Railway Preservation News

[SteamGene]

Does anybody have a clue as to the potential lawsuit against Railway Preservation News?
Gene

[BillD53A]

Yup.

A major name in the railroad preservation business posted a message, stating that he was once trying to drum up financial support for a project, but was hindered by the unpopularity of a war and president.

The moderator of the forum told the preservationist to leave the politics out.

The preservationist then posted that he was currently having problems finding funding due to a war and a president.  The moderator deleted the post.

The preservationist appealed to the administrators of the forum for reinstatement, stating that if his post was not replaced, he would report the RyPN to the IRS for non-compliance with their 501c status. (Which the preservationist, himself, does not have).
The administrators agreed with the moderator; they also decided to terminate the preservationist's membership in the forum.  He then notified them of his intention to file a lawsuit against them.  At that point the RyPN decided that what money they had, was better spent on preservation than frivolous lawsuits, and the website was shut down permanently.  The preservationist then contacted the administrator, stating that he would drop the lawsuit if they re-opened the website.  The admin stated that the board of directors of RyPN resigned, the webmaster quit, and he did not have the time to run the website.  The preservationist then stated that he just might have to follow through with the lawsuit;  the admin stated he was filing paperwork to dissolve RyPN.

That's where it stands.

The emails are available at the Lily.

[BillD53A]

Gene,
I sent you a regular e-mail.

[SteamGene]

Thanks.  Good reason to avioid politics when walking on railroad tracks.
Gene

[BillD53A]

There is an update, dated yesterday, on the RyPN site.  It offers some slim chance of the forums being brought back.  They are looking for people to handle the job.  There is contact info on the site.

[BillD53A]

Here is the reply:  This was posted on Trainorders this morning.

Date: April 23, 2007 06:19
Re: RYPN board is down this is terrible (
Author: co614
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suffice it to say that I am very saddened by the decision of Mr. Kading to terminate RyPN as is evidenced by my immediate offer to go away quietly rather than see the site ended.
What you see posted on that link to the NG site is the culmination of what I (and many others) viewed as an increasingly worrisome practice of deletion/locking of postings that were in the view of many (in some cases a clear majority) worthwhile and on subjects that had relevance to the efforts of the railroad preservation industry today.
I posted a comment on a thread that was posted( by others) in celebration of the 32nd. anniversary of the American Freedom Train. Part of my comment dealt with the difficulties I faced in getting corporate sponsorship funding for the AFT project due the the general negativity caused by the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal. The moderater deleted my posting on the grounds that it was a political statement and thus against the forums guidelines etc. It was literally the straw that broke the camels back. I recieved nearly 50 emails and pm's from users who expressed their unbelief and outrage at this deletion (and subsequent locking of the thread) and some of them at my request wrote also to the RyPN folks to express their concerns.
But as I said above this incident was but one of many of late and many of us regular participants were becoming increasingly concerned that the apparent effort (at least on the part of the recently appointed Webmaster/Moderator) to achieve political correctness in everything was quickly making the forum immpossible to use for anything beyond discussions on topics such as clothing and who was the latest to die.
IMHO one of our most treasured possessions as Americans is our Freedom of Speech. I realize that each forum has its rules and customs and every user agrees to abide by those rules in order to participate and I fully support that. However when peoples expressions and opinions (again this incident was but the latest of many- affecting not just my postings) are being arbitrarily errassed for no good reason then there's something very scary about that.
I too hope that the RyPN forum will reappear soon as it certainly was a valuable tool for the industry. If not, I'm confident that one or more of the other good sites will take up the slack.
To the many who were witnesses to the whole incident and have written to me with support I say thank you. To those who have only witnessed the last inninng I hope this message will help your understanding that there was an important principle involved here. One worth fighting for!!!
Respectfully, Ross Rowland

[Paul M.]

People these days... (shaking head)

[scottychaos]

Here is the reply:  This was posted on Trainorders this morning.

