Moratorium on religious discussion

[Memnoch]

I'll put my 2c in. I hear what Yorick's saying, but I've always taken the perspective that while this is Ziroc's house, this YOUR forum. When I say YOU I mean all of you. You create the threads, you engage in the dialogue. Z owns it, we moderate it, but you USE it. You are expected to do it within the framework of the rules and regs, but within that scope you're as free to talk about whatever you like. I call this "liberating rigour".

This is why I'm so hard on you guys when you break down into flaming and inability to accept other points of view, even going down to debating definitions of things and getting bogged down and eventually into flames due to an inability to agree or even move forward due to a difference in opinion on definitions. It's because I think very highly of you guys and expect you to be able to do this, as in my opinion our rules of conduct are not hard to follow at all, but for whatever reason you can't (or won't) - and it annoys me (and Mouse, and the others) when we have to go and sort things out that you should be able to do for yourselves. I'm probably not a good choice for a mod for this particular forum as I don't generally like to overmoderate and tell people what to do or tell people to break things up - I expect them to know how to do that for themselves.

I have CONSTANTLY asked people to take responsibility and ownership for this forum, the way it is managed, and for the behaviour in here (for example here and here and here), rather than just leaving it up to the mods to settle things. Some people took offence to my words at the time (understandable and fair enough) and I hope no offence is taken to my reposting my comments, but overall I've been very pleased with the spirit in which the comments were taken and how things have improved considerably since then from just about everyone (special kudos to Timber, whose behaviour has been first class since his return [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] ). But we're not quite at the stage where we'll be confident in letting you guys discuss a topic as emotive as religion, since it's obviously something many people have very strong feelings about, on both sides of the fence, and as such are much less likely to be able to use their tact and judgment to "walk away" when things are getting heated, in fact they dig in more stubbornly until a moderator arrives and locks the thread or issues a warning (thus providing them with a face-saving exit). That's what it's looked like to me. People may disagree with me, and that's cool, but I'm not prepared to debate it. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I have high hopes that we can debate religion again, but before we do that we will need a step change in behaviour, and the concept of ownership, and learn how to better read the tone of threads to know when they are starting to go sour, and learn to lay off or find some common ground - on other words to EFFECTIVELY MANAGE the thread and its longevity, rather than just endlessly push our barrows on it at any cost. Here's a suggestion - rather than looking at other people, have a look inside, at yourself, to see if there's anything YOU can do to make this forum run more smoothly. Try and see yourself through other people's eyes.

And remember what OUR stake in things here is - We don't want this forum to turn into a flamepit, because it will disappear if that happens. This does NOT mean that we want everyone to agree with each other, or that we want there to be no passion or discord of any kind - far from it. We don't mind a bit of healthy debate, passion and emotional energy, but we want people to be able to walk away from it with no hard feelings, whatever the outcome, and no genuine anger and frustration. We all come here to relax, not to stress ourselves out even more. So if you notice that you or someone else is getting the shits, then here's a tip - ease off. In other words, we want a positive attitude here, not a negative one.

Let's see how well you all do at self-restraint and self-control on existing topics first, then we'll review things at the end of the year.

Anyway, that's my 2c. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 08-31-2004, 09:37 AM: Message edited by: Memnoch ]