Mr. Make-Believe
The happy genius of my household
...
So don't be too dismissive of the "OT" prefix.
This is a call not for civilty, but for the purpose of good conversation. And I'll keep it short. HooperDrivestheBoat posted something I thought was important to keep in mind and I wanted to expound on it just a little bit.
When I say NOT for civility, I mean that I don't intend to regulate heated conversations about topics that can naturally lead to high emotion. I think those threads can be very interesting reads and very appealing to take part in if one so inclined to do so. Besides, there is nothing in the rules of the site that say you have to be polite to everyone all the time.
I would humbly request two things (and others can add to this if they'd like):
1) If you disagree with a poster's view/opinion/proposal, however strongly, please attempt to back your argument with reasons for it. "This is just moronic" isn't a positive contribution to a thread - it's inflammatory and steers the conversation into empty, substanceless *****ing.
2) If it's a conversation that you think is invalid or pointless - don't engage in it. If there are enough people who want to be a part of it, it will continue without you. If not, it will die. If it violates the rules of the site, report it and the moderators here will deal with that fairly swiftly. It's counter-intuitive to bump a discussion that you consider irrelevant, just to state how irrelevant it is.
If this is unfair of me, let me know. But I've had my share of people coming to me with "issues" that really needn't exist. And I think if we kept these two points in mind, we SHOULD see a better level of banter. Would anyone disagree that it would make this place a more affable one to visit?
So don't be too dismissive of the "OT" prefix.
This is a call not for civilty, but for the purpose of good conversation. And I'll keep it short. HooperDrivestheBoat posted something I thought was important to keep in mind and I wanted to expound on it just a little bit.
When I say NOT for civility, I mean that I don't intend to regulate heated conversations about topics that can naturally lead to high emotion. I think those threads can be very interesting reads and very appealing to take part in if one so inclined to do so. Besides, there is nothing in the rules of the site that say you have to be polite to everyone all the time.
I would humbly request two things (and others can add to this if they'd like):
1) If you disagree with a poster's view/opinion/proposal, however strongly, please attempt to back your argument with reasons for it. "This is just moronic" isn't a positive contribution to a thread - it's inflammatory and steers the conversation into empty, substanceless *****ing.
2) If it's a conversation that you think is invalid or pointless - don't engage in it. If there are enough people who want to be a part of it, it will continue without you. If not, it will die. If it violates the rules of the site, report it and the moderators here will deal with that fairly swiftly. It's counter-intuitive to bump a discussion that you consider irrelevant, just to state how irrelevant it is.
If this is unfair of me, let me know. But I've had my share of people coming to me with "issues" that really needn't exist. And I think if we kept these two points in mind, we SHOULD see a better level of banter. Would anyone disagree that it would make this place a more affable one to visit?
