| I'm thinking that the jury is still out on the free speech issue. I've not received any notes from the moderators here saying to tone it down, as I have on another forum when I was only involved with what I thought was just a spirited discussion. They didn't remove my posts, but they did make me mad with their too quick rap with the ruler. (As I used to say to my mother, "didn't hurt, didn't hurt, na, na, na-na, naa" right before she slugged me).
Seems like I remember only one thread disappearing here and I'm not even sure that I recall correctly. I must admit that whatever it was I didn't miss it. Maybe it just moved to "Steel Cage", which I don't frequent.
I really think that moving things that get too heated to the Steel Cage is an eligant solution. It encourages free speech, but doesn't require the rest of us to wade through point and counterpoint of a thread that's degenerated into a p***ing contest. If we allow the rancor to reside in the main "serious" forums, I think we risk running off good prospects. I know that if I browse and see nothing but p**s and venom, I'm not inclined to post, or even come back. I do want lively, respectful discussion and feel like that's largely the normal operating mode here.
Maybe I've missed something. Have threads been disappearing here? With the Steel Cage it seems like simply moving a too-heated discussion there is the way to go. Leave some tracks back in the dedicated forum that there's a fight going on over in SC and I think that everyone should be reasonably happy, so long as the moderators are not too quick on the trigger. We wouldn't want the SC ploy to become a way to keep legitimate questioning out of the dedicated horn forums.
Anyway, it's good to see this place gaining a voice of its own. I still enjoy TH and some other choices, but this is certainly a viable and enjoyable site. I don't really have a solution for the negatives of the dedicated marque forums, but it's good to see that I'm not the only one that's noticed the "problem."
Dave |