Fighting

[jimnyc]

Can we all please try to move the community back to a bit of a more respectful level? As of late there have been a lot of fights and personal attacks. While not always against the rules, it doesn't make for a healthy community. I know there will always be some animosity and people that don't like one another, but that doesn't mean we need to go overboard in our posts. And yes, I saw "we" as I know I am just as guilty at times, if not more. And this isn't any one particular person but rather a bunch of us. As they say "It takes 2 to tango" and there's a lot of dancing going on in here lately.

If one must get down and dirty, we have a place at the bottom of the board for that, which allows those not wishing to read to avoid it. Otherwise, let's all please make a concerted effort to raise the level of our debates and avoid getting too personal and ruining threads. Other members of the community probably see a lot of personal attacks and fighting and avoid those threads like the plague, or avoid all threads, which is a shame, because right now there are a lot of great topic to be discussing with the election nearing.

[jimnyc]

I wanted to take a moment to add onto this post. I think the fighting which ruined threads has died down, but a lot of personal insults have moved into town and are finding their way into so many threads. I myself am guilty of this but try my best to stick to the topics. I'm hoping we can all agree to lay back a bit on continually going personal with the same people, over and over. Sometimes, better than insulting someone in a personal manner, is to inundate them with facts and let the community see who got the better of who. Really, even though it may temporarily feel good to go personal, there really are no winners, and the majority of the time, the one going personal actually looks worse - so basically you lose when you think you're winning.

I'm not asking everyone to say "please" and "thank you" and applaud one another, but just try and keep the overtly personal insults to a minimum. Some sarcasm of course is cool, and expected actually. But there's a big difference between making a sarcastic remark and jumping on someone personally. Telling someone "take a walk off of a short pier" or "that was the most retarded post ever" are examples of some sarcasm. Telling someone what a loser in real life they must be, or degrading them, or using the most vile of words (which I think need not be spelled out), do the board more harm than good.

You'll notice that this is not a rule change. This is a request, which I hope everyone will help chip in with a tad. Besides, it's much more gratifying to beat someone senseless with facts and words than it is to just tell them off.