AmtrakLoverAndHater said:
Frankly, I'm disappointed that Alan has not appeared to press BNSF to offer an explanation after all of this, and in fact deleted a thread where BNSF was pressed to explain himself. Having threads conclude in a matter such as this damages the credibility of this board, especially when a poster with a long track record and high post count comes on here unequivocably swearing up and done that Amtrak is doomed.
With respect, my job as moderator is not to decide who is telling the truth and who might be lying. My job as moderator is to remove posts that have nothing to do with Amtrak, posts that attack another member of the board, ensure that topics are posted in the correct place, and if necessary initiate and/or stimulate conversation on the board.
Additionally because I happen to be rather well versed in most things concerned with riding Amtrak, I often respond to many first timer questions and even questions from regulars when I feel qualified to offer an idea or opinion.
But under no circumstances is my job to force anyone to prove something or to explain their actions. Even if I were to decide that someone was lying or was mislead into posting untruths, I can't force them to post if they doesn't want to. Heck, I can't even ban them from posting if I decided that they were lying. The best I could do would be to delete any future posts from them.
As to the thread that did push BNSF to answer, it was removed because it was a personal attack on him. If someone wants to politely post a serious question to BNSF that is acceptable. I haven't closed this thread where several people have pushed BNSF to explain himself and his report. But if the post resorts to name calling, it will go in the trash can just like the last one did. We will not have dog fights, cat fights, and general bad manors around here, since there are far too many under 18 railfans who should not be subjected to that. And I suspect that even some of our older members have no desire for trash talk either. I know a few who have personally told me that they enjoy coming here, as opposed to other boards that allow topics to deteriorate into nothing but name calling.
Finally, to my knowledge, Anthony created this board simply to be able to discuss all things Amtrak, as well as to provide a place for first timer's to come and ask questions from those with a knowledge of riding Amtrak. To my knowledge, it was never created as the end-all place to get Amtrak information, much less 100% correct Amtrak information. It is not an official Amtrak site, Amtrak has no connection with this site, so therefore anything posted on here (like most other internet BB's) should always be taken with a grain of salt.
We do try very hard to provide accurate information, and most times I think that we do succeed, but I'm sure that there have been times where someone accidentally got the wrong information from here.
