The latest Edge vs. Flat thread has been removed for the time being. People have proven that they can not stay civil: some have been outright with their incivility, others have thinly veiled theirs, hiding behind feigned innocence and politeness. The thread has also added next to nothing to our knowledge of the topic.

There are certain topics that come up again and again which add nothing to the otherwise civil discourse we try to maintain here. These involve old arguments with well-entrenched participants who egg each other on, act in an uncivil manner, and add nothing new to the discussion. They also violate our simple Rules of Conduct by posting new topics that cover old material, by making personal attacks and by attempting to stir up trouble or egg on other people.

Going forward we will enforce these rules much more rigidly, specifically:

*Do conduct yourself in a professional manner. We support forum members engaging in constructive debate, disagreeing with the opinions of others, or requesting further information or even the citation of references. We do, however, expect this to be done in a respectful manner and without personal attacks. If you don't agree with somebody's post, argue with the post's content, not with the person who made it.
*Do not troll our forums. Posting with the specific intent of stirring up trouble or inciting disruption will not be tolerated.
*Try to avoid duplicating topics already discussed. Use the forum's search function to check if the topic you wish to post exists in the forum already. It's very possible that a similar discussion has already taken place.

These topics have added little to this site besides frustration and enmity, things we strive against. We will always welcome new information on old topics, but will not tolerate new posts that attempt to stir up or inflame old arguments. We are also not the battleground for you or your group's agenda or vendettas. Inter-organizational spats should not be carried over here.

In our four-plus years we have worked hard to create a community of civility and the sharing of knowledge. We ask for your help in maintaining this culture.

Hi Chad, that is an Excellent post you wrote :!: Doing the "Topic Search" is something I for one have not been as good about as I should have, although I usually just respond to existing threads, although now and then I do come up with a thread.
Definitely, searching the forum to see if the topic has been raised before is a great idea, especially to avoid being redundant.

Respect is very important and to me it is one of the most important virtues that the sword is a symbol of in spirituality.
Without "Respect", the existance and growth of the other virtues simply cannot exist in my personal opinion.

Although I had not read any of the posts in that thread, I for one was glad to see this post you wrote.

Sincerely!

Bob

Being new here, I'd like to add something.

I'm by no means an expert. Most would say I'm just stumbling into the knowledge that most of you have on the boards here. What I do pride myself in is being objective.

What good do these time worn debates do to us? Is there some reason that people want to see one way as the 'only' way, and all others at best ignorant and at worst flat out wrong? We are studying a time period that is still draped mostly in mystery. The few surviving texts we have are rare and may represent only a smattering of what happened on a daily basis on the field.

One of the things that I think that all of us need to take a step back and realize is that we all love swords, swordplay and learning about how the Medieval Knight went about his duties. One of the things that hampers this is peoples insistence that they know the only way, or that anyone else that doesn't agree with them doesn't know what they're talking about. This is untrue.

As Chad said, no one is bringing anything to these tired debates. Why don't we find something more enjoyable about our passion and hobby (as expensive as it is) to talk about?

In life, I'd much rather be happy than right.

-John

As people have said for years: Swords are fun. At least they should be. :) I don't know that our hobby is worth getting so upset about. I do know moderating those threads is not fun. I know reading them is not fun. I can imagine trying to prove you're right and everyone else is wrong is not fun.

Let's have fun and quit arguing just for argument's sake. :)

Man everyone knows you don't beat and undead horse you cut it's head off with a sword, use the edge ;)

Guys,
I do appreciate the humor, but please don't forget that I'm very serious about the first post in this thread. I don't want that lost amid the levity.

Thanks Chad for all the patience you have to find dealing with the negatives of having to read everything.

It was fairly done, Chad, and my apologies for my own role in leading to it.

Greg

The "cooling off period" is over and I have returned the original topic to public view with a Strong Warning attached.