Is this necessary? Is there a reason for making a flaming remark like this?

Deniro called certain members "wannabe gangsters" who had watched Goodfellas too many times. So i thought it was relevant that the majority of his posts have been about Goodfellas.

You must feel guilty about being a gangster wannabe, then. These bullshit remarks have to stop. They will stop!!! Bet your house on it. Be smart, and don't reply to me now.

I am in no way a "gangster wannabee" (or however you spell it lol) . Fair enough though.

And I never pictured you as one. You've never been any trouble before. Your response (to DE NIRO) bothered me, though. He made a general statement but your response was aimed solely at him. You see the difference? You see what we are trying to fight here on the boards? These flaming, pissing contests are the single best reason why the quality of the boards have dropped.

While TIS is right to an extent, Mig here has made a fair point.

The glory days were when PLAW was around, and he added so much class to the boards, it is for sure they will never be as good without him. That said, however the decline has happened on two levels.

One, in the section about the films, it gets harder and harder to come up with new topics, new insights, or new anything. We can only discuss "who opened the drapes" or whether it was a mistake for Michael to kill Fredo" or what Fredo knew or didn't know about the hits. Too often nowadays threads (and I plead guilty to starting a few) deal with incongruity or impossible plot twists that are really directorial shortcuts or directorial license too move the plot along. That said people still come up with good stuff. There's a post today about Vito's dress being understated for the Solzzo meeting that provided a new insight.

More recently, there has been a marked deteroiration of the level of comraderie on the other topics. there never used to be personal attacks on people because of their political, religious or other points of view. Nowadays some people think it is open season and they predicate their rants with comments like "all libs are naive to the effect that Obama's Muslim/Kenyan background is ruining this country because" or "all you gun toting nazi neocon morons who want to nuke France think...." In the glory days this just "wasn't done," and we all self policed the boards leaving the moderators out of the discussion. Those days, sadly are gone.

Church!

Blahblahblah.....liberal hack....blahblahblah....Zimmerman second coming of Christ....blahblahblah.....Trayvon...hoodie...skittles were really drugs....blahblah....gays are destroying civilization....God says.

I can see Russia from my house, blah blah Obama is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood which he joined in Kenya.....

Hey Kly and DT. You attacked people for even disagreeing with the leftist point of view. Anyone who doesn't like Obama must hate him because he's black right?

For the record, Zimmerman's a scumbag, Trayvon had traces of dirty sprite in his liver, I support gays, I don't think Obama is a Muslim and I hate the Tea Party.

Whatever happened to objectivity? All you people love playing the kind hearted liberal. Of course that's easy when you live in the all white suburbs. A black or Hispanic moves in, I bet you people leave in a heartbeat.

Fact is you criticize people on the right for gross generalizations when the left does the same thing. All of you included.

FOX news is evil blah blah blah Obama is the second coming of Christ and can do no wrong blah blah blah Trayvon was such an angel blah blah blah you're a racist blah blah blah let's make an excuse for radical and fundamental Islam even though it killed 3000 people blah blah blah tax the rich and spend more fucking money even though we are trillions of dollars in debt...

Joe, there's no problem with a difference of opinion. What does bother me is the venom with which some people post, and the complete intolerance. I also don't like the lies.

Dear Lord, Don Cardi and I rarely had a similar opinion on politics, but we were able to debate ideas in a civil manner and stay friends. Why does it seem that lately any disagreement has to come with animosity???

True. I have no propblem with opposing points of view. For years there has been healthy debate in these forums on issues involving politics, religion, social issues and history without the incivility, labels and name calling that goes on today.

I think it's just proof as to how society as a whole has taken a turn for the worse. Back in the BB "glory days" (which I wasn't a part of), EVERYBODY seemed a bit nicer, on-line and off. Society has taken a nose dive, it's not just this forum. We were just a bit more tolerant of people in general even 10 years ago. What's happening on this forum, is what's happening all around us. People are on edge. Look at somebody cross-eyed and their horns come up and they're ready to fight to the death (I'm just as guilty).
Our country is split and divided like never before. You see the impatience and disgust in people on line at the grocery store, driving, in any social settings. It's just the way we live now, and this forum is proof of it, but it's everywhere.

And as long as our memories are, they're just as short. We came together in NJ, during Hurricane Sandy, like I'd never thought possible. People going out of their way to help others like I'd never seen. 6 months later, we were all back to flipping one another off on the parkway.

BB can't be brought back to glory days unless, and until, we can all go back to the glory days, when we didn't quite have as much hate and anger as we do today. Not all, but many of us.

Just my thoughts.

ALL VALID POINTS!

