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Originally posted by Norton:
Even freedom of speech has its limits, as it should..

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Maybe you just don't care what AR is becoming.

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Originally posted by Grenadier:
Interesting. I respectfully and politely point out what is happening historically on AR and I get an emotionally charged response telling me to knock it off.

I can only wonder why you don't instead tender your heartfelt condemnations to those who are posting stuff like this:

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: You're a fucking idiot.

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: Proof phuck face?

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: Eat Shit And Die MoFo!!!!!

Maybe you just don't care what AR is becoming.

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I will continue hoping that you and your whole family has died!

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Originally posted by GeorgeS:
I find it amusing that many of the assholes responsible for the toxic atmosphere in the ARPF posted in this thread trying to keep the toxicity levels high.
...and Bingo.

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It's about conduct in general and trends in AR.

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Originally posted by Grenadier:
It's not about politics. It's about conduct in general and trends in AR.

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In fact it seems to have devolved into AR politics and the long standing grudges here. Sad really.

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Originally posted by Grenadier:
For years Accurate Reloading was one of the best and most informative places to go to read and post hunting reports, discuss arms and ammunition, and to gain and share useful information on guns, loads, hunting, and the shooting sports. Sadly, those days are gone.

Today, AR has morphed into a highly political forum. It is filled with hateful diatribes and hateful spam. The administration has not only allowed its conversion into a political toilet but has encouraged it. One troll in particular "owns" the website. No other forum on the internet would allow anyone to do this sort of thing: http://forums.accuratereloadin...Type=1&search=Search . None, nada, no alt-left, alt-right, vegan, cultist, even devil worshiping site would allow it.

Some of the members who participated the most in the past have become all but silent now, some have truly gone silent. There still remain some very good people active and posting in the non-political areas of AR. But the non-political activity continues to wane and the posts are fewer and farther between. I can only guess that their interest in the site is also waning and that they are doing other things, including spending more time at other hunting and shooting websites.

Photobucket's blackout has made things worse. Many, many members who used to post photos with their commentary are no longer willing to post anything with pictures. Who can blame them, after all, ten years worth of photo-filled posts have lost all images. A HUGE portion of AR has lost meaningful and interesting content. Political posters, on the other hand, have no trouble finding pictures and photos they can link from various online political and journalistic websites. That means the Photobucket blackout has impacted posting of new hunting and shooting posts but has had no impact on political posts. Thus, Photobucket has unwitting helped AR move further away from a hunting and shooting interests and solidified it more as a political forum.

An interesting thing has happened along the way. When AR was administered, it surely no longer is, the language used and the slights issued to other members were of a much more civilized nature. But since the administration has let the gloves come off, the true personality of some members has been allowed to emerge. It is now plain to see that some of them are nothing other than vile, hateful, petulant, and childish imps. The masks have come off and some of the faces are really ugly.

Thankfully, not every AR poster is that way. In fact, most are not. We still have some of the lingering stalwarts hanging on. No doubt they remember the better days of AR and they likely hope for things to get better, for the trolling and spamming political scum to subside. They continue to participate in the hunting a shooting areas but to a lesser degree. But AR has a large number of members we only hear form rarely now. Perhaps they check in from time to time, perhaps not.

We must also consider the "visitors". Some are members who haven't logged in. Most are probably non-members coming to AR. Why would they come to AR, what would drive them here? They are coming to read the posts, check out the forums, or following a link to an article from some other website. They are not coming here because they searched for a load, hunt reviews, an outfitter, rifle write-ups by entering a term or phrase into a search engine. AR content doesn't come up in search engines. What does come up in search engines is links and references to AR from other websites. Someone talks about AR or posts regarding AR and provides a link. What this tells us is that new people are coming to AR because of the AR content being shared by others. I wonder, as the percentage of political content grows, is the number of people visiting AR for its political content growing? Does that mean the number of people visiting AR for hunting and shooting content is shrinking?

I hope that things are temporary and that AR will once again become a prominent hunting and shooting site. As long as there are interesting hunting, shooting, loading, and firearms activity I will continue to visit AR, even though I find myself among those coming less often. I am sure I am not alone.

This I do know, people tend to visit and participate in websites where they have a common interest. That's why AR is gaining the interest of ill mannered political hacks with a common agenda and losing the interest of hunters and shooters.

Will AR continue into obsolescence with nothing meaningful to offer hunters and shooters? Or, will AR regain its lost glory? If it is to be the latter then AR has its work cut out for it. While it has been sliding backward many other shooting and hunting sites have been moving forward. AR could still come back. Or maybe its to be the former, and Saeed is no longer interested in hosting a hunting and shooting website but chose the new direction because he wants AR to become a political sewer. Time will tell.

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Try growing up a bit and realising that just having an opinion isn't enough, all opinions are not created equal.

The only problem I see with your analogy, is that as a group, hunters/shooters are usually highly opinionated and passionate about those subjects, and as such have the bad habit of dismissing another persons opinion, simply because they have had different experiences or more experience, and can be extremely closed minded.

