The Orion Team. discussion

To the members of this group.

I've been thinking. Since this group has begun, I've made it a policy of sorts that the focus remains on spy/geopolitical/military FICTION.
However, after one incident where a group member tried to make a quickly deleted discussion thread on American sniper one year back, and most recently where another group member recommended John Le Carre's memoir, I've come to a decision of sorts and set up a new section.

Welcome to the "black site". Here the focus shall be on NON FICTION spy/military/geopolitical/historical current affairs books. These are the kinds of books which focus on everything from the life of Joseph Stalin to more overlooked subjects like the Saudi Arabia and Iran geopolitical chess match. Purpose of this section is to recommend items of interest that would group members would find enlightening after reading spy fiction focusing on topics that interest them.

Due to the tentative and for now experimental nature of this section, a few ground rules:

1) No fiction books. This is the section of The Orion Team which I'm allocating to non fiction. If you accidentally select this folder when starting a thread discussing fiction, please take the time to correct your error accordingly.

2) No "political books". I define these as books by commentators and/or serving politicians who write about the countries that they live in, rail against some kind of problem and then not so subtlety propose why they and/or their ideas will save the day and prevent the end of the world or some other kind of tosh.

Examples of such books are Mr B. Obama's "The Audacity Of Hope", Mr T. Cruz's "A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America" Mr B. Sander's "The Speech: On Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class", and "Liberalism is a mental disorder" by Mr M. Savage.

I consider these types of books worthless and have no place whatsoever in this group. If I find something in this section which focuses on any of them, I will make those threads vanish. Persist in posting about such drivel and things will escalate accordingly. If you wish to discuss such books, there's the excellent Small Government Book fan Club and The Liberal Politics & Current Events Book Club. Those are the two places where such books most certainly belong rather than here at The Orion Team.

3) Here, group members are free and encouraged to discuss the content and merits of the non-fiction books relevant to modern day spying, military matters, geopolitical issues.

4) Non fiction discussion is not permitted in any other section of the group. It shall only occur from this point on here and will cease completely in the event the initial opening stage of this section's trial run proves unsatisfactory.

5) Some group members may dabble in opinion writing on world events and geopolitical analysis. They are permitted to post their stuff in this section of the group and only this section of the group, after clearing it with me, or if I post it myself.

6) This section can also be a place to discuss about publishing matters. Indie/mainstream publishing, sales techniques and issues facing spy/military thriller authors regardless of publishing type.


That's all for now, feel free to ask questions if you need me to clarify anything.

A side note. During the initial stages of this section and beyond, as the moderator of the group, I reserve the right to pull the plug and delete the section in the event things get out of hand. Such a situation would be if a severe internet flame war breaks out. But I'm confident that won't happen.