Write Review
2,076,432 Total Reviews 3,436 New Reviews
8,542 Users Online

New York

Paranoid musings
suitribe 22 Reviews 5717 reads
posted

Imagine someone hated this hobby and wanted to destroy it.
What would they do?  They'd arrest who they could if they were a cop. But civilians want to do their part too and even cops have limited resources.

They might try to sow dissent in the hobbying community.  They might try to stir up trouble on these boards, get people arguing, make some quit.  If they had the capability, they might target some sites with worms and other internet attacks.

I'm not pointing at any one person or conversation, but there have been lots of times on boards like this that disagreements have turned to arguments and insults, and it seems to have increased in the last couple years.  I'm still wondering why a certain other board has been down over a month, right after posting a response to a critical newspaper article.

I can think of a few groups who would be cheering at these developments.  Let's speak freely and let's not ruin this board by censoring ourselves or each other, but let's play nice too.  Let's not let ourselves be divided so we can be conquered.

-- Modified on 2/20/2005 2:01:10 PM

pedal2the_metal2658 reads

from the founding of this country the domocatic idea has been that persons or groups of persons will be forever challenging the viewpoints of other persons. This is known as the marketplace of ideas. It is indeed rare that anyone will see life exactly as anyone else does. It is next to impossible to get fully into another person's head and know exactly what makes them think the way they do. The sign of a dead or dying forum is that it cannot tolerate debate or it wilfully shuts itself off from considering outside lines of reasoning. My posts on this board have always been moderated. Management thinks I'm a potential troublemaker. In the end though, they've posted everything I write. I guess they're enlightened while being cautious. The problem hasn't been the fractious postings. It has been the slow draining away of imaginative nervy thinking and the rise of cliche filled mediocre shilling and narrow minded buffoonery. The intellectual level of the hobby community was about 100% higher 3 or 4 years ago.

ReplyQuoteReport
thirsty3877 reads

We don't have a secret troublemaker list. ;) On the other hand, maybe TER has a list and they won't show it to me because I'm on it. ;) (I'm on a roll here!)

Seriously, I try to set people free in terms of moderation. There is no logic to when you are unmoderated. For me, when you post often enough for me to notice you (for the right reason!) you get unmoderated.

thirsty

ReplyQuoteReport
MasterMaster2475 reads

The NY area of TER does not have a troublemaker list beause we are all troublemakes. No list is needed. Just pick any one of us.

ReplyQuoteReport
thirsty3976 reads

HEY!!! That's about the time when I joined the community! Coincidence I hope. ;)

thirsty

ReplyQuoteReport
suitribe4053 reads

I certainly don't want anyone to enforce a group-think policy on these boards. That's why I said we shouldn't censor ourselves or others.  We all learn in the marketplace of ideas.

However, when we stop debating the facts and start calling names and tell each other to "take your x reviews and get off the board", I think we've left the marketplace of ideas and wandered into a segregated neighborhood run by street bullies.  

I have tired of the bathroom humor that's been so frequent on the board lately but others seem to enjoy it and I'm ok with that.  I've tired of the shilling taking the space it has too and it's good when it's called out for what it is.  By all means, lets disagree and do it vigorously.  Let's just not let it all get so personal.

My posts have always taken some time to get approved.  As others have said, I assume that's the process for most or all posters.  If some posters have their posts go up immediately, that explains why some posts are covered with replies by the time I see them go up on a day that I watch the forum pretty closely.  Like you, what I say always gets put up, so I have no complaints about that.

ReplyQuoteReport
stilltryin252549 reads

that try to shutdown opinions that do not coincide with their own. There are also some that attack other people's freedom to chose whatever they want, such as higher priced providers. I love intellectual free for alls because I can more than hold my own in them, so bring them on. What I do not like is having the pc police pop up and demand that the moderator remove something that they do not like. I my opinion, the best TER board now is the youngest, the Politics board. The politics board has moved from it's earlier days when an insult was the way to respond to an intellectual challenge to now when people present information and links to back up their position. But, there are barroom fights on the Pol board too, and I have to admit that I love mixing it up when those happen too.

ReplyQuoteReport
Teufelsdreck2792 reads

Well put. You should moderate.

ReplyQuoteReport
Post Reply Back To Forum
Register Now!