I said in another recent thread that I considered that this Forum was, in the main, a friendly place to be, and debate was usually reasonably balanced.
However in the same thread I also said that things were being posted by Forum members that could arguably lead outsiders to believe that we were a bunch of beer swilling tossers, which I am sure you would like to consider you are not.
There have been two or three similar threads in the last few days and occasionally members have exchanged some angry words, leading in one instance to one member being banned.
As Forum members we each of us must, in my view, retain our personal integrity and composure when posting. If you don't do that and type the first angry words you can think of in response to someone who sees things differently or post something best said in private, then you are, in my view letting yourself down, but more importantly lowering the standards we have on this Forum. And if you couldn't give a monkeys about that then perhaps you have no place being here.
I do think the Moderators have a role to play here. There's one thing in allowing folks to say what they want, but an entirely different thing when things start to get out of hand, as evidenced by our former member being banned. In my view better exert some authority early on at risk of stifling the discussion rather than let things slide, since that's what moderation is surely all about.
Anyway, the moral of this post is for us all to think twice about about what we post (or put another way engage brain first before hitting the send key, irrespective of how many glasses you might have had), and then hopefully our Forum will continue to be friendly, and debates can be balanced and not get out of hand.
However in the same thread I also said that things were being posted by Forum members that could arguably lead outsiders to believe that we were a bunch of beer swilling tossers, which I am sure you would like to consider you are not.
There have been two or three similar threads in the last few days and occasionally members have exchanged some angry words, leading in one instance to one member being banned.
As Forum members we each of us must, in my view, retain our personal integrity and composure when posting. If you don't do that and type the first angry words you can think of in response to someone who sees things differently or post something best said in private, then you are, in my view letting yourself down, but more importantly lowering the standards we have on this Forum. And if you couldn't give a monkeys about that then perhaps you have no place being here.
I do think the Moderators have a role to play here. There's one thing in allowing folks to say what they want, but an entirely different thing when things start to get out of hand, as evidenced by our former member being banned. In my view better exert some authority early on at risk of stifling the discussion rather than let things slide, since that's what moderation is surely all about.
Anyway, the moral of this post is for us all to think twice about about what we post (or put another way engage brain first before hitting the send key, irrespective of how many glasses you might have had), and then hopefully our Forum will continue to be friendly, and debates can be balanced and not get out of hand.