I admit that I spend most of my time over on LSP as a member there. There are a number of reasons for this - first and foremost, the group of modelers are a talented, friendly and helpful bunch. That being said, I frequently check in on all of the other usual suspects - ARC, HS and of course, LSM. Even before all the LSP folks made the move, the quality of the work on display here has always been top notch and the members and moderators seemed like a friendly group as well.
Now, as a semi-regular visitor to this site, I have seen the recent stream of introduction threads invariably become peppered with shots against "TOS." The interesting thing is that these jabs always seem to come from the group that have made the exodus and who, by all accounts, are happy to be out and have moved on to greener pastures. So why the need to keep ripping on LSP and the moderators who bust their butts keeping LSP going, the same way James, Jeroen and the group here at LSM do? Kevin and the rest of the LSP moderators do a thankless job that allows the rest of us to enjoy the site for what it is - a place for people who enjoy gluing pieces of plastic together to come together, maybe learn a thing or two, and then move on with the rest of our lives. While I don't necessarily agree with the language Kev used to respond to Harv's post here, I can understand where it came from. I'm sure he counted each and every one of the former members friends (in the digital sense at least) until all this went down and now here some of you are, ripping on a guy most of you have probably never met! It would appear that Harv could have chosen the quiet way out but decided to rile up the waters on the way out of the door. Not sure why that was necessary, as others here have pointed out, but such is life - water under the bridge.
Now, I have resisted commenting on all of this up until now but I feel that smitty44’s post referenced above deserves a response. Someone earlier on this thread accused a certain anonymous presence from Victoria Au of not having anything better to do than monitor the thread here. It would appear from smitty44’s comment and the handful of responses it garnered that he and the people who happily left LSP are doing the exact same thing, waiting and wondering why a conversation has not popped up about why everyone left. Smitty44 seems to think that the only reason for this is a fear of retribution from the mods. I for one am afraid of no such thing. Perhaps an alternate explanation for the lack of a response is that it has no appreciable effect on the reasons I and others choose to frequent the site. My guess is that the people left over at LSP have seen a group of former members chose to move on and they are chosing to do the exact same thing - move on. What good does it do to start a thread about the reasons people chose to make the move? Their reasons are their own. It has nothing to do with a fear of retribution or censorship as Smitty claims. Kevin and the other guys have done an exemplary job keeping the content on the site on point and why people kept trying to challenge them is beyond me. After all, as I mentioned earlier, we are here discussing the construction of plastic models...not that important in the grand scheme of things and certainly not something to make enemies over.
Anyway, I'm happy to see that people seem to have found a new home here. I for one am equally happy to return to my first "home" but I'm sure I'll be checking in here now and then to see what people are working on. I'll just make sure to focus on the WIP section and stay away from these conversations!
