A few thoughts from the sidelines.........|Winchester Rifles|Forum|Winchester Collector

Although I’ve spent most of my life making an honest effort to not get in the middle of others conflicts, along with holding back my opinions unless someone specifically asks for them, I feel compelled to share a few thoughts. Its disappointing to visit a familiar and mostly enjoyable place such as this and see more and more arguing and bantering between members. It was mentioned in the other post something about the likelihood of misinterpretation when typing our thoughts and comments versus speaking face to face. This being said, it seems we should all be very careful how we word our posts, especially when there’s a disagreement. The more I think about this, three points come to mind:

1. Pick your Battles – not whether you think you can win them or not, but is it really worth it to go down that road?
2. If you do need to disagree with someone or call them out on something incorrect – soften the blow and do it in a respectful and humble way….even if you know you are right.
3. Try to give credit where credit is due and always assume there are others that may know more about a subject than we do……but may not choose to speak up……maybe because of point #1.

Hopefully I wont regret thinking out loud, and maybe a disclaimer is in order. This is by no means directed at anyone in particular and I refuse to take sides but I will admit it was inspired by observations in the other long winded thread that I doubt will be resolved anytime soon. Most of the time, its a great forum and I look forward to reading the posts and learning something new from all the fine folks that reside here. As a newer collector, I sure appreciate this group and what is shared here.

Lets get back to visiting about our beloved Winchesters and having productive, respectful debates sometime real soon.

Thanks,
Gary