Help: Point me to threads?

Subject: Point me to threads?
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 01:17 PM

Could some of you who have been around here for a while, point me to some threads in the archives that discuss the forum's opinions on forum etiquette.

The subject came up in the "I am sorry" thread and I'd like to see what's been said in the past (so as to not needlessly cover old ground)

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 01:27 PM

We keep saying, "See the See the FAQ! It's there........

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 01:29 PM

Also, the "temporarily anonymous" one, with Etiquette in the title, I believe.

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: MMario
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 01:30 PM

I'd say if you read through a couple of the classic threads you'll get an idea -

but some people

like

going over the same ground over and over....so don't worry about that.

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 01:31 PM

...I might add that my curiousity is heightened by my participation in another forum that is growing so fast that it is starting to show signs of misunderstanding inherent to large forums;

1. Folks only reading the first and last post of a thread to save time,
2. Consequent ignoring of posts by individuals who've posted less than quality posts in the past,
3. People taking less care in their posting as they may WANT to participate, but have had many posts ingnored in the past and have become "gun-shy" (thereby lowering the level of writing throughout the forum,

This place has weathered many of these, and though they still occur, I'm curious as to the manner in which many of you have dealt with it, and kept such an interesting forum with such a high level of writing.

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 01:38 PM

Sorry Sorcha<

I had done that and I know what the stated etiquete is suppose to be. I'm more curious about dealing with the ways it naturally falls apart.

Mrrzy's suggestion is to the point, in that, as I remember it, it was discussion revolving around the use of anonymity to deal with etiquette flaws.

thanks for the responses

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 02:03 PM

My most common reason for not reading a post or at least not reading it carefully enough is laziness on my part but I don't think I will change. I tend to want to get the jist of a post quickly and, regardless of the quality of the post, I skim very quickly through the longer posts.

One reason for me completely ignoring a post is that I find large paragraphs very difficult to read and quite frankly, I rarely can be bothered struggling. I have softened a little since becoming a JoeClone though - occasionally, I have noticed that a big chunk of text is due to incorrect formatting (missing line breaks, etc.) - in these instances, when I have had the time, I have edited the post to display as the writer had intended it to.

Jon

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 02:18 PM

If you want examples of how we all did when there were some extremely contentious times, here is a list I compiled for another fairly new Mudcatter, recently. I would caution against posting to any of them, 1) they are all quite long; 2) they are best left, as old hurts etc. would be reopened:

10 little indians

PC is NOT a dirty word...

Help: Coon songs, your thoughts about them

Descriptive terms, appropriate or not

Is anyone else as scared as I am?

music, politics & censorship

Guns, to my friends here, at Mudcat

Hestitatingly, GUNS, again

Mudcat Healing Circle & Music Society which led to Original Intent of healing circle

Compulsive Posting Disorder, RU Guilty?

I'm scared of Americans & guns

BS: Censorship

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 05:51 PM

Thanks for the help--exactly what I was after.

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 05:57 PM

John, I think you just need to keep always in mind that many of the people who post in the opinion-oriented threads are far more committed to saying what they think (and maybe thinking out loud in a thread sometimes to arrive at this) than in listening to one another. I think you have to expect that what you hope to have happen from a post may not be what happens.

There was a good thread about whether people have experienced a change of mind about important issues as a result of participating at Mudcat that was very interesting, which bore somewhat on this point. But there also was a thread recently where people stated very clearly that they come to opine, not learn. I AM NOT SAYING this is true of all, or in all cases even with those who said that. But it IS part of the paradigm here.

~S~

Subject: RE: Help: Point me to threads?
From: John Hardly
Date: 27 Mar 01 - 06:01 PM

interesting point ~S~

Thanks for the listing Kat!

I had noticed and suspected many do as you Jon--especially about unbroken paragraghs. Interesting phenomenon considering the little extra effort one must go through here to insert line breaks--it's obviously worth the effort.