Date: April 23, 2007 06:19
Re: RYPN board is down this is terrible (
Author: co614
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suffice it to say that I am very saddened by the decision of Mr. Kading to terminate RyPN as is evidenced by my immediate offer to go away quietly rather than see the site ended.
What you see posted on that link to the NG site is the culmination of what I (and many others) viewed as an increasingly worrisome practice of deletion/locking of postings that were in the view of many (in some cases a clear majority) worthwhile and on subjects that had relevance to the efforts of the railroad preservation industry today.
I posted a comment on a thread that was posted( by others) in celebration of the 32nd. anniversary of the American Freedom Train. Part of my comment dealt with the difficulties I faced in getting corporate sponsorship funding for the AFT project due the the general negativity caused by the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal. The moderater deleted my posting on the grounds that it was a political statement and thus against the forums guidelines etc. It was literally the straw that broke the camels back. I recieved nearly 50 emails and pm's from users who expressed their unbelief and outrage at this deletion (and subsequent locking of the thread) and some of them at my request wrote also to the RyPN folks to express their concerns.
But as I said above this incident was but one of many of late and many of us regular participants were becoming increasingly concerned that the apparent effort (at least on the part of the recently appointed Webmaster/Moderator) to achieve political correctness in everything was quickly making the forum immpossible to use for anything beyond discussions on topics such as clothing and who was the latest to die.
IMHO one of our most treasured possessions as Americans is our Freedom of Speech. I realize that each forum has its rules and customs and every user agrees to abide by those rules in order to participate and I fully support that. However when peoples expressions and opinions (again this incident was but the latest of many- affecting not just my postings) are being arbitrarily errassed for no good reason then there's something very scary about that.
I too hope that the RyPN forum will reappear soon as it certainly was a valuable tool for the industry. If not, I'm confident that one or more of the other good sites will take up the slack.
To the many who were witnesses to the whole incident and have written to me with support I say thank you. To those who have only witnessed the last inninng I hope this message will help your understanding that there was an important principle involved here. One worth fighting for!!!
Respectfully, Ross Rowland

what a jerk..(Ross)
RYPN is gone because this whining baby shouted "lawsuit" because he feels his freedom of speech was taken away because a moderator locked his thread because he was making inflamatory political comments, which were clearly against the forum rules..
what an ass..I cant stand people like that..
so now a great asset to the preservation community is simply gone, just because one guy has a seriously overinflated ego..
pathetic..

its the same as when threads get locked on this forum for going off-topic into flame wars..they SHOULD be locked!
and no, its not a "freedom of speech" issue at all...because when a thread gets locked on a train forum no ones freedom of speech is being taken away..you are still free to say anything you like!
just take it somewhere else..
if you want to talk politics, take it to a political forum..there are only a billion of them..a TRAIN forums moderator SHOULD lock threads when they go off-topic into areas that are clearly not train related..
the forum rules always clearly state that..

so the threads get locked because someone is being a jerk and causes the thread to be locked..
often in those cases, the person being the jerk gets all "high and mighty" and writes a rant all about how wonderful and innocent he is and how wrong the forum was, and he is just the poor innocent victim that was "wronged" by the forum moderator..yeah right..
In reality he has it backwards..but he is too self-important to see that and can never, ever, admit he was wrong..

see above for a perfect example of that.. 



Scot

[Matt Bumgarner]

The entire series of emails that went back and forth between the RyPN administrator and Mr. Rowland can be seen at the narrow gauge discussion group www.ngdiscussion.net.

RyPN was by far the best website for railroad preservation I have ever come across, and this sorry episode has cost us this forum, and in my view, terribly soiled the reputation of Ross Rowland, one of the most accomplished, albeit contraversial, rail preservationists out there. As one poster noted, the biggest enemy of railroad preservation is the railroad preservationists ourselves.

A sad day indeed.

[BillD53A]

RyPN will be back on Sunday.  New management; new rules.

[BillD53A]

RyPN is up & running.

[chucknlead]

There are websites for discussing politics. This type of forum ain't it! I've seen enough heated debates on speling and p!nctuation I could only imagine if politics were thrown in the ring! YIKES!!!!