Anyone else feel like we should skip antagonistic threads?

[lazygood4nothinbum]

"be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." ~~ philo of alexandria

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

No Rich, it might not be funny. But LET'S NOT LOSE FOCUS HERE. We are not talking about humour, not about offensive, not about ethnicity. We are talking about something much more severe: RACISM!

I think that sometimes the difference between "offensive humor" versus "racist" is whether or not your own race is the one being victimized. It's a fine line, especially in a public forum.

For the record, I don't think OAP's posts were intended to be racist or offensive. I do think they were insensitive in this context (though perhaps they would be less so in a personal blog or diary). Maybe he felt their potential humor or human interest warranted taking that risk in posting them. Since he apparently fled the scene, we'll just have to wonder.

P.S. I offer these comments as a person, not a moderator :

 

[bright eyed]

P.S. I offer these comments as a person, not a moderator :

what? moderators are people too?! sounds like a bumper sticker...

 

[yakers]

T


Seems to me we wear each other a little thin on the "bad" threads and then have a lot less patience for each other in the "good" threads.

And that is the sad part IMHO. There are some posters who really rub me the wrong way on some exchange yet they have very decent posting on financial or other issues.
The Other Topics wasn't (IMHO) meant to be entirely 'off topic', it is more about retirement related postings that don't fit the other categories. Maybe we need a thread for 'off topic' so I can just ignore it. Sort of like Political Asylum was on Motley Fool, I never once looked there, why waste my time & get all burned up when people just wouldn’t agree with my political & social opinions.
But I don’t know of a good way to police a board like this, its actually once of the best behaved around and I would like it to continue that way. But in an election year there is bound to be political discussions. And its hard to discuss financial issues without getting into taxes and govt policies and not then get into politics. Maybe we can anoint an ombudsman/super moderator/head of (web)state, above our daily politics, who can send a gentle reminder to an inappropriate poster and then have the moderators get after someone if they go too far too often.
But overall this is a well run place and I would not like to see some big structure imposed to counter the few incidents that crop up. Just think how well a new first poster who just happens to be pushing annuities is ‘welcomed’.

 

[HFWR]

nm

 

[Telly]

From my years as moderator of boards, the area that was the biggest problem was the non-specific area, which on this board is called "Other". Most of it was OK, some was totally trash. But the width of the gray area between those two poles is open to a great deal of personal interpretation. From the hyper-sensitive PC people who I wondered if they could really exist in the real world, to the people that I wondered if they were typing from a jail cell.

I walked away from this board for months around the last election, as politics had invaded just about every topic area. Right now it's not doing bad.

OK OK, there are some posts I'm skipping over, as I've learned the OP seems to be incredibly , and their reasoning and grasp of situations appears to be below the 2nd grade level. I will just skip the posts, but if the amount of their new topic posting starts to fill up a topic page, I'll just skip the whole topic, and then they cease to exist.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I really get a laugh out of the OP (bunny) suggesting that we refrain from intentionally stirring the pot. This is pretty much the definition of chutzpah.

"Intentionally stirring the pot" isnt even the topic. Creating an off topic post that offends or antagonizes a group of people and has nothing to do with early retirement is the topic. Try to stay with us here?

However, while we're down this road, the minute you can find a single post where what I wrote was insulting or antagonistic to a group of people with no value add and I was the first man in the fight...link it.

 

[Joss]

Annoying is one thing. Ugly is another.

The part of having a set aside area for trash talk is that it still has to be policed for truly ugly stuff. Just NOT seeing it doesn't make it ok. Racism is not ok... even as a closet activity.

I can ignore annoying. I just don't feel right letting "ignore" be the norm for ugly though.

I think the process should be just report "over the top" posts to the Mod's and march on.

 

[retire@40]

Yes, that and improve the current "ignore list" feature, so that the threads started by the ignored never show up in the first place. Call that new feature "Total invisibility" !

That is the best solution to this problem, but if this forum software can't perform that function, we'll just keep discussing this problem over and over again, even though we all know what the solution is.

This is another case of the software developers not using their own software, thus not fully understanding how to design it correctly.

 

[F M All]

So let's upgrade the software again - then we can piss and moan about that all over again.....................

 

[Nords]

Guarantee it won't happen again cause the door just hit me in the ass. Happy moderators all around.

Yeah, sure, OAP, thanks for stopping by. If you felt that my comments were meant for you to be taken personally, well, you shouldn't-- it's not about you. In any case your exit line is just as believable now as it was the second or third time you posted your departure and stomped off in a huff.

For the rest of the board, I'll point out that the difference is that this time the complaints were coming from other posters and nothing has been done by the moderators. OAP's on his own...

 

[MikeD]

Yeah, OAP describes my home state with great accuracy, I'm afraid. The diabetes epidemic along with strokes and other obesity related illnesses are well known to us in the South, and I took his thread to be just confirmation of what I see every day. I took no offence to OAP, because I know he's been out West, where there are just skinny people (and no one who drinks buttermilk for breakfast, for a long time!

Sarah

Whoa! I missed the buttermilk thing and only got an inkling of it from this post. My grandfather used to drink *heavy cream* as a beverage. He'd knock back 8 oz every afternoon, 7 days a week. He washed down half a dozen Italian sausages with it. He lived in upstate NY.

He lived to 83. He was extremely happy. Some might even say jolly.

Mike D.

 

[Zoocat]

It's not about disagreement, it's about gratuitous antagonism, shades of racism, and other elements which add nothing positive to the discussion.

Agreed. I've been dismayed by many of the threads which seemed to have as their motive to denigrate some group or individual. For example, posting the news story about Paris Hilton being sent back to jail (so others have the opportunity to laugh at and bash her and other young celebrities?)

These types of threads display a mean-spirited tone, which is unlike the general tone of civility that I assumed this site was aiming for.

 

[DangerMouse]

I didn't think of the buttermilk thread as being along racist lines. Not for a moment was I thinking that OAP was poking fun at a particular ethnic group. I took it be about obesity, a topic that I am familiar with, and everything I said in my reply I would say in public.

As for the regular postings on mexican illegals being responsible for everything that is wrong in the US, the rants about political parties, I simply choose not to click on them. I know anything I have to say is not going to change anyone's mind, just as it is unlikely that my mind will be changed.

Life is not all about group hugs. I don't want to see a board full of sanctions, where we all just nod our heads and agree. We all have choices, and if we see a racist thread we can choose to ignore it or choose to participate and state our opinion.

 

[HFWR]

Hey, I just noticed I exceeded 3000 posts!

So, as the poster of >3000 posts, filled with inanity, jocularity, frivolity, hilarity, and a bit of insanity, let me add my $0.02:

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Thats at least tree fitty.