One observation here. Other than those who are politically active and post regularly, others who eschew the political bickering and pigeon holing do little to provide alternative threads. Having said that, it seems it matters little what gets posted because there is always someone who feels compelled to make a remark about lefties or righties or this or that to get it into a political realm. This does turn many off including myself. Mostly, I leave the political threads alone as they excel in sarcasm, name calling, purposeful misrepresentation of information, etc. etc.
While such diatribe turns me off and leaves me hunting for viable threads, those of us who do not wish to engage in politically charged threads need to take some responsibility in providing viable alternatives. And then, if invaded, we need to have the self discipline to ignore. I'll do my part by not engaging further with VL on anything.
Rockdoc Franz wrote: One observation here. Other than those who are politically active and post regularly, others who eschew the political bickering and pigeon holing do little to provide alternative threads. Having said that, it seems it matters little what gets posted because there is always someone who feels compelled to make a remark about lefties or righties or this or that to get it into a political realm. This does turn many off including myself. Mostly, I leave the political threads alone as they excel in sarcasm, name calling, purposeful misrepresentation of information, etc. etc.
While such diatribe turns me off and leaves me hunting for viable threads, those of us who do not wish to engage in politically charged threads need to take some responsibility in providing viable alternatives. And then, if invaded, we need to have the self discipline to ignore. I'll do my part by not engaging further with VL on anything.
The way I deal with this issue is to continue to have a discussion and use the quote function to keep your conversation going. You would quote the item you want to discuss and give your comments and ignore any thing you do not want to comment on.
The foe button leaves a link that you can choose to click to look at a comment.
For us it is very difficult to make decisions for the people on this forum on what they do and do not want to see we would much prefer you decide and we try to give you the tools to do that without excluding people. In extreme and constant cases of deliberate disruption we make the best decisions we can and we provide the ring for all out war for those that want that. It might be a bit easier for forums that are geared towards a specific topic but this is a forum for a community that has many ideas and people. Having a place for all of them is our goal.
For me I like having a place for everyone and if I were just a poster I would go where I want to go and leave the rest. And I like discussion between different ideas and party lines.
LopingAlong wrote: PS Kudos to the powers that be for posting this out front for discussion! Transparency is a novel idea in most forums and I appreciate it. Thank you.
I agree. That poster would have been banned on Pinecam for sending that message to them. Here, at least their message is able to be heard and discussed.
What does this have to do with Pinecam? I have sent messages to mods there and gotten very concerned and sensitive replies and never a threat of being banned. Why can't we have a discussion here without bringing pinecam into it?
normalwhyner wrote: What does this have to do with Pinecam? I have sent messages to mods there and gotten very concerned and sensitive replies and never a threat of being banned. Why can't we have a discussion here without bringing pinecam into it?
Because my private messages of concern to the mods there are part of what got me banned. Just pointing out facts. You don't need to be so defensive about it.
Defensive? Not in the least - I would just like to have a discussion here about here without having to deal with all the pinecam crap. Forget about them - it is different here.
For many, Pinecam is a personal experience, hence a valid point of comparison. Your experience, normalwhyner, is also a personal experience, that like the Vkiking's deserves mention. I do not see a point of comparison as objectionable. Would it matter if he had used some other forum dedicated to the east coast? I doubt it. Unfortunately, Pinecam, evokes strong emotions in many who are on this site mainly because they have gotten banned without threat. Consider yourself fortunate for now. BTW I'm not banned there either, though one of my more forceful arguments did garner me a pm informing me that they allowed my critique to go this time. That is the point of bringing Pinecam into this thread, namely that your first ammendment rights are allowed. Just like your objection to bring in the Pinecam comparison is allowed. Therein lies the crux of the matter. People respond to topics in different ways and some manage to push our buttons the wrong way. How we react is in our control. Critical feedback given here merely points out that many of us on this site do not do a good job of overcoming our less than complimentary responses when our buttons get pushed. I'm guilty of this too, leveling judgements for some with carefully chosen words. Presently I'm trying to decide if I have enough self discipline to ignore VL's posts or to push the unfriend button. I'd like to think I have enough self discipline, but should I fail and allow myself to be baited, then it is because I elected not to push the foe button. It is likely that others on here face similar decision making crisis. This site has provided us tools to moderate our interactions, but ultimately it comes down to how we conduct ourselves and what we will do about it if we fall off our high horse.
The freedom of expressing opinion granted by this site is wonderful. Now, if only we, collectively as a membership, can rise to the challenge of giving more respect to each other, this site will return to its roots, the delightful beginnings before every response became pigeon holed and other's opinions got trampled instead of merely acknowledged as being different than out own. Who said the good old says were not great?
For me, the issue is the difference between the Courthouse and the ring. The ring was set up for "no holds barred" the courthouse was for discussion of issues. Posters have confused the two. Just post or move to the ring when you want to engage in personal attacks and name calling. Courthouse is for serious discussion of issues. I can't understand why this is so difficult for a few people.
