Lavan, et al,
Okay, a serious answer for you - from me, personally. In other words,
the following may or may not represent the “official” opinion of TFL
and Rich Lucibella.
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TFL is owned and operated by one person. He provides all this at his
expense for our benefit and to advance responsible firearms ownership.
Again, the mission and reason for existence of TFL is to promote
responsible firearms ownership. Our mission includes some civil rights
issues - especially if the subject is firearms related.
That mission does not include dog breeding, computer games, selling
pickup trucks, or essays on “What I Did on My Summer Vacation”
even if your dog tripped over your gun, the computer game is about
aliens shooting one another, the pickup truck is used for hunting or you
happened to see a gun on your vacation.
(Frankly, I despise the manner in which members pervert the mission of
TFL and merely mention a gun to “justify” the gun-related mission of
the bulletin board. They observe the letter but not the spirit of TFL’s
very existence. Be glad I’m not the owner of TFL - it would be a
firearms board. Period.)
We have the best software available. It does not come cheap to
purchase or to maintain. The software does not include a chat room
and there is no practical way to add one.
If there were a practical way to add a chat room I, for one, would fight
it. In fact, if and when TFL gets a chat room I will resign from the
Staff.
We deal with guns, civil rights and related subjects. Tempers flare and
people have periods of totally irresponsible tantrums. There is no way I
want to be associated with a board of screaming, swearing people at
their worst, making threats of violence against each other (at the low
end of the gene pool) and against members of our government (at the
OTHER low end of the gene pool
).
I fully understand that people who are interested in firearms are not
one-dimensional people who exist only for firearms. As we get to
know each other, it is common to deviate from TFL’s reason for
existence (responsible firearms ownership). We permit some deviation
and, for some people, it isn’t enough. We understand. But we are not
going to let TFL slide into a such a morass of subjects totally unrelated
to firearms that we see threads such as, “What is your favorite color?”
There are chat rooms on the internet. Find one you like or create one.
Buy, own and operate your own chat room and/or bulletin board
service. Run it any way you like.
Or, like many of us, use-email. Several of us in the Staff forum have
had multiple-address e-mails flying nearly as quickly as many chat
rooms. It works.
I realize there is a demand for a chat room. We go through this
conversation several times each year. But there is no chat room on the
TFL bulletin board software. There is no need for a chat room to
support TFL’s reason for existence. There will be no chat room.
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Now as for your comment, “Ah yes, the invitation to leave if not
completely satisfied.
Living......growing......”
Start your own bulletin board, chat room, or whatever. When your
membership approaches 12,000 members, come back and explain to
me, personally, how you provided, at your own expense, every feature
and service desired by each and every one of your imaginative
membership.
Until then, you and others are more than welcome to enjoy the
responsible and adult use of The Firing Line -
Simply the Finest Firearms Information Site on the Web.