Site Censoring

Illini Warrior - November 7, 2021

Either this is a free & open site to post opinions or it’s not – the Americans here value their 1st Amendment Right – the rest take your lumps without the protection …

Refuse the posting – delete it ENTIRELY – but I for one don’t allow someone to self editorialize THEIR opinion using my name ….

Bill Mason posts elsewhere on other prepper forums – doesn’t expect to be censored – don’t appreciate that double-standard ….

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Good afternoon Illini Warrior, if you read the rules, the team are very clear, this is a heavily moderated site.

RULES

This forum is heavily moderated to keep things valuable to as many people as possible. Full community policies are here. The basics:

1. Be nice to each other.
2. Stay focused on prepping.
3. Avoid politics, religion, and other arguments.
4. No unfounded conspiracies, fake news, etc.
5. Debate ideas, not people.

Don’t understand what your problem is. You post on different forums also.

Just sayin’

 

Going to leave this thread up as a warning to others. Thanks for the comment above Jenny.

As we’ve said from the start: This is a place for anyone to talk about prepping, not preppers to talk about anything. No one wants political bickering shit like what Illini said in the post they’re upset about, which was: 

“you’re dealing with scum of the earth POS – lifetime sippers of social welfare that never put forth any effort in life – not going to start now by risking their life”

As we’ve already tried to be nice and explain to you Illini, you can make your point without getting to that level of junk. We removed that sentence instead of your entire comment in an effort to be nuanced, but I understand you don’t want that.

So since you can’t get along with the vibe and continue to be a problem, you’re no longer welcome here. I’ll be muting/removing your account. We have better things to do than spend time on policing immature talk.

 

Thank you!

 

Thanks John, much appreciated. I have avoided other sites for precisely that sort of thing. It’s great to be able to recommend The Prepared to newer preppers without reservations about them being harassed for their questions or inexperience, and to offer potentially useful personal experiences without fear of hostility. 

 

Thank you for this.

I’ve avoided the prepper community for a long time for fear of unwelcoming attitudes and being a bit of a “black sheep”. It’s one of the reasons why I’m glad to have found The Prepared here―the firm community rules and moderation mean that I feel like I can actually participate comfortably.

Also, I applaud communities that actually moderate proactively. Untended gardens tend to grow weeds.

 

Untended gardens tend to grow weeds.

I like that a lot! Thanks for your kind words.

 

THANK YOU! I love that you guys keep this site focused on actual prepping and advice. All the extra crap and name calling is why many are so hesitant to even get into prepping in the first place 

 

Thank you, John and staff! I love this forum and participate because of the community policies. 

 

Me too. Good manners cost nothing (oh help! I sound like my mother!)

 

Darn I liked IW , I’ll miss her but I accept that TPs rules are TPs rule so I try to sail the middle of the river on issues that could be constructed as political bias.   its sad when these incidents occur.

 

Thank you Bill. I don’t know about your behavior on other forums, as Illini referred to, but what matters is how people act here — and you’ve been a welcome member of this community.

Similarly, we knew Illini to be a shit-stirring figure from other forums (they even attacked me once a few years ago on a different site), but we did not preemptively ban them here (as some people wanted us to) because everyone gets a chance to follow the rules and get a fair warning.

 

I’m very politically vocal where its allowed, but if a subject or topic is not allowed I do my best to comply. Oddly enough I do actually find it pleasant to not get mixed up with politics, conspiracies or religion as it all to often leads to hostility.

Each forum to its own though, I wont judge how people run their forums.

 

There’s a vast difference between being politically vocal and downright rude, though Bill. 

It’s healthy to have differing opinions and discuss those differences, you don’t need to get nasty and personal about things though.

I’ve never understood why a certain section of the prepping community think it’s acceptable to be so viperous, especially toward non preppers and new preppers. Live and let live I say, help where you can and be quiet when you can’t. 

 

I think much of the anger is born out of frustration with mainstream society that no matter what horrors befall a nation or society there is ALWAYS huge numbers of people who p;oint blank will not accept (a) The Government can rarely protect them (b) That THEY are responsible for their own lives, (c) its not the tax payers job to bail them out.

It certainly appears if that old often abused adage of ” Darwinism at work” is TRUE both for citizens and governments alike. EG Living in a Hurracane or quake zone but having no preps, Or Building residential sky scrapers when every fire and rescue officer across the world BEGS government to not build above the height of rescue ladders.

I 100% agree we should not be butting into other peoples lives, let them sink or swim by their own efforts.  I’ll happily stay out of others lives so long as they stop banging on my door during every power cut or icestorm asking for handouts.

Sadly I see society totally ignoring offers of advice from groups like TP, Red cross, Fema, County and state emergency planners  encouraging them to prep. Then when it goes bad they come a knocking on the prepards doors asking then demanding free stuff, then accusing the prepared of being horders when the prepared cannot or will not help them.

Call me and other OLD cynics if you like Mon Cheri, but I’ve tried countless occasions since 1979 to enlighten people in the GROWING need for preparedness, but the masses CHOSE not to listen or respond.

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I’ll always try to help NEW to the community preppers but even I suffer from fatigue when newbies simply post questions without using forum search boxes first. there are still to many folks not willing to do study, they just want a ready made answer.

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Nothing worse that people who look but dont see, listen but dont hear and speak before thinking, its only going to get worse as the three main political ideologies become ever more incompatable when trying to operate in one state or country and end up wrecking each other.

