John S
25th-January-2008, 03:03 PM
There have been several threads on the forum which have started out reasonably, and contained worthwhile, well thought-out comments and information which will have benefited all readers.
Then, for what seem usually to be personal (or personality) reasons (as opposed to rational arguments about the merits or otherwise of the subject under discussion), what started as sweetness and light descends into personal abuse, resulting in the whole thread being "taken outside" and eventually binned - including all the beneficial or innocent contributions.
I have no quarrel at all with the moderators' judgment in doing this, they are perfectly correct to dissociate Ceroc Scotland from the personal bile that is in some of these threads, and it is too much work to delete only the offensive stuff.
But those who cause a thread to be moved outside by their offensive contributions are in effect denying the rest of us on the forum the right to refer back at some future date to the worthwhile contributions in the thread - it will all have been binned - as well of course as creating headaches for the moderators and making us all feel uncomfortable in reading their comments.
My suggestion, and it may well have been considered before and rejected, is that we should all be subject to a system similar to that in football, ie:
1st offence: yellow card (warning)
2nd offence: red card (dismissal from the forum - temporary or permanent)
I have no wish to stifle robust argument or discussion, but unacceptable personal abuse reduces the value of the forum - I know I have been very reluctant to take part in any thread where I see that members with "previous" are already participating.
Then, for what seem usually to be personal (or personality) reasons (as opposed to rational arguments about the merits or otherwise of the subject under discussion), what started as sweetness and light descends into personal abuse, resulting in the whole thread being "taken outside" and eventually binned - including all the beneficial or innocent contributions.
I have no quarrel at all with the moderators' judgment in doing this, they are perfectly correct to dissociate Ceroc Scotland from the personal bile that is in some of these threads, and it is too much work to delete only the offensive stuff.
But those who cause a thread to be moved outside by their offensive contributions are in effect denying the rest of us on the forum the right to refer back at some future date to the worthwhile contributions in the thread - it will all have been binned - as well of course as creating headaches for the moderators and making us all feel uncomfortable in reading their comments.
My suggestion, and it may well have been considered before and rejected, is that we should all be subject to a system similar to that in football, ie:
1st offence: yellow card (warning)
2nd offence: red card (dismissal from the forum - temporary or permanent)
I have no wish to stifle robust argument or discussion, but unacceptable personal abuse reduces the value of the forum - I know I have been very reluctant to take part in any thread where I see that members with "previous" are already participating.