced with personal opinion, but once again a starting point. It is interesting because these are the threads that people looking for information tend to migrate towards. I already clicked on all the "fun" threads like the cheerleader thread that started all this the first thing after I sat down at work this morning. I think it can be deduced that people come here either looking for information or entertainment and when these two streams cross is when problems happen. Once again, no real inputs, my brain hurts after typing this, but discussion points all the same.

Edit: I'm sure there are some typos in here. I don't care.

Edited by discus
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Oh SNAPs...

Do you agree with everything posted here? No? Awesome!

Do you read everything posted here? No? Awesome!

Does everything posted here represent you? No? Awesome!

Free speech is not always tasteful or informed. But we sure dont need anymore thought policing than we've already got. I think some of you behave like teenage dickheads. I also think there are plenty of good dudes out there who genuinely try to help folks or at the least interact and learn from someone outside their own community. Sometimes it gets ugly, and has to be cleaned up.

Some would argue that the site is negatively focused because of the recent buffoonery the USAF experienced re: force management. And there aren't as many kids trolling in to ask questions - largely thanks to folks policing the site. But the worry about "spouses and airmen" reading what is written here means there is something to hide. Which I'm not sure there is - if there is, maybe it shouldn't be posted. I know I've grown up, and regret some of the dumb shit I've said here, but that doesn't mean I think there should be more controls over who sees what on an open forum.

USAFPilot I get what you're saying and see where you're going with this but the juice ain't worth your visions squeeze. The goal here should be MORE anonymous participation, including senior leadership, not more regulation and firewalls so you can control who reads it and you can "put yourself out there." Because people won't. Plain and simple.

Chuck

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Awesome. I just finished typing a lengthy reply and then dropped my laptop. Here's the highlights:

Membership is up, page views are fairly steady with a slight decline in September (normal fluctuations). I've built apps and I'm still trying to find a way to get people logged in from work (if you're into that kind of thing).

I would be open to setting up a sub-forum that is "approved members only", but it takes a lot of time and effort to manage something like that.

Guardreservejobs is a giant pain in the ass. Every time I get it working again, within a few weeks I'm working with a three letter agency to figure out who keeps hitting my database. I love the concept, but it's going to be a while before it's ready to re-launch.

JQP is more than welcome to post on BODN forums! I wish he would, maybe it would breathe some new life into our forums. If he's interested in writing a column on the new BODN website, I'll definitely be hitting him up when the new site is ready.

I do wonder if that is a big part of the drop-off. I used to get on the site from work fairly regularly, then the comm Nazis blocked the log-in page. Now I can only view what others have written.

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I just lurk here but I like JQPublic's content enough that I just subscribed to his Facebook feed and get my fix that way. Just because JQP is getting many direct referrals from here doesn't mean we aren't getting his message.

Just my 2c

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Another "exclude" to make it better thread.

Amazing this thought have never been thunk before.

Guess that's what comes from being "current." Everything is new and, therefore, brilliant.

In operational TTPs, I can see it.

In military, specifically Air Force, culture and problems, not so much.

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WTF?

One thread giving some friendly shit over a public marriage proposal and now BODN is in decline? Seriously?

I have seen very little admin/moderator abuse on this forum. And I am fairly knowledgeable on this subject as a SMod over on Ls1Tech, which is a much bigger forum, and we would deal with it on occasion.

My $0.02.

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To your point, if the "market place" dictates, BO will become like the OP wishes.

Or, more likely, and how I will vote with my eyeballs and mouse clicks, is to go with the "GTFO" advice for those that don't like the place.

I suspect the "market" likes the give and take (sts) of a wider, yet related, community than the "only current pilots can play here" mentality.

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WTF?

One thread giving some friendly shit over a public marriage proposal and now BODN is in decline? Seriously?

No shit. I don't know about GTFO, but everyone definitely needs to LTFU.

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Here are the post stats by month since January 2011, take from them what you will...

BOStats_zps1a9199b6.jpg

While the numbers may be down for the past few months, that seems to occur every year.