I believe that it was not the actual debating of political views within itself that caused the tension on these boards. In my opinion the total disrespect and personal attacks made by some towards others who did not agree with certain political views are what caused many to garner dislike towards others here. The personal attacks, cursing and name calling is what has caused many good people to shy away from these boards!

As SB correctly pointed out, she and I did not agree 95% of the time when it came to politics, but we ALWAYS respected each others views, and NEVER attacked each other because of our political differences. Even if she and I were on the opposite ends of the political spectrum, we always cared about the each others feelings and still love each other .

Same can be said for Plaw and I. He and I used to battle tooth and nail about politics, but that never caused any animosity between us and we actually became good friends over the years.

Same with dontomasso and I as well as Afs and I ( who by the way I have such a high level of respect and admiration for because this is a lady who over the years has had to live in a region of the world that is the center of political debate. Yet she was always able to maintain a level of respect and understanding regarding the views of others on these boards who were from many different parts of the world. She has always debated in a very intelligent manner presenting educated opinions and views even though at times her opinion and views here on these boards may have been the minority view at the time).

I think that Plaw had a gift for keeping the political debates that went on through these boards in control and he made sure that we all remembered to respect and be courteous to each other no matter how heated these debates became between the members of these boards. Mig is right. His passing may have caused some here to lose the insight that he continually instilled in us to remain respectful towards each other no matter what our political views were. Plaw kept us all mindful of other people's feelings and situations because he understood and realized that these boards consist of a group of people who represent many different cultures from many different parts of the world.

And as TIS said too, there was a time here when veteran members of these boards went out of their way to welcome and make new members feel comfortable when they joined and posted for the first time on these boards.

Perhaps some of us veteran members need to go back to the basics and try to re-instill the values and morals that we once insisted that everyone here, both new and old, needed to have in order to remain a welcomed member of these boards and become a part of La BB Famiglia.

DON CARDI : You were around the old timers -- and meeting up on how the family should be organized. How they based them on the old Roman legions and called them regimes -- the capos and the soldiers. And it worked.

TIS: Yea, it worked. Those were the great old days you know. And one was like to Roman Empire. The Gangster BB Family was like the Roman Empire.

Ahh the good ole days!

Agree 100%. We also need to have another BB weekend. I miss you guys. Great memories. I often look at my BB weekend photo album and smile.

BINGO!

Message boards were still in their infancy when this board took off and people were more civil online to each other then. We've seen an influx of younger people who have no interest in sharpening their social skills and we've seen a drop of civility in general over the years. This board is not unique in its problems.

All valid points. DC, glad to see you back, and wish you would be around more often.

We all just need to grow up stop acting like little children stop the name calling, debate in a civil manner, agree to disagree and let's get this BB back the way it use to be.

Thank you SB.

Hey Cardi! Nice to see you back.!! Hope all is well with you my friend. Stop by more often.





TIS

Hi Don Cardi! I'm not a woman of too many words, but just wanted to say that the feeling is mutual and I immensely respect you for debating passionately, yet with class.

It is good to see DC back! The best part of this BB is hands down the people. I, like many, take breaks from the BB - sometimes life just gets too busy and there is literally no time jump in. Then, I check back in and you terrific people pull back the chair and welcome me back to the table with no hesitation. Much appreciated and totally cool. Like I said - the people. Bravo & Salute'!

Great to seee you back DC...your mere presence classes the boards up!

I have only been a member for 40 days or so, I think i got nasty once after it was done to me, so i am just as at fault..

My thing is people that just join or do a second screen name is when they get nasty..

And it actually seams like they are jealous of others,it very well could be under age people , Just how they treat each other in school..(not that we all did not do it)

I have not had anyone that sounded mature come at me always the other ones...

And i think a couple times i has some drinks and gave it back,also wrong and immature.

great to talk thanks

Nostalgia, eh? It's not like it used to be...

Too much religion. Too much politics. Too much cursing. Too much spam.

Debased grammar. Fewer real people.

It has nothing to do with:
member age, diminishing morals, the state of the world OMG.

That's one thing I liked about the BB weekends. Talking politics/religion wasn't allowed.

I agree too much religion on here, think it needs it own section..

I only signed on about a week ago, and I did because I'm an avid reader of OC history for a very long time

I see everyone's points as being valid.....as I've read certain threads since being here I've seen nasty back-biting from quite a few for no apparent reason. As far as news pieces that may be relative to this site I think a lot has been covered(as far as I see since coming here).

I don't know how things used to be so I don't have an opinion to offer.

Social Media is a hell of a drug....

There's not as much organized crime in the news...that might be bringing things to a slow crawl...and I guess since I'm middle-aged I'm not a video game fan...so I guess my interests here are a little more limited than others, but I do want to be a part of this forum or I would never have signed up.

I'm looking forward to reading old and new threads, and if I think I have something worth contributing I will, of course.