There are two members stating such in " NEW POSTS ". I asked to be banned a couple weeks ago. Well, I am back. I am a weak willed person and change my mind about many things all the time. But, I do sense something is a big turn off to many regarding this forum and many other forums also. A LACK OF CIVILITY in responding to each other. An apparent need by many to disrespect, insult, belittle other forum members. As far as forums go, this is an active one. Let us keep it that way. I gave up on it a couple weeks ago. Two people called me a liar about something that happened just as I said it did. It was NOT a dramatic event and I was a bit amazed that I would be accused of lying about it. Where am I going with this ? LET US ALL treat each other with some civility and not just attack each other for the PLEASURE ? JOY ? FUN ? of doing so. I am back because I want to be for now. We all have our feelings and I suggest we treat each other as we wish to be treated. Of course WE ARE GOING TO DISAGREE ABOUT MUCH. Calling each other liars , a,,h,,s and such really pisses me off when it is done to me. I doubt many would do it in my presence . And I also, would be more careful about what I say. After all you have to be willing to back it up or back down,what you say in a bar or anywhere really. I am no goody two shoes, but sense the dialogue is becoming a big turn off for many. Some liveliness and intensity keeps a forum alive. But to just look for reasons to insult each other is a turn off. If I did not feel there was something I wanted here I would leave. I felt exactly that when I was banned. A bunch of assholes that only make me more unhappy than I already am. We are all better than that. ...traveler
Hello, FT, While I agree in principle with what you are saying, I have to disagree with your statement that "We are all better than that." The primary reason being that this place is FULL of kids - people 18 and younger that are undereducated, filled with hormones and lack enough experience in life, which makes them unreasonable and unreliable. Many of us are old enough and secure enough to not be concerned with "status." But these budding individuals feel the urge to establish themselves as jocks and think that they can do so if they yell enough and use enough name-calling. They remind me of what I heard years ago while learning to play pool: "If you can't be good, just shoot hard enough and maybe you'll knock something in." Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! It's also the age-old mindset of tying to make yourself look better by making others appear worse. Probably the oldest trick in the whole book.
REPLY: You are right and I apologize saying that. It was NOT directed at any particular person, just a feeling I had at that time. I just wanted to get away from the forum. I am sorry. ...traveler
REPLY: Is it really that bad here ? Maybe you are right and I will get myself permanently banned. But you are here, aren`t you ? You and others give me some hope for NOW. Good to hear from you, ...traveler
REPLY: I was aware of it, the contradiction, even as I typed it. But that is how I felt at that time,two weeks ago. That is how I felt, and those words were the ones that expressed the feeling. You are a very intriguing woman Orleander. ...traveler
Yes, it really IS that bad. However, there are enough of us reasonable folks here to hold our own even if we ARE outnumbered by the kids, cranks, woo-woos and dummies. This place may well be a fair representative cross-section of what the world is generally like in terms of fractions of the population - there are always more idiots and dummies than there are truly intelligent people. A great deal of that has to do with age, experience and education, though there are other factors as well. I find one group here - the conspiracy theorist nuts - to be particularly amusing. I use them just for comic relief unless they start to be obnoxious (as they usually all do eventually) and then I just ignore them. And they come and they go. Some will eventually become embarrassed or just get tired of other people putting down their nonsense. For example, we've had MORE than our fair share of 9/11 nuts and it seems they've all left - at least for now.The current ones are raving and raging about GM crops and the flu vaccine - but they appear to be be loosing steam. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! In short, this whole place is just like a pendulum - it goes through swings one way and then the other. Just take everything with a grain of salt and keep moving forward. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think you are being overly sensitive. Such extremes of courtesy are not required on an internet forum. While certain minimum standards should be maintained, it is a place to just say what's on your mind, directly, even bluntly. That is part of the appeal.
I hit this site 1-3 times a day and read pretty much every post here. I only respond to 1% of the posts I read mostly for the reasons you all outlined in this thread.
