Another thing is that, no matter what's on top of a thread, it doesn't drop off the list until no one's posted to it for 24 hours.

If the thread is refreshed by everyone whose need to add a comment is greater than their possible concern about breathing life into an offensive thread, it's going to keep it in everyone's face.

Someone once said the internet is a "write-only medium." I think they were talking about newsgroups, but it holds true here. People don't come to read what others have written so much as air their own views. People have to have their say, and often don't consider the possibility of keeping quiet for the greater good of the place. "Don't tell me not to post - I have a right." Fine, but every now and then, we can tell ourselves to not post and just walk on by.

I can generally refrain from posting to offensive threads. Every now and then, there's an exception, and I post. I think most folks are the same way. There are enough of those exceptions to keep offensive threads alive.

It seems like the most effective way to kill threads is to simply beat them to death. I find threads about the "same shit/different day" a lot easier to ignore than others. Sometimes I'm tempted to re-post the same opinion I've posted 10 times before, and sometimes I do, but it's a lot easier to resist that temptation than the lure of something new.

Back to the refreshing of inoffensive threads in reaction to offensive threads: it smacks of a sort of mild panic reaction. It's still a reaction to trolls, and a reaction is what they're after. "What can I make those people do?" Well, besides saying "to hell with everyone else" and posting our $.02, we can start new threads: "garbadge dumping" ones, or ones with silly or sarcastic titles, or threads about how great Mudcat is. This is still a reaction, and it continues the disruption.

I still love it here. I love the friends I've made. I love discussions about music, and I enjoy many of the positive discussions and the ones not born of negativity. The problem I have these days is all the threads about Mudcat itself. I'm not sure quite why we all spend so much time talking about the place instead of engaging in the discussion most of us came here for. It's like we're all fascinated by contemplating a great cyber-navel. And I'm doing it NOW!!!

So anyway, I'll wander off now, and try to remember that having something to say and having the right to say it shouldn't be the only reasons I post it. I need to consider whether other folks need or want to hear it.