Chaos and the Kiddies Table

[oldsoul]

Running away. LOL. You mean it's cowardly to leave someplace you don't like? You're supposed to stay and fight to make the place into something you do like? Forever? That's how you live your life? What an absurd waste of time. I don't own this board and I don't delude myself into thinking I have any influence here. Apparently you do delude yourself into thinking you can make this board over in your own image. Why? Can you provide an example of how your influence has changed/improved this board? Or anyone else's influence?

Blue:
That is not what I said. I was merely pointing out the fact that you are presented with an opportunity to further your goal of a better informed voting public, and are running away from it. Seemingly because it is too hard.
Red:
No, that is not how I live my life, but when I see an opportunity to make a difference, I generally take it.
Green:
No, I do not think I can change this forum. I do, however, think that there is a good chance that by challenging people's uneducated assertions, that I can make a difference in some people's way of thinking. I do not expect that I will change any hearts or minds, but if I can get even one person to take a serious look at why, not what, they believe the things they believe, then I see that as a success. See, often times one must make do with what is available, and do their best to turn a seemingly hopeless situation into one with hope. That, as I see it, is the American way.

 

[JBond]

"I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend."
- Thomas Jefferson

That's how rational, emotionally mature people think. Over the course of my life I have had many arguments on every subject under the sun. These conversations have been impassioned, but never angry. They have never sunk to the childish level of personal insult. I have been to parties where I have heard people express relief that so-and-so wasn't invited, because he's a nutjob and conversation is impossible if he's around. I have attended many family gatherings where the kids are seated at a separate children's table, because the grown ups wanted to talk. All these are standard strategies/behaviors in social interactions.

The came the internet, where nutjobs hold the whip hand. Where twelve year olds get to dominate. Hey, mods! Why do you allow it? Hey posters! Do you like this garbage?

I ran forum boards. Admittedly they were not politics boards, they were movie discussion and photoshopping boards. Nonetheless we had chat subforums, and we constantly had people stepping over the line and we had a zero tolerance policy towards such people. People online value their identities. They build up their "brand" and they resent losing their online name, and being knocked back to zero posts and zero recognizability. All you have to do is take that away from them. It's a lot of work, but if you're not willing to do the work, you have nothing.

The CDZ is a failure. There is no commitment to debate or discussion here. It is just a slightly more polite wasteland. Perhaps, just perhaps, you need to create a truly safe zone before the rational people will come out to play. The CDZ, it seems to me, indicates some awareness of this situation and some attempt to deal with these problems, but it's a half-measure at best.

If this is truly how you think of the CDZ, why are you bothering to come in here? Seems a bit pointless from the viewpoint you have expressed, or am I misunderstanding something?

First of all my participation here has slowed considerably, and this thread is something of a farewell. My search for a decent politics forum started recently, and the first forum I participated in was in every way worse than this place. I had some slight hope for this place, but that about as enthusiastic as I've gotten.

I was curious, as I ease off into the sunset, whether I am the only one who feels this way. Perhaps others feel as I do, or perhaps not. I doubt mods would be inclined to be critical in a public forum, but I also wondered whether they were happy with the kind of traffic that dominates here. Knee-jerk, hyper-partisan, fact-free, absurdly personalized arguments, reduced almost entirely to the low level of ad-hominem attacks. That's what happens when you let a lot of immature nuts dominate conversations.

You say that you would like the general public to be better informed (I am paraphrasing), and yet, when presented with a real opportunity to move towards that laudable goal, you cut and run instead of standing and fighting. Interesting....

Red:
??? The context of his "cut and run" is participation the USMB forums. What point is served by his remaining here and contributing in the face of the rampant knee-jerk, hyper-partisan and fact-free remarks that pervade the conversations here? None of any value that I can think of.

For my own part, I don't intend to participate here once the duration of my lost wager's "penance" is complete. There is just too much derelict and glib intellectual torpidity for me to endure beyond a year. Truly I had no idea that "average folks" were as "loud, strong and wrong" as has been shown to me by having participated in a variety of topics on this forum. I don't get it. How can one profess to care enough about political matters to engage in public discourse about them yet, as so many folks here are, refrain entirely from factual investigation?

I mean really. I can count on one hand the number of times someone on USMB (besides I) has, in context, cited credible/rigorous research facts to support their arguments. In contrast, I see repeated echoes of partisan content/ideas drawn from partisan sources. Why have the discussion if all one is going to do is parrot what any of us can read in various editorials?

Happy to discuss any topic. What is tripping your trigger? Have an itch, scratch it. Willing to discuss any topic.

 

[Picaro]

Interestingly, I did "report" Picaro and this thread this morning, inviting a mod's response, but we didn't get one.
Maybe my definition of "insult" is wrong. Is it because Elvis opened this in Announcements and Feedback instead of CDZ? I could swear it started there--did they move it?

Well, most of the time they don't get excited about some troll sniveling about somebody else, that's all.

 

[Picaro]

Can I ignore the fact that this thread, intended to discuss the health of the CDZ with CDZ participants and to ask the mods to explain their approach to moderating the CDZ has been moved out of the CDZ and the absurd "gun control" thread remains? I fully expected this to happen. When insults are encouraged and legitimate criticism is suppressed, you know you're dealing with a fascistic mentality.

I repeat, my problem here has nothing to do with the idiot posters. My problem is with the mods. They allow the idiots free reign. And why? I can understand, though I despise, the philosophy that says forum boards exist to create click bait for paid sponsors, not to create discussion. Who is more likely to click on random sponsor links, thoughtful people or idiots? What are there more of, thoughtful people or idiots? A board with this level of traffic requires a financial investment, and I understand, although I despise, the mentality which prefers quantity over quality. What I don;t get is the mods. The volunteers. The ones who don't own this board but who give of their time, without recompense, to make the world safe for morons who want to call other people libtards. I guess they must be as stupid as the people whose right to be stupid they defend so vigorously.

Whatever. I have deleted my favicon for this place. I found this forum a disgusting cesspool the first day I was here, and every day thereafter. Hey mods! Discussion on the internet is dead, and YOU killed it. Congratulations morons, and good riddance.

The money and point of a message board is to have conversation. Mods are not so much cops on the beat, as traffic regulators. Keep the traffic flowing. I could be wrong, but you seem to be in a discussion and it is still visible for all to read. We also allow people to whine about what they want.

Nothing to see here. Elvis started a troll thread in the CDZ, then trolled in his own thread, then started whining about it all and has deluded himself into thinking he was a victim or something. This is typical with narcissists who mistakenly consider themselves 'intellectuals' who are shocked to find out there are people out there who don't agree with their mommies' opinions on that.