The Human Cost of Talking Trump

[Sloppy Zhang]

Personally, I remember the good ol' days when there were less boards (it's just so hard to navigate now and keep up with new posts), and less moderation. I think it was around the time that teachers and authors started to have more of a presence here that the decision was made to "clean up" the board a little bit. To me it cut down a little bit on the "crazy wisdom". But I guess we got better advertising? Or something.

 

Then I think it was around the time of the Kunlun craze that we started to get some posts revealing some, uh, personal and behind the scenes information of some Kunlun practitioners. Appropriate for public? Probably not. Insightful for those outsiders potentially interesting in checking out the group? To me, I like to hear all the feedback before going into something, good and bad.

 

Again, rules were updated, posts got edited, pruned, moderated out, etc. And for me... that's kind of when the board lost its magic. I can't claim to be an expert in Daoist alchemy, but you need water AND fire to make steam. We can't always just be agreeable. We can't always just post "nice things". Sometimes we NEED to post something controversial, to "stir the pot", in order to get a good discussion rolling.

 

Trump, in that respect, makes a great conversation starter. He's that spark of fire that will really get a conversation rolling. But the parties involved need to bring their own water. And too many times it just degenerates into personal attacks as one or both parties try to bail on the argument without saving face.

 

I've always erred on the side of less moderation. I think you need to get a little heat to make things interesting. But some people would consider such an environment hostile. And to be sure, there are some hostile, unwelcoming online environments. So venue needs to be taken into account as well.

[Nungali]

stay away from political and religious  discussions ...... if you have 'a horse in the race '     ... and you want some sort of harmony between people.

 

That 'rule' got developed for a reason . 

[Apech]

10 hours ago, Sloppy Zhang said:

Personally, I remember the good ol' days when there were less boards (it's just so hard to navigate now and keep up with new posts), and less moderation. I think it was around the time that teachers and authors started to have more of a presence here that the decision was made to "clean up" the board a little bit. To me it cut down a little bit on the "crazy wisdom". But I guess we got better advertising? Or something.

 

Then I think it was around the time of the Kunlun craze that we started to get some posts revealing some, uh, personal and behind the scenes information of some Kunlun practitioners. Appropriate for public? Probably not. Insightful for those outsiders potentially interesting in checking out the group? To me, I like to hear all the feedback before going into something, good and bad.

 

Again, rules were updated, posts got edited, pruned, moderated out, etc. And for me... that's kind of when the board lost its magic. I can't claim to be an expert in Daoist alchemy, but you need water AND fire to make steam. We can't always just be agreeable. We can't always just post "nice things". Sometimes we NEED to post something controversial, to "stir the pot", in order to get a good discussion rolling.

 

Trump, in that respect, makes a great conversation starter. He's that spark of fire that will really get a conversation rolling. But the parties involved need to bring their own water. And too many times it just degenerates into personal attacks as one or both parties try to bail on the argument without saving face.

 

I've always erred on the side of less moderation. I think you need to get a little heat to make things interesting. But some people would consider such an environment hostile. And to be sure, there are some hostile, unwelcoming online environments. So venue needs to be taken into account as well.

 

I kind of agree the board has lost some of its edginess but the reason for moderation wasn't advertising.  The reason was that Sean realised that endless trolling, dog piling and flame wars meant that conversation died.  Remember the Gender wars?  You were part of that i think.  'Generally' doesn't mean 'most' and all that?  Entertaining - then crazy and dull.  Anyway the point of moderation - which gets lost sometimes is just to make it easier to have a good conversation rather than repetitive insults and deliberate hijacking.  It is supposed to be light touch and impersonal.  If you want fire you can attack the other persons ideas, tear the ideas to shreds - but not the other person.  When I was a moderator I had a rule for myself 'if in doubt don't act' - so the weight was always with non-intervention - which is kind of why Off Grid and the political threads exist and despite the constant stream of reports from certain people we hardly ever intervened - cos of Freedom of Speech I guess (which doesn't seem to exist any more in my home country by the way ) but in Amurica is more or less alive and well.

[Sloppy Zhang]

9 hours ago, Apech said:

 

I kind of agree the board has lost some of its edginess but the reason for moderation wasn't advertising.  The reason was that Sean realised that endless trolling, dog piling and flame wars meant that conversation died.  Remember the Gender wars?  You were part of that i think.  'Generally' doesn't mean 'most' and all that?  Entertaining - then crazy and dull.  Anyway the point of moderation - which gets lost sometimes is just to make it easier to have a good conversation rather than repetitive insults and deliberate hijacking.  It is supposed to be light touch and impersonal.  If you want fire you can attack the other persons ideas, tear the ideas to shreds - but not the other person.  When I was a moderator I had a rule for myself 'if in doubt don't act' - so the weight was always with non-intervention - which is kind of why Off Grid and the political threads exist and despite the constant stream of reports from certain people we hardly ever intervened - cos of Freedom of Speech I guess (which doesn't seem to exist any more in my home country by the way ) but in Amurica is more or less alive and well.

 

I do remember the gender wars  crazy times, and also a good example of how an individual may identify with a larger group, or with an ideology.

 

It's hard to keep them separate. If I respond to your post with "that's crazy", am I referencing your post's ideology, or am I referencing you? If I respond with "how can anyone think that?" am I being critical of the idea for being unthinkable, or am I criticizing you for believing it?

[Apech]

1 hour ago, Sloppy Zhang said:

 

I do remember the gender wars  crazy times, and also a good example of how an individual may identify with a larger group, or with an ideology.

 

It's hard to keep them separate. If I respond to your post with "that's crazy", am I referencing your post's ideology, or am I referencing you? If I respond with "how can anyone think that?" am I being critical of the idea for being unthinkable, or am I criticizing you for believing it?

 

I don't see either of those as an insult.  But then I am crazy