Jonathan Randall said:
Given that right now there are a number of heated debates going on here in the Study, some where members are treating each other, IMO, in an unfriendly manner, let's not forget that only a few short months ago there was talk of and serious consideration given to closing the Study. Any thoughts on how we can return the discourse here to a more friendly and tolerant (of disagreements) level?
* Disclaimer *
I am speaking here as a concerned member of Martial Talk and not officially as a Moderator.
Jonathan I certainly appreciate that sentiment and it got me thinking that this is perhaps a more complicated issue than it might look at first glance. OK let me first say that
by far the majority of folk on here are - I have found - open, honest and without ulterior motivation, the discussion is stimulating and I learn a lot. But...
There are the deliberately antagonistic posters who post as challenge. It's the forum equivalent of "Step outside and we'll see..." No place for it in our MA any more than there is on this forum. However, there are plenty of us who see this for what it is but charge the red rag
anyway in much the same way as we would step up if someone got in our face physically. So that's a two pronged sword I think.
There are also the posters who exist on here for no other reason than to forward their case for king. They seek glorification and as the old PR adage goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity... Again our replies to these posts offer only more ego flattering. Again, I think sometimes we [the "decent" majority] just can't help ourselves in jumping those trains which to be facetious I think are destined as short journies
And finally there are the worst offenders in my opinion. These are the members who post in an obviously aggressive way [bullying possibly]. I can't stand this abusive immaturity - and it IS abusive even though it might be veiled as "genuine argument".
So, that's a lot of preamble. Your question is how to endow the study with greater tolerance well, I think the best way to do this [and don't ask me how!] is to encourage much greater participation in the study across the MT populus. Because the greater the number of
decent,
civil members posting there, the greater the opportunity for self-regulation. I mean, we all love a spectacle but nobody wants mods having to come in and showing the unsociables the door.
Self-regulation is best and most expedient.
I wouldn't think closing it down would satisfy the remit of Bob's forum which though I'm not familiar with I'd be guessing a part of it was to increase membership and while there are current and topical threads from the study out there in Google-land people will come in here to read them and maybe join and maybe support.
Apologies for being so verbose but funny what amazes me is... well, how much I care, huh. Oh well I am tired I have to say of the relentless negativity of some folk sometimes and not just here, it's everywhere. It's encouraging to come on here and see some of the upbeat posts and members coming on and I laud the efforts of the many members recently who are obviously trying to bring accord. Just because we're all fighters doesn't mean we gotta fight ourselves. There are common goals.
Respects!