Posted by Bert Heise on May 31, 2000 at 18:45:41:
In Reply to: A Soldier Died Today posted by INTRUDN on May 29, 2000 at 04:26:13:
Hope that I don't kick somebody's knee now - you know that things get
difficult when people stop arguing but start SCREAMING or even **SHOUTING**...
By no means I would stop anyone from posting off-topic comments if a thread
leads to it, I'm having great fun reading such things, too... But *please*
try to avoid, if possible, themes which could start flamewars or similar.
Once I saw a "CANADIANS ARE SHIT" post [something like that] in rec.motorcycles,
which immediately started a never ending flamewar thread with thousands of
posts... Don't get me wrong - I didn't say you posted something *that* bad,
but anything related to weapons, military, vets, or similar is definitively
something which should not be discussed here because the opinions (and *very*
personal ones, which therefore get immediately offended) are extremely diffe-
rent. In most of Europe (and Germany in special, France and GB are a bit of
an exception), anything military is not exactly popular since WW2, as you may
imagine... Virtually noone talks about vets here (OK, there are hardly some of
them left by now) and making big fuss about it may cause some disturbance...
I know you are the INTRUDER and I won't stop you posting what you like, but please respect *some* rules at least and noone will bother.
I know that the freedom of speech is a *very* important thing - I'm now living and working in the eastern part of Germany where this freedom was practically absent for about 30 years this century...
*But* if you restrict yourself/yourselves a little bit in respect of others, your freedom won't go away but you won't make other people jump up to the ceiling and keep rotating there for hours disrespective of any gravitational force... ;-)
And you also won't provoke others to restrict you...
Ride free
Bert.