Forum: Minnesota Dirt Track Racing Forum (go)
Moderators: StanM

Sorry if anyone gets offended but if Jackson posts are no longer allowed it makes this site pretty much use-less to the sprint car fan. The only track in MN that runs sprints is a bad word?

I understand issues with offensive intent but I would like to know what is happening down there. If the mood is good, bad or ugly I would like to know about it. I am a big fan of sprints so please let me know where I can go to get the latest as to what is happening.

Thanks, TJG

This message board is NOT a part of my gotomn.com website. My hobby is computing, photography and graphics, I write for a Twin Cities based racing paper and don't make a cent for any of this. Hoserforums provides message boards for anyone who has a racing website. I put my time and energy into gotomn.com, that's where I post photos, screen savers, news, results and information. When I first started my site back in 1997 I had an Inside the Web board. When that service went out of business I went to other boards, even tried my own for a while, then settled on this one.

Every night I come home from work and check out as many of the posts on this board as time allows to delete posts containing slander and profanity. Someone emailed me regarding a Jackson thread that I hadn't even read and pointed out that as board moderator I could be subject to legal action. I'm just a racefan like the rest of you who wants to have fun and enjoy being involved with the racing. I'm in my 50's planning for retirement and am not in a position to spend the money required to defend myself in a court of law so that people can bad mouth Jackson. I'm not a lawyer ain't about to hire one to defend my hobby so I don't know what my liability is. Do you want to pay for my legal defense if this thing blows up in my face?

I hardly think it makes sense for me, a guy living in Forest Lake who hasn't even been to Jackson for two years, to get in legal trouble on account of a track over 200 miles away. I don't know what you people expect from me but when the doo doo rolls down hill and hits me I tend to get a little freaked out and take drastic action to protect myself.

If I could get a guarantee that the Jackson discussions are going to be civilized, that there's going to be no slander directed towards the county or people running the track, then yeah, no problem posting about Jackson.

I plan on posting a new podcast on gotomn.com and I will explain myself in more detail. So in the meantime we can (a) give me some assurance that we'll keep it a constructive positive conversation (b) post about Jackson on Hosehead's main board or the 20/20 board or (c) I shut the message board down and concentrate on my photography and the gotomn.com website. If my the site hits dwindle down no problem, my friends will still check out the photos, history page and podcast and I won't have to check this board daily. I don't make any money from it anyways but could certainly use the time that I'm volunteering to moderate.

In other words, it's up to you, there are millions of websites on the web and if you don't like mine there's nothing I can do about it. Message boards are a pain in the butt anyways but I have one as a favor to the racefans. In turn they could do me a favor and not get me in trouble with the lawyers.

Stan Meissner

Thanks for the reply Stan. Legalities or no legalities people just need to be civil. Jackson has a problem and needs places like this to table the issues.

Stan I have met you a few times and expressed my thanks for everything you do. I hate to see this and some of your other interests within racing be a burden to you. Could you pass something like this (moderator) down to someone you trust? Just a thought.

Sorry I forgot about our other two tracks that run sprints - Arlington (I attend on a regular basis) and Redwood. I'm sure Bob will forgive me.

Zero, I would welcome some help moderating the board but the phone isn't exactly ringing off the hook with volunteers. I would have to know and trust whoever we were going to setup as moderators to ensure that we were in agreement on what direction the board should go in. Actually, I spend so much time in the pits and infield that I know very few Sprint fans up where I live. A couple of my racing buddies are Sprint fans but they split their time between Sprints and Late Model racing so they're not even checking this board very often. I know a few of the Sprint drivers that live nearby but those guys are so busy they don't have time to check my board let alone moderate it. So no, I really don't have any help and am not actively looking for it. If people behave themselves on my board the amount of traffic I get is manageable. I agree with you that people should be allowed to post about Jackson on my board and this deal will probably eventually blow over. If they think the post about Jackson were bad they haven't been following the Wissota/DTRA posts on 20/20 or the WoO/NST posts on Hoseheads Believe me, what was said on here is mild compared to those posts. Some people blame it all on the "evil internet" but there's nothing being said on these boards that people haven't been saying in the stands or beer line for the past 100 years. H*ll, the fans of Roman Chariot racing probably b*tched more than these people do. The internet just brings it out in the open a little more, that's all.

This board probably gets the most participation of any Sprint board around here but I live in Late Model territory where the most popular board is the 20/20 Late Model board. I wouldn't want to have to deal with the kind of traffic that board gets, mostly regarding classes I have absolutely no interest in. I'm a Sprint fan but I'll watch the Late Models, Mods (A&B) and Supers locally here if it's convenient. This year I had to cut my schedule by 50% so I eliminated those classes from my schedule except at Owatonna or if they're with the Sprints at shows such as the Masters. Maybe if I get a free night I'll decide to run out and see them at the last minute. Anyways, my point is that most of the Sprint fans are concentrated around Jackson and Arlington, tracks I rarely attend, so I don't know a lot of them personally. It's hard to meet the fans when photographing Sprint specials at places like Owatonna, Cedar Lake, Kopellah, Princeton, North Central, Red Cedar, and Superior. Some of the people doing racing websites are good at getting to know the fans, putting on special events for their websites, making up hats and T-Shirts, etc. That's not really my thing, I just do the website and that's about it.

Stan Meissner

I would help moderate Stan. We would need to talk to make sure we are both on the same page for "rules of the road". Like you, it would not be a full-time gig, but it might help.

On the karting site I like (4cycle), Bob (the board creator) has a few people helping him moderate the site. As it has a classifieds section, is heavily used, and the buy-sell thing doesn't always go smoothly, there have been pretty heated discussions in the past. Yet the board seems to stay on top of things.

Another idea... I don't think Hosehead's offers a lot of user ID options specific to a board... but a rule of road could be that all MDTR posts have to have a signature that includes first and last names (and maybe email addresses). This doesn't guarentee identity, but does set up a situation that a person would have committed documented fraud if a their post's name does not match their real name. Might help protect the board owner a bit more and put more responsibility on the poster (where it belongs).

Random thoughts on a snowy day.

Jimmy Kouba
[email protected]