Does anybody know what led up to this? I am wondering if this development was evident in recent threads there. It sure would be interesting to know what happened. Quite a shock to learn.
http://www.rypn.org/
Bucyrus, I don't know what led up to the web site being discontinued but I was browsing the interchange yesterday and did'nt read anything I thought was bad.
I visited that site as much as this great one.
According to a multitude of online postings elsewhere and private communications I received, the incident in question revolved around the planned revocation of posting privileges for a certain steam locomotive owner (think Nickel Plate, Reading, and C&O) who had repeatedly violated the RyPN Interchange forum's posted standards regarding personal attacks and flaming. Supposedly/allegedly, said loco owner threatened legal action (a preposterous proposition, admittedly), and the site's nonprofit board of directors promptly folded and jumped ship, leaving only one person left to turn out the lights, so to speak.
I inquired of the basta-- the sonova-- well, the person supposedly responsible, and he didn't deny it but did the "there's more than one side to the story" dance...............
In an effort to provide a new online discussion forum specifically devoted to railway preservation, I've begun actively promoting my railway preservation forum located at http://www.steampreservation.com This site has actually been online for a couple of years, but since RYPN was doing such a good job, I never really tried to get my forum going previously.
Membership is free, and the site specifically covers all railway preservation and related subjects. I found RYPN to be very useful, and I think it is very important to try and continue that type of resource.
Here is what precipitated the shutdown of RPN.
http://www.ngdiscussion.net/cgi-bin/NGDFcook.pl?noframes;read=91991
I'm not aware of any state or federal law that would grant Mr. Rowland a property right in membership of any internet discussion group, which is a private forum and also not generally subject to the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. Also, the IRS is not generally involved in the determination of the viability of a charitable organization. Typically, that would be the attorney general of the state where the non-profit is incorporated. In any event, neither creates any private right of action that Mr. Rowland could avail himself of in my view.
The parties should make more of an effort to resolve this dispute without such extreme posturing and stupidity. The Board of Directors and organization have also made a number of blunders here and continuing on their present course could result in personal liability and legal fees expenses if they don't get competent counsel before taking such knee jerk actions.
All of the above depends entirely upon the laws, cases and regulations of all jurisdictions involved and nothing in this posting should be construed as legal advice.
Retain competent counsel or work it out yourselves...
LC
Limitedclear wrote: I'm not aware of any state or federal law that would grant Mr. Rowland a property right in membership of any internet discussion group, which is a private forum and also not generally subject to the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. Also, the IRS is not generally involved in the determination of the viability of a charitable organization. Typically, that would be the attorney general of the state where the non-profit is incorporated. In any event, neither creates any private right of action that Mr. Rowland could avail himself of in my view. The parties should make more of an effort to resolve this dispute without such extreme posturing and stupidity. The Board of Directors and organization have also made a number of blunders here and continuing on their present course could result in personal liability and legal fees expenses if they don't get competent counsel before taking such knee jerk actions.All of the above depends entirely upon the laws, cases and regulations of all jurisdictions involved and nothing in this posting should be construed as legal advice. Retain competent counsel or work it out yourselves...LC This makes our little disagreements seem sort of lame. I read thru several of the posts and it seems very unfortunate. Interesting topic...internet free speech. Has there been anything similar taken to the courts?ed
This makes our little disagreements seem sort of lame. I read thru several of the posts and it seems very unfortunate.
Interesting topic...internet free speech. Has there been anything similar taken to the courts?
ed
Bucyrus wrote: Here is what precipitated the shutdown of RPN.http://www.ngdiscussion.net/cgi-bin/NGDFcook.pl?noframes;read=91991
While we live in a litigious society, this is all about egos. I don't think Mr. Rowland anticipated RPN shutting down after his sabre-rattling threats of damaging RPN through legal action, however.
It is now OK if Mr. Rowland is ashamed of himself, because this shows him to be a fool.
PZ
Interesting topic...internet free speech. Has there been anything similar taken to the courts?ed
Nothing resulting in a landmark decision. Right now, many of us are waiting for Congress to officially declare Publishing Law applies to the Internet. It is long overdue.
In most cases, being a member of a forum is a privilege, not a right and therefore implies no right to freedom of speech. By the act of registering to gain entree to a forum, it is reasonable to infer consent to follow the rules and regulations of that forum. This would apply to RPN.
However, an individual on his/her own web page is protected (somewhat, with reservations) by the First Amendment; of course, this does not mean his/her actions are immune from any legal action resulting from those actions.
Poppa_Zit wrote: Bucyrus wrote: Here is what precipitated the shutdown of RPN.http://www.ngdiscussion.net/cgi-bin/NGDFcook.pl?noframes;read=91991While we live in a litigious society, this is all about egos. I don't think Mr. Rowland anticipated RPN shutting down after his sabre-rattling threats of damaging RPN through legal action, however.It is now OK if Mr. Rowland is ashamed of himself, because this shows him to be a fool.PZ
I certainly agree with your observation here. This was a head-on collision of egos that went further than either side probably intended. Mr. Kading got the last blow, leaving Mr. Rowland in the unfortunate position of being publicly perceived as the one who destroyed the widely beloved RPN. You can detect Mr. Rowland's realization of this peril in his last message. Although to pay for the last word in this battle, Mr. Kading had to sacrifice the forum which not only included his ownership interest, but also, the essential component of a large accumulation of loyal, participating members and non-member viewers.
One can only hope, that after a few weeks cooling off, calmer heads will prevail, and this can be patched up with the resumption of RPN, and with Mr. Rowland posting again as a member. There is a lot to be said for being able to sleep at night.
Well apparently it did cool off and is returning as I had hoped.
Bucyrus wrote: Well apparently it did cool off and is returning as I had hoped.http://www.rypn.org/
Bravo! Let the record show it was the unreasonable aggressor in this fiasco, Ross Rowland, who ultimately blinked. His "standing" in the RR community is perhaps the only thing to suffer permanent damage as a result -- as should happen. A totally selfish act has been justly rewarded.
Railfan1It'll be back by Sunday evening
JOSEPH R HAZINSKIIt is up a running Saturday August 1st with new posts.
And has been, in its present form, since the time indicated -- and all the old posts were preserved. (Click on the "page=xxxx of xxxx", which is a mystery-meat control that opens a box to specify the page to jump to, to go to a particular page of posts.)
This demonstrates two potential thread dangers. The first is revival of a "zombie" thread that may have lost its context and even its reason for being (think of all those threads and posts, mine among them, with reasons why a Big Boy would never run again); the second is using a provocative or exciting title on a thread, which if 'resurrected' will cause alarm, confusion and delay before we understand any crisis or even relevance is long past.
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