Some are a good deal more grounded in logic, reason and evidence than others and when you come up across such an opinion, to only ever reply in a emotive and racially biased way means that you get written off as someone not worth listening to.

Another aspect that adds to the problems is interpreting what is the point another person is trying to make when they are making a comment or stating an opinion. My opinions are based on what I have actually experienced. At times it seems like people are all too ready to assume that because they have not experienced something, no one else has experienced such a situation.

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Originally posted by Ghubert:

It seems a little hypocritical of you to lament thus when you are one of the people who materially add to the "political sewer".

You might not realise it, but being the sort of person who considers it's reasonable to accuse every Middle Easterner he comes across of being a potential terrorist means that you are no better than the people you claim to decry.

Try growing up a bit and realising that just having an opinion isn't enough, all opinions are not created equal.

Some are a good deal more grounded in logic, reason and evidence than others and when you come up across such an opinion, to only ever reply in a emotive and racially biased way means that you get written off as someone not worth listening to.

As you can see.

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Originally posted by Grenadier:

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Originally posted by Ghubert:

It seems a little hypocritical of you to lament thus when you are one of the people who materially add to the "political sewer".

You might not realise it, but being the sort of person who considers it's reasonable to accuse every Middle Easterner he comes across of being a potential terrorist means that you are no better than the people you claim to decry.

Try growing up a bit and realising that just having an opinion isn't enough, all opinions are not created equal.

Some are a good deal more grounded in logic, reason and evidence than others and when you come up across such an opinion, to only ever reply in a emotive and racially biased way means that you get written off as someone not worth listening to.

As you can see.

I am not being hypocritical. I did participate in the Political Forum for years but I also participated heavily in other areas as well. Over time, activity, including mine, increased in the Political Forum and diminished in the other forums. Today, most of the big posters in the Political Forum post little, if at all, in other forums. Further, the conduct in the Political Forum got worse and worse and the trend continues. Not surprisingly the smallest of men post the vilest of personal insults. It's sort of the inverse square law of internet personalities. Eventually, the Political Forum came to dominate and define what AR is today. I didn't like the transformation and grew tiered of it. I have not participated in the Political Forum for months. Would you call a reformed alcoholic a hypocrite because he works to get people sobered up? Would you call an ex-drug addict a hypocrite because he gives lectures on the evils and dangers of drugs? Would you call a Muslim who converted to Christianity a hypocrite because he now decries Sharia Law? No, I'm not being hypocritical at all.

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Originally posted by Grenadier:
And this, "being the sort of person who considers it's reasonable to accuse every Middle Easterner he comes across of being a potential terrorist...to only ever reply in a emotive and racially biased way" is pure nonsense. That does not describe me nor anything I have ever posted on AR. But your statement does much to describe you and is exactly the sort of personally assaulting behavior that is destroying AR.

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Okay, AR is becoming a political cesspool because of me. Brilliant......

I wont take your hate bait. As I said above, the smallest of men post the vilest of personal insults. All you are doing is reaffirming that and demonstrating it applies to you.

Your posts here are simply supporting the title of this thread...........

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Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

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Okay, AR is becoming a political cesspool because of me. Brilliant......

I wont take your hate bait. As I said above, the smallest of men post the vilest of personal insults. All you are doing is reaffirming that and demonstrating it applies to you.

Your posts here are simply supporting the title of this thread...........

And the above comments don't support the title of the thread????

Why not just move on with your life or just participate in the forums you are still interested in.

You are not winning, by trying to persuade people that the site has gone to hell, and then blowing up like you did at ghubert.

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Respectfully, Crazy, he was the one attacking me. He was just baiting for an argument. But the thread isn't about me or him.

If you don't like this thread don't participate. Nobody is forcing you to join the discussion.

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Originally posted by Macs B:
Is it possible to select an option which will prevent a specific forum from showing up when I select "new since your last visit"? Would love to get the political forum out of my search, seems that forum is 90% of the activity on the site.

http://forums.accuratereloadin...0106691/m/3291059432

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Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
Whether or not AR survives is to be seen, I personally do not see it going back to being what some folks remember it being. It would be nice if things would calm down, but each of us are going to have to take an HONEST look at our own behaviors on here and see whether or not we are helping or hurting the situation.

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Originally posted by Ghubert:
I think this article has some bearing on the matter:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...offrey-Giuliano.html

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This thread is not about me, though some here seem to wish it were. No, this thread is about the politicization of AR - the transition from being primarily dedicated to hunting and shooting to being primarily dedicated to politics.

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Can anyone honestly dispute that?

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Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:

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Like it or not, politics now dominates, and thus defines, AR....Can anyone honestly dispute that?

Yes Sir I can!

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The ONLY one that started trying to make AR Political, was YOU by starting this discussion.

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Dude, you have done been told by Saeed that the Crater ain't going anywhere, No internet site is going to simply shut down an active topic area just cause member has decoded it needs to be done away with.

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That thread is about an individual being able to block the PF from Search results - not about shutting down the PF. The OP was not the first nor only person to request such a feature. Unfortunately, Admin has explained the software used for the AR forums does not have that capability. Too bad, that would be a nice feature.