• Anything ‘published’ on the web is viewed as intellectual property and, regardless of whether it displays a copyright symbol or not, is therefore copyrighted by the originator. The only exception to this is if there is a “free and unrestricted reuse” statement associated with the work.

    In order to protect our members and TFL from possible litigation, all members must abide by the following new rules:

    1. Copying and pasting entire articles from another site to TFL is strictly prohibited. The same applies to articles from print or other media, and to posting photographs taken of copyrighted pages or other media.

    2. Copyright law provides for “fair use” of portions of a copyrighted work. You can copy no more than a SINGLE paragraph from the article to your post (3 or 4 sentences at most).

    3. You must provide a link to the article along with the name of website. For example: ww.xxx.yyy/zzz (The Lower Thumbsuck Daily News).

    4. You must provide, in your own words, a brief summary of the article AND your reasons for believing it will be of interest to TFL members. Failure to do so may result in the thread being closed or your post being deleted as a “cut and paste drive by.”

    5. Photographs and other images are also copyrighted. "Hotlinking" of images (so that it appears in your message) from other sites is also prohibited unless you own rights to the image. If you wish to share an image, provide a clickable link to it.

    Posts that do not follow these new guidelines will be altered or deleted by staff. Members who continue to violate this policy may lose their posting privileges at TFL.

    Thank you for your cooperation and your participation in TFL, the leading online forum for firearms enthusiasts.

Closing Threads

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Shane also makes an excellent point as for why we try to keep threads on topic.

The "information database" aspect of TFL isn't maintained by accident. Old threads are not deleted because of the wealth of information that can be found here.

No, not every thread is filled with gold, but lots of them are, which is the biggest reason why we encourage people to search TFL liberally. We understand that the vBulletin search isn't particularly awesome, but it's usable. Google's advanced search does an excellent job of pulling up threads.

It's expensive to maintain an ever-growing data repository. Members are very fortunate that TFL's founder is both committed to maintaining this site's history and is footing the entire bill for this place. Members have never been asked to kick in a penny for daily operations, and you'll also notice that, with the exception of the links page, there are no ads here.

Rich Lucibella deserves everyone's gratitude for both his generosity and his commitment to the shooting sports.
 
This thread was closed
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=449742

I get that TFL is private, we're all here as guests and we agree to abide by the rules of the site as interpreted by the Mods. That policy should continue and TFL is usually well controlled and not heavy handed.

But the closing of this thread is heavy handed. The question posed by the OP leads directly to politics. Abortion and other political matters were posited as example or analogy intended to illustrate thought on the topic. In no way could this be construed to lead off topic because the initial poll created by the OP included politics as an answer.

Either the thread should have been closed immediately as inappropriate, or it should still be open. We are not kindergarteners. This is not the YMCA.

I think you are wrong here Mod. I think the thread should be re-opened.
 
Lawnboy, see my post #9, above. I think it's more polite to question such decisions privately, rather than in the open forum.

Although I suspect you'll find the response to be something along the lines of
Mal H said:
... we are proactive instead of reactive.
Click to expand...
 
Either the thread should have been closed immediately as inappropriate, or it should still be open. We are not kindergarteners. This is not the YMCA.

I think you are wrong here Mod. I think the thread should be re-opened.
Click to expand...

So, by your claim of members already posting a thread that entices politics we should allow two wrongs be a right and never close the thread? Um, yyyeeeaaahhh, right....

Here's where you're off-base.

1. The OP did NOT lead to the nature of politics not allowed here. Members that post political content that isn't allowed in a thread is what lead to closing.

2. The nature of politics that aren't allowed here leads to members acting like kindergardeners. We have LOADS of threads in our archives, which prove this as a cold hard fact.

3. You're confusing the difference in discussing law & civil rights regarding what the government involvement is and pure politics.

4. In my observation, Glenn smelled a thread about to go sour based on his experience as Staff. He nipped it in the bud.

The ruling was sound and stands as Glenn saw fit....unless he decides to reconsider.

Oh, and Vanya's example is the perfect example of the practice.
 
Shane has it nailed. The OP may have led to politics but we let it go a bit. When Obama and abortion enters the debate - it's going to lead to some firestorm and ranting/raving posts. It is not our mission to referee such and TFL is not about that.

Even using an analogy can start the brush fire.

Perhaps we should have closed it immediately. But logic dictates that the letting it go for a bit does not precludes a later close or demand a reopening.

I would remind folks that this is a voluntary activity and just as you don't have to watch the View or watch MTV, if you don't like us - there are other wild and wooly gun forums full of ranting, raving and profanity.

I would also remind folks that the moderators bring considerable expertise and time to this enterprise as volunteers. Engaging in a close quarter hermeneutic examination of posts to distinguish between analogy and politics and forbidden subjects demands my salary be tripled. :D
 
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