A Healthy Forum?

[Xenophon]

It seems like in a true forum, EVERY thread would be filed under "Controversy." That's what a forum is: lively discussion, dissent, and hair-triggers, round chambered and safety off.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

"Is this the five minute argument, or the full half hour?"

 

[stalkinghyena]

safety off

topic?

While I think it is totally legit to have gun range in a garden, it's probably not good to have shell cases flying all over the flowers.
Cultivation is slow and boring, yes, like shooting a revolver - even Dirty Harry fired .44 "light" Specials, not magnums. Still, his rounds were the equivalent of a .357 wadcutter. Can't beat a G18 in terms of rate and volume of fire, but each tool has its application in clear and distinct senses.

 

[Yazata]

It seems like in a true forum, EVERY thread would be filed under "Controversy." That's what a forum is: lively discussion, dissent, and hair-triggers, round chambered and safety off.

If this is because I moved the Socialism thread then please file a complaint with our customerservice

 

[Xenophon]

"Is this the five minute argument, or the full half hour?"

Glad to see someone gets the point.

Post automatically merged: Tuesday at 11:44 PM

If this is because I moved the Socialism thread then please file a complaint with our customerservice

Nah, it's about having a controversy section at all. If one does not like controversy they always have the agoraphobia alternative---start one's own forum. Really, there are a few out there with 3-4 members. Sometimes it seems to be one guy posting under different names. Perfectly harmless discussion. No triggers or nothin'.

 

[SkullTraill]

I would agree with you if this was everythingforum.com but it is (to many people’s dismay) wizardforums.com

 

[Xenophon]

I would agree with you if this was everythingforum.com but it is (to many people’s dismay) wizardforums.com

Is magick more cotentious than other topics? Evidence is against that claim. I was brought up in an enclave of the West where guys aged 18-50 would come to blows over whether Ford pickups were better than Chevy. (Which always puzzled me.) Hey, it's your forum. You can carve the pie any way you want. My point is more cultural. It's a sorry thing when controversy is seen as taboo.

 

[8Lou1]

@Xenophon: we are on a public forum and controversial topics can be scarry. You can openly thank me, but not symbolic with a smiley. It is text only.

Would you perhaps be able to explain the cultural part to me? It interests me.

 

[SkullTraill]

Is magick more cotentious than other topics

No? I never said that.

I was brought up in an enclave of the West where guys aged 18-50 would come to blows over whether Ford pickups were better than Chevy. (Which always puzzled me.)

Yeah... but... nobody cares.

Hey, it's your forum. You can carve the pie any way you want.

I know...

It's a sorry thing when controversy is seen as taboo.

It's not. Having a section for non-occult controversial discussion is completely neutral, and in fact, more freedom than most any other forum would allow. Controversial occult discussions are allowed in the occult sections. However, this is an occult forum, and very few people care to be blasted by threads about blood sucking nazi vampires every day.

It's just a container.

 

[Ziran]

EVERY thread would be filed under "Controversy."

No rest for the wicked, eh?

 

[Xenophon]

Off-hand comments and posts are like blood-drinking boomerangs coming back at one. What was a one-off takes on an undead-vigor of its own. (Look at what happened to Adam Smith. In the thousand-pages of The Wealth of Nations, he spends about 90 words on "the invisible hand." It became a geld-grubbers' mantra lo these many generations. Ditto for what befell Jesus' quip about being "born again." It turned into the pit-bull of all evangelical slogans.)

Here. Can't we just say I was visualizing an alternative universe, one inaccessible to this one? One where "kryptonite" was not spelt "c-o-n-t-r-o-v-e-r-s-y."? It was a mental exercise is all, guys. Like a fantasy without the fapping. We can let it sink back into the collective unconscious. Then we can all go play in our sanbox and post stuff about magick. (Or count how many political posts I made on the day I signed up for the forum. Whichever.)

 

[Ziran]

Like a fantasy

Not a healthy fantasy. Forum health was the topic of discussion.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Work hard, play hard.

Five steps to success:

1. be encouraged
2. plan
3. execute
4. never quit
5. enjoy the fruits of our labor

EVERY thread would be filed under "Controversy." That's what a forum is: lively discussion, dissent, and hair-triggers, round chambered and safety off.

That's not healthy. It's unsustainable. Burn-out is not only inevitable, it's rapidly approaching.

 

[HoldAll]

It seems like in a true forum, EVERY thread would be filed under "Controversy." That's what a forum is: lively discussion, dissent, and hair-triggers, round chambered and safety off.

That firearm metaphor is too inappropriate and stereotypically macho for words.

