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Okay people you read it.....
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| TranceGiant |
the mods are starting to lose patience. Seems as if they're fed up with the current status of this forum. And to be honest, I'm on their side. I remember how the first threads were full of interesting discussions on a very high level and the atmosphere was one of mutual respect. Philosophical and sociopolitical topics dominated (such as drugs, anarchy, freedom, pacifism and globalization) and every post was an intellectual challenge.
What happened?
This forum simply turned into a USA/Israel/Iraq/Palestine post-orgy, full of insults and attacks. Totally destructive, never-ending threads about the same aubjects.
Since I really like this forum (my favourite one after the germany one; I even prefer-ED it to the chill out room) I don't want it to be closed. Especially after the huge effort that was made in order to have it created.
So: What happened to the likes of Trancaholic, Cortexbomb etc.? Why can't we get back to more abstract, but surely more interesting and peaceful discussions like the Nihilism debate going on in the chill out room? Big historians and philosophs of this forum, you know who you are, let's get the "political" forum back on track! :thepirate |
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| Arbiter |
| You're right. I'm going to boycott all threads on USA vs Iraq or Israel vs Palestine. This isn't going anywhere, and its only making this forum a less intelligent place. |
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| JM |
| quote: | Originally posted by Arbiter
You're right. I'm going to boycott all threads on USA vs Iraq or Israel vs Palestine. This isn't going anywhere, and its only making this forum a less intelligent place. |
yeh it's true. those thread aren't going anywhere. it's like black & white arguments in there ( i contribute;) )
not any more though....
hopefully, unless i feel like pissing someone off.
eh, people take these forums too seriously
>JM< |
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| trancaholic |
| quote: | Originally posted by TranceGiant
So: What happened to the likes of Trancaholic, Cortexbomb etc.?
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Thanks for mentioning my nick TranceGiant. It's nice to know somebody has enjoyed my contribution to these forums.
I do have a bad conscience for not participating any more in this section, as I was one of the verbal proponent for its creation. The reasons are two-fold. First, my education is nearing its completion and takes extreme amounts of time, presently. Second, somehow my family affairs seem to have gone mad over the last six months. When asked to deal with hospitalizations, burglaries, suicide and such, I have found that I do not have the energy reserves for investigating global political issues and philosophical arguments on the level of detail they require, and hence have abstained from partaking in the debate around here.
Anyway, I mention these reasons only to assure you that my absense has nothing to do with lower quality of the discussions around here. Things are looking more bright for me now, though, so I hope that I can start participating again soon.:)
| quote: | Originally posted by TranceGiant
What happened?
This forum simply turned into a USA/Israel/Iraq/Palestine post-orgy, full of insults and attacks. Totally destructive, never-ending threads about the same aubjects.
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I believe that you can ascribe this phenomenon to the current massive news coverage of those conflicts - and only those, it seems. Furthermore, they are conflicts most people seem to have an opinion about - and conflicting ones at that (which is a prerequisite for discussion IMO).
The problem, as I see it, is when obvious propagandists succeed in provoking people from "the other side". Kind of reminds me of the "DJ James M vs. Paul Wilson"-fights in the old days. The conflicts wouldn't exist if the provoked side "simply" abstained from retorting.
Some interesting discussions have been taken, I think. The discussion on Chirac's rebuke of the "new Europe" I would love to be a part of, for instance, as it is something I am very much agitated by.
There have been others as well, and for the sake of these discussions alone I feel it would be a shame to close down this section. That would be to punish the community for the crimes of the individuals (how's that for a topic of discussion, by the way?). |
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| Renegade |
In all honesty, if you were to compare the discussions in this forum to those of any other on the entire board, you would find that there is less flaming and more civility on this forum than on each the others. Even when a passionate disagreement arises, it usually gets sorted out on its own, without the need for a moderator to step in and close the topic. I agree, if the arguments start to get personal, then it's time to get heavy-handed, but - in all seriousness - I don't think I'm seeing that any more. There were a few (taking care not to mention any names ;) ) who didn't seem interested in holding down a civil conversation when this forum was first created, but I've noticed an improvement from all of them. While there is still going to be passionate bipartisanism in the forum (it's politics, you've got to expect some feistiness) so long as there's an argument in there, and no personal insults, I fail to see the problem.
As for the issue of having the same topics appear over and over again, as Mental Exodus and trancaholic said, it's only because they're relevant and presently topical. While I agree that the Isreali/Palestinian threads have degenerated into mindless conflict on a few occasions (much like in real life unfortunately :rolleyes: ) the Iraqi debates have generally been of a high quality, with lots of facts and figures being passed back and forth. The point is, the good discussions (which outnumber the "bad" discussions by a pretty good ratio imho) just wouldn't be possible in the Chill-Out Room. Could you imagine trying to discuss the Iraqi conflict in there? It'd be impossible. That's why we created this forum, and that's why it needs to stay, even if the mods are worried about how "out of control" it's getting. Perhaps we need mods who are willing and able to visit this forum more often in charge? Nothing against the four who moderate it now, but given the amount of time they must spend moderating the C/O Room, Music Discussion Room and the Regional Forums, it couldn't be easy for them to moderate this one as well (Blik's the only one I ever see posting in here, and that's usually quite rarely). I say, give moderator powers here to Izzy, TranceGiant and anyone else who's already a mod and visits regularly, and hope that everything stays in check. I don't think that there's much of a problem here - and perhaps this "problem" can't be solved be extra moderation - but if we could work out some rules about what does and does not constitute acceptable posting, and to get these regulars to ensure that these rules are enforced, I reckon we will see a marked improvement.
Sorry about the lack of paragraphing, but I'm just spooling all this off the top of my head. ;)
| quote: | I do have a bad conscience for not participating any more in this section, as I was one of the verbal proponent for its creation. The reasons are two-fold. First, my education is nearing its completion and takes extreme amounts of time, presently. Second, somehow my family affairs seem to have gone mad over the last six months. When asked to deal with hospitalizations, burglaries, suicide and such, I have found that I do not have the energy reserves for investigating global political issues and philosophical arguments on the level of detail they require, and hence have abstained from partaking in the debate around here.
Anyway, I mention these reasons only to assure you that my absense has nothing to do with lower quality of the discussions around here. Things are looking more bright for me now, though, so I hope that I can start participating again soon. |
Hey, I was wondering where you had gotten to! Sounds like you have a lot to deal with at the moment, and I know all to well just how difficult it is to concern yourself political issues when you face more immediate problems in your own life, but I hope you come through it all okay though. Hope to see you posting regularly again soon - and that ought to raise the intellectual level of this board a peg or two. ;) |
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| TranceGiant |
I agree with you guys, when u say that despite the decrease of quality, this forum is still a better place to discuss politics than, say, the chill out room. But, without wanting to sound arrogant, why should that be our standard? This is no excuse for what's gradually(not totally - yet) taking place here. We cannot deny that back in the "old days" the level was a higher one.
I also understand why lately this place was filled with Iraq threads, it's just logical and I see it on myself, as I constantly think about and analyze the conflict. I also agree that a great part of these discussions are pretty educationg and interesting but unfortunately there's currently a development towards "quantitiy instead of quality". I'm not saying we should entirely cancel those discussions, but a slight regulation (not even moderation) will work wonders. Also, different topics now and then just keep you motivated and perhaps even have people, who in the iraq issue totally disagree, find themselves united towards a certain other topic. |
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