 

Hi Bill,

You said, “I’ll always try to help NEW to the community preppers but even I suffer from fatigue when newbies simply post questions without using forum search boxes first. there are still to many folks not willing to do study, they just want a ready made answer.”

That is so true. Since I’m new to the prepping community, I cannot speak for it, but in other areas, there will always be a portion of people who refuse to look with their eyes and not their mouth.

On another thread, I mentioned I used to participate in a medieval recreation group and my focus was on period clothing, as in studying clothing from a particular time period and attempting at making my own. My enthusiasm to help newbies got worn down by the majority who just wanted a nice costume but weren’t willing to put any effort in (not even to buy a ready-made, mass-produced one). One person even went so far as to ask outright who they “..could get to make them one.” At least she was forthright, I guess…

Others whom I knew in the group, who had other focuses (armouring, catering, fighting, etc), all had the same issue.

My (long-winded) point is that I guess it doesn’t matter what group you belong to, there will always be someone who comes along and expects not to have to work for any knowledge the group has. Those people, in my experience, tend not to stick around for long, thankfully. The downside of that, of course, is that in a disaster situation, the result is the scenario you mentioned, demanding handouts and getting angry when you tell them “No”.

 

Hoping to be humorous, and not crude…those people are called askholes.  In my own tiny area of archaic expertise, people would relentlessly question, and go on about their business, seeming to prefer they’d never heard the truth.

 

“askholes” that’s perfect lol

 

If you ever feel so inclined and feel there is some relevance between medieval clothing or anything you saw during your time in that recreation group and preparedness, survival, or post apocalypse living, it could make a good forum post. 

We can learn a lot from people of that time period and how they lived and survived without modern conveniences. I personally would be very interested in learning more and attending reenactments like that and learning more about how they lived. Who knows, maybe ‘the big one’ hits and an EMP sends us back to living with technologies of that time period.

 

We have loads of historic re-enactment events here in the Uk, like those 18th century re-enactment rendezvous you have in CO and UT.

I always make a bee line to the crafts sections, Knife making, Spoon making, Net making, Weaving and Rope making, Food preservation, Tool making, Clothes and  Shoe making, Arrow making, Fletching, Fish Trap construction, Black powder making , Homeopathics etc Iron pottery making etc. I never fail to be impressed by the skills these folks have.

And its great when you get the opportunity to make your own knife and sheath, make your own arrows etc.

In the US of A  I strongly encourage those of you who can travel to the 1800s mountainmen type rendezvous in CO and UT etc , I guarentee that you WILL learn something useful, even if its only axe throwing or shooting muskets.

 

I’ve been to a few mountainmen rendezvous while visiting family during the 4th of July. Like you said, I too am so impressed by the skills these people have.

I loved the homemade rootbeer and creme soda that have been bottled in glass bottles. Nothing tastes better!

Next time I go I should talk with the vendors more and ask about how to get involved instead of just browsing like I previously have done.

 

I recently discovered that in 19th century southern England my G G Grandfather not only had his own pharmacy but also made his own Root beers, Sodas, and Ginger beers, and Cologne and Cough medicine etc 🙂 

They also had a coal delivery business and a Brick and Tile making works, Talk about multi skilled. 🙂

I strongly encourage everyone to pick up a trad skill as after a major collapse such skills will be essential.

 

 

Absolutely, Bill. Traditional skills, even something as simple as sewing on a button is a useful skill to have at any time, not just for a major collapse. Make Do and Mend shouldn’t have stopped with the war, let alone all the other life skills that my grandparents probably took for granted.

 

Thank Gideon, I’d love to share what I know, I just wouldn’t know where to start! I will come up with a list of what I can confidently write about and take a vote on what forum folks would most like to read about.

An interesting fictional read is a series of books that starts with”Dies The Fire” by S.M. Stirling, about an EMP blast that hits worldwide and how recreationists tend to be the best suited to cope with a lack of electricity. Admittedly, I stopped reading the series part way through the second book (the main characters annoyed me), but the first book was interesting enough for me to attempt the second.

Also, there’s a few Acorn Media series that take archaeologists and have them live in a time period for a calendar year, the first of which was “Tales from the Green Valley”, where they live in and work on an early 17th century farmhouse. Other series are called (in order of release) “Victorian Farm”, “Edwardian Farm”, and “Tudor Farm”. I’m pretty sure the DVDs are still available. They could be good for watching outside re-enactment season. They are on high rotation in my lounge room, that’s for sure!

 

Some of those FARM series were filmed fairly close to my house, We have a huge open air museum that covers a couple of square milies in which they recreated old communities like 1950s villages, 1920s mining communities etc. The same are mainly volunteers who dress in the correct period costume for each section. They even have a coal mine, Steam railway, electric tramcar system, and a rebuilt victorian mainstreet.

Home

Quite popular with American tourists as well.

 

As one who has frequented prep/survival sites since dial-up and generally has a diametrically opposing view to the general politics espoused on such, I very much appreciate the tone here.

An Op-Ed I saw recently suggested part of the current societal tension is due to the internet allowing us up in each other’s stuff way too much. This make sense to me, I don’t need to know every gripe and conspiracy and imagined slight of those with which I’ll likely never agree, so I’ve intentionally pruned my reading—on both extremes. Still, I wade through the Sturm und Drang  to find the occasional tip.

This site is a rare exception. Thank you.

 

Welcome! And yeah… it’s not that people here are apathetic with no knowledge or opinion of the world. It’s just that political bickering has plenty of other places to fester, and just distracts from one of the core messages of prepping: community