Most of the thread starters here just seek help, information or want share an opinion or theory - come to think of it, this post falls into one of these categories as well. The purpose of this forum is not the lively cut and thrust of debate where one can showcase one's rhethorical brilliance, it's the subjects that matter. Oftentimes members will hold positions completely opposed without any ensuing argument because of the prevailing and for me surprising (post-)modern ecumenical spirit, so there's no Great Big Fat LHP vs. RHP Armageddon, the atheists aren't that interested in fighting the believers and so on.

Then again arguments will break out within totally non-controversial threads because of some small detail in a previous post, when a member feels offended or slighted personally or whatever but that's just a by-product of people communicating, not the raison d'être of this forum; it's is not a debating society. When somebody disagrees with something I wrote I may simply ignore it because I deem it pointless to fight this person, which of course won't earn me any brownie points in the manliness category but which sometimes is the wisest course - no doubt disappointing for the peanut gallery but a lot less stressful for me.

 

[Xenophon]

Not a healthy fantasy. Forum health was the topic of discussion.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Work hard, play hard.

Five steps to success:

1. be encouraged
2. plan
3. execute
4. never quit
5. enjoy the fruits of our labor

That's not healthy. It's unsustainable. Burn-out is not only inevitable, it's rapidly approachin

That firearm metaphor is too inappropriate and stereotypically macho for words.

Most of the thread starters here just seek help, information or want share an opinion or theory - come to think of it, this post falls into one of these categories as well. The purpose of this forum is not the lively cut and thrust of debate where one can showcase one's rhethorical brilliance, it's the subjects that matter. Oftentimes members will hold positions completely opposed without any ensuing argument because of the prevailing and for me surprising (post-)modern ecumenical spirit, so there's no Great Big Fat LHP vs. RHP Armageddon, the atheists aren't that interested in fighting the believers and so on.

Then again arguments will break out within totally non-controversial threads because of some small detail in a previous post, when a member feels offended or slighted personally or whatever but that's just a by-product of people communicating, not the raison d'être of this forum; it's is not a debating society. When somebody disagrees with something I wrote I may simply ignore it because I deem it pointless to fight this person, which of course won't earn me any brownie points in the manliness category but which sometimes is the wisest course - no doubt disappointing for the peanut gallery but a lot less stressful for me.

As I hinted above, I am not wedded to the idea of "the forum as perpetual donnybrook." If folks want topics balkanized, they can have balkanized topics with diced Kosovo on top for free. My musings were just that. Vox populi, vox dei, I gather.

As for the firearms metaphor, it was intended to hint at the dangers that inhere in debate. If you can't handle it, my sympathies. (Though no apologies.) Life is fulla icky things and psycho-emotional self-emasculation is no way to deal with them.

 

[Ziran]

As I hinted above, I am not wedded to the idea of "the forum as perpetual donnybrook." If folks want topics balkanized, they can have balkanized topics with diced Kosovo on top for free. My musings were just that. Vox populi, vox dei, I gather.

As for the firearms metaphor, it was intended to hint at the dangers that inhere in debate. If you can't handle it, my sympathies. (Though no apologies.) Life is fulla icky things and psycho-emotional self-emasculation is no way to deal with them.

My reaction was to the apparent discouragement of diversity in the form of threads which don't tickle your fancy.

In regard to your most recent reply, it's easy to decline responsibility for other's welfare, but that doesn't mean the responsibility doesn't exist.

 

[Xenophon]

My reaction was to the apparent discouragement of diversity in the form of threads which don't tickle your fancy.

There's a built-in barrier, isn't there? If I say "Aw, bull****!" too often, I'm like the boy who cries wolf. Or the boozy and belligerent uncle you stop inviting over for Thanksgiving. After a while, folks hit the ignore button.

I thought---and continue to think---that nothing hones one's views like having to refine them in the face of disagreement.

 

[Yazata]

The point really is, as Skull said.. this is a forum for topics related to Magick. And in these topics and threads there's usually very little disagreement or if there is any then the opposing views are for the most part appreciated by all.
Politics is a very different scene.

 

[Xenophon]

The point really is, as Skull said.. this is a forum for topics related to Magick. And in these topics and threads there's usually very little disagreement or if there is any then the opposing views are for the most part appreciated by all.
Politics is a very different scene.

OK, so we can lay the undead topic to rest then. My golem got off the leash.

 

[Ziran]

that nothing hones one's views like having to refine them in the face of disagreement.

Agreed, but let's kick back too. We deserve it, we've earned it. L'Chayim!

you stop inviting over for Thanksgiving

You're always welcome at my table. Always.

 

[Xenophon]

Agreed, but let's kick back too. We deserve it, we've earned it. L'Chayim!



You're always welcome at my table. Always.

Hospitable of you. We can argue whether turkey or goose is better.