Now, whether the content is to everyone's satisfaction is something entirely different; but we all learned a long time ago that you can't please everyone! However, for the most part, the vast majority of our

Maybe we need to reinstate the following...

HurtFeelingsReport_zps2de580e3.jpg

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Wow- I can't believe I'm going to say this, but imo the moderation here has gotten BETTER than in years past. At least from my perspective. I think the mods know they weren't correct when they changed people's posts, etc. If someone feels they were chased off then that's on them for not sticking up. Hell I've had multiple attempts of someone(s) try to chase me out of here, but guess what... I'm still here making people roll their eyes. Because I believe when a mod crosses a line, the other mods hold that person accountable.

That said I do have warnings that are over 5 years old now, but whatever.

Has the content been a bit stale lately? Sure. But maybe that's because that's what these "new Air Force" users are bringing to the table. Don't like the content? Then post the shit you do like, or don't and keep bitching about it.

I can agree that you should need to be a registered user here to view the info, but requiring a .mil address:? GTFO.

Edited by Vertigo
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I have one recommenedation: close BODN to the public. There's no reason BODN needs the anonymous and potentially dangerous viewing of AF Times, anthropologists, scoobs, BQZip's mom, Chinese and Russian spies, or anyone else not in the community. I know of other military forums that are not viewable without logging in. Getting a username requires proof of military affiliation (receiving an email at your .mil address for proof, proving that you know someone within the community, etc). It is not totally anonymous (and thus people might not feel as free to voice their thoughts), as some moderator will know your name, but as long as the moderators are trustowrthy, there is no room to worry. Besides, the NSA will be collecting on BODN no matter how secure the site becomes from the public.

As a hopeful USAF aviator I am strongly against this suggestion. BODN isn't just a great resource for current and former aviators, but for hopeful ones like myself as well. I can't begin to describe how helpful this site has been to me over the years and I'm sure there are plenty of others who can say the same (including some who started out where I am and are now aviators). I'm sure many people can attribute some of their success directly to the info and advice on this site. And its not just the gouge info on the main page but getting to interact with real aviators and get our questions answered is what helps make this site so awesome.

Perhaps close certain sections of the site, like say the squadron bar and general discussion, but leave the Road to Wings and the Guard/Reserve and spouses ones open so we can still have access to it. I really hope this terrible idea never comes to fruition.

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Time for a new set of moderators that represents the new Air Force, moderators that are currently serving, moderators that aren't old salty burned up dudes hoping for a return of Tailhook and "so to speak," moderators that want this website to live?

I have one recommenedation: close BODN to the public.

Blah blah blah

You don't represent me. I love freedom so much that I want more than what they say I can have. I say what is on my mind and this forum is a great place for that kind of free thought. Don't like it? Don't read it! Just like I replaced your "words" with the common noise called "blah" because I didn't read it. And when people make asses of themselves, and they do, we usually do a good job of calling that crap out. If you want a non-public forum, post on af.mil. Vote with your comments and take them elsewhere. Go start your own site with the like minded and see how much fun you can have. Maybe it'll work out for you.

Now get off my lawn.

Out

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There is no decline here. As long as there are good dudes willing to mentor the willing and the willing accept debriefing accordingly there is no drama.

I have lurked here since 2003 as a young ROTC puke, with dreams dashed of flying the a10Read my thread about IFF... to flying the b1 to now flying in afsoc

I don't understand the drama here. I have received advice from CGOs as a Cadet and have been schooled by senior leaders all as a result of being affiliated with this site.

I hope I'm still here in 10 years contributing.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by Skitzo
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This forum goes in cycles. There's periodically some phase of BS and butt-hurt new folks that cause an old time poster to claim the forum has declined and leave, aka Rainman for example. While some recent threads and posts might not have been the best example of officership, I don't believe our collective shit is in the street. It simply requires a minor course correction. I have always gotten a lot out of this forum. I still do, and I anticipate it continuing to be useful and educational, not to mention entertaining.

There are a number of threads that have turned into amateur-hour bitchfests. I just simply stop reading them. No one is forcing anyone to read sophomoric conversations and posts. While an argument could be made for a new sub-forum, I don't believe we need a dramatic overall.

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