Completely agree. Just like threats and violence wouldn’t be tolerated in the LZ, so should it go here as well. When every post turns out to be an insult, threat, or conspiracy theory about the club, that’s a drain on the group and discourages others from legitimate participation.

I’ll work up a few simple guidelines for the forum for us all to review and discuss and post them here.

Since when does an unscheduled touch down in the bushes (especially when there was ample time and opportunity to make a perfectly good LZ) count as a landing? Does hitting the ground under reserve count too? Does “landing” a plane in the ocean count? Incidents are incidents – shit that happened that should not have happened during the normal course of flight. Are you super offended by me calling it a crash? That’s fine – suggest another noun to use and I’ll change it.

I’ve attempted to report all incidents here that I’m made aware of for purposes of pilot and club education – if you’re that offended by seeing incident reports, don’t come on the forum. If you’re that offended by seeing folks post information about COVID, don’t come on the forum.

Maybe the web just isn’t for you cause you have gotten SUPER heated about some topics on here and I think most folks just don’t give a shit about your opinion on those things. Perhaps we all want to get back to bragging about our flights or complaining about the north winds. I sure do.

Proposed forum guidelines – weigh in with edits, as you see fit:

In order to maintain a safe and open forum for all pilots to participate in, the following guidelines must be followed by all forum members:

• Absolutely no threats of any kind – physical or otherwise.
• Absolutely no hate speech.
• No trolling, insults, or belittling your fellow participants.

Participants in violation of the above may have the offending post removed and receive a written warning, or be suspended/banned from forum participation altogether, depending on the frequency or severity of the infraction.

That doesn’t seem like a lot to digest or that it’s heavy-handed to me, but anyone can feel free to make suggestions. As was said before – this is simple stuff that would get you banned anywhere else, so I don’t see how we’re the exception. I’m not looking to review and moderate every single post, so if we all agree to the above, anyone can feel free to either mention it in the forum or email info@crestlinesoaring.org to report it. If there are major objections to this path and y’all want someone else to run the site, also speak up – it belongs to the club and I’m not going to stand in anyone’s way.

Updated (in the original comment).

Might be board/safety director perogative, but the incident report item might be better addressed separately? Not sure how everyone  stands on incident reports, but my hope with how they have been dealt with over the past year (post them in the forum, no names, etc) is that more pilots will report incidents and that as we become more dialed into those as a collective, that that awareness can help us all prevent future incidents. Not looking to embarrass anyone, but taking an honest look at why these things happen can benefit all of us (maybe keep all of our egos in check a bit).

I know I am late to the game here, but the forum should be an extension of the LZ/club in general.

I can show great intelligence when I am working on the car or in the attic doing HVAC work, and still frequently my wife shows even greater intelligence.  However, one day some time back in the LZ when she was waiting for me to land she told me that a group of pilots were having a very loud discussion about how F-ing rad the day was and how F-ing cool the conditions are and did you see my F-ing zoom coming in to land, etc, while there were multiple visitors with their kids in the LZ.  She was so embarrassed for the visitors she went to the car and waited.

I tell everyone I fly with (737 flying) about hanggliding and many of them do go to the CSS website to look around, being pilots after all.  If a visitor who is potentially interested in learning to HG/PG goes to the website and sees foul language and general discord it is quite possible we have lost a new participant, especially if said newbie has a wife and kids and plans to bring his wife and kids with him so they can enjoy the activity as well.

While I have no problem with intelligent people and even showing my intelligence, the forum and the LZ should be welcoming to non-members so that we work to bring in as many folks as possible to HG/PG.

According to this study (CNN: Cursing may be a sign of intelligence)

Or a sign you learned to write and speak during your stint in the navy.

reminds me of a lyric:

but if I really say it, the radio wont play it, unless I lay it between the lines.

I completely agree with John Benario’s comments about the foul language in the LZ.  It gets pretty tiresome.  I also will not bring family members to the LZ.  I can and do swear with the best of you all but I do try to be aware of who the unintended audience might be.    I think that you all and I can mange our mouths well enough to let our LZ be family friendly.