Brett, I'd love to address all your points. I don't think I have the mental stamina to do it all at once, but I'll try to get the important ones.
First, Moderators on this site are not, and were never meant to be impartial arbiters. We are members like anyone else, and permitted to express our thoughts. We have opinions which are not necessarily shared among us and are definitely NOT the official opinions of nukeworker.com. When I post, I am posting as myself and not as a moderator, unless the post is specifically concerning the conduct of the members. Unless I am warning someone to keep it clean and on-topic, or something of that nature, my posts are my own. Camella and the other moderators should be allowed the same privilege as any member.
Second, we do not delete posts that disagree with ours merely because we disagree. We delete posts that violate forum rules. I have had many of my posts deleted. They strayed from the topic too far, so they had to go. That is fair. I delete posts that are incoherent, that insult people, that make accusations (especially about specific individuals), that contain profanity ... etc. Just look at this topic. I could save myself a lot of time by deleting posts that don't agree with mine. I bet you can find at least ten posts on this site in under an hour that specifically attack me personally. I could have deleted them all if I wanted to. What Troy wants, however, is not a valid criteria for removing a post from the site. I have had many posts reported to me by forum members that were about me. I did not delete them.
Next, NPUA really should make an official presence on this site a priority. Here's why. Their unofficial presence here hasn't been doing them any favors. The people who post here in their favor re doing them more harm than good. The initial references to NPUA that were removed painted them as a bunch of scammers and dirty-dealers.
Here's another reason. As you have pointed out, many people come to this site just to look for jobs. If you want their attention, you have to get your message into the places where they are looking. If you want to feed the ducks, you go to the pond. If you are too good to go to the pond, then the ducks needn't regard you as much of a friend.
So far, I have been trying to bait them, goad them, or just plain get them mad enough that they can't resist coming here. No takers. Why have I been doing that? Because I want to know - we really need to know - if they are a real union. So far, all evidence points to no. A real union is tenacious. A real union never misses the chance to get their message to the workforce. For that matter, a real union would never let ANY of my comments go unchallenged.
Even with the noblest of intentions, a failure is a failure. If they can't organize a significant percentage of the techs and keep them working at those higher-wage jobs, they are just going to price out of the market those who do choose to join. A real union never tries to put the non-union guys out of business until they have first done everything possible to make the non-union guys into union guys. The point of the whole union philosophy is strength in numbers. More numbers means more strength. Yes, they do need the support of nukeworker - not the site itself, but of the people who do come here for news, job listings, and even the forum. If a union turns its back on even one potential member; if they aren't willing to fight for the support of a single worker, they simply are not a real union.
I agree with may of the things that they say they want for the tech population. I disagree with some of the ways they have gone about trying to get them. And they haven't had the balls to come here and tell me why they are right and I am wrong. If they can't debate me, they don't have a chance when it comes time to stand up to management over a contract dispute.
If you don't want to pay for a membership, you can give whatever reason you want. Nobody is forcing you to be a Gold Member. It is entirely voluntary. But we are not going to reshape the site to meet the definition of "open, uncensored, and unbiased" that happens to suit you or any other individual. The forum rules have stood the test of all this time. There is no reason to change them now to allow unsupported accusations, ad-hominem attacks, unpaid advertisements, or off-topic ramblings. From the perspective of any given member of the forum, paid or unpaid, censorship is any time one of his or her posts is deleted - no matter why. Bias is any opinion that is different from his own; openness is the freedom for him to say anything he wants - even if it is libelous, untrue, incoherent, or off-topic; and objectivity is anything that he agrees with.
Oh, and Marssim, it's Noble gasses - not Nobel. So, there really wasn't much of a pun, was there? Just a simple typo.
