Keeping Our Wonderful Forum a Great Place to Be

[Moby]

http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/index.htm

[dsm]

http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/index.htm

Moby, score yourself a 10 for that link

I am sure most of us can look and laugh (at ourselves if not at others )

DSM

[DreamStalker]

We don't need a moderator. Yea people get slammed occasionally, but if its true advice they are seeking about helping their therapy, someone will drift thru it all and end up PM'ing them with offers of advice. Or a true noob, that has done their homework and been reading thru the posts will realize the longtime 'good' peeps here that they will feel comfortable in PM'ing about asking questions. I know I have, and have wonderful help and responses.

Bottom line, someone irks you to the point you just can't handle it, send them a PM and tell them how it is. This is the internet, thats how it works. Or just let it go, you can't protect everyone, all the newbies.. Unless they are completely new to computers and the internet, they've come across this before and should already know what to expect/ what to do.

My 2Cents of the Day.

Yep! I agree ... I don't need any saving from anyone. I can recognize when someone is being an A-hole and if I feel like confronting them I do ... if not I let it go and move on with my life ... if I'm the A-hole, I'm sure others will respond the same way towards me.

All this PC crap seems to be contagious ... what ever happened to the 1st amendment of this country?

[Moby]

Does Australia have a first amendment?

[Swolcott]

Love the link! That is hilarious!!!

Sam

[JeffH]

We don't need a moderator. Yea people get slammed occasionally, but if its true advice they are seeking about helping their therapy, someone will drift thru it all and end up PM'ing them with offers of advice. Or a true noob, that has done their homework and been reading thru the posts will realize the longtime 'good' peeps here that they will feel comfortable in PM'ing about asking questions. I know I have, and have wonderful help and responses.

Bottom line, someone irks you to the point you just can't handle it, send them a PM and tell them how it is. This is the internet, thats how it works. Or just let it go, you can't protect everyone, all the newbies.. Unless they are completely new to computers and the internet, they've come across this before and should already know what to expect/ what to do.

My 2Cents of the Day.

Yep! I agree ... I don't need any saving from anyone. I can recognize when someone is being an A-hole and if I feel like confronting them I do ... if not I let it go and move on with my life ... if I'm the A-hole, I'm sure others will respond the same way towards me.

All this PC crap seems to be contagious ... what ever happened to the 1st amendment of this country?

Alright! The girl from Oklahoma tells it like it is again. Don't change a thing. I appreciate it when you get blunt like you do.

[rotoplooker]

This forum has a tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny arguing problem compared to most forums on ANY subject on the internet. Quite often over zealous forum admins and moderators can cause trouble in forums so I think we should be thankful for our set-up.

Also... our subjects are worth arguing about

this isn't the alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast.largetea.cheerslove forum

I've told you all a million times... stop exaggerating!!

[mikemoran]

A little drama, a little humor and a lot of help describes this board for me.

Have to admit I am an inveterate rubber necker. I pull up to the curbside of the attack threads and sip my soda as I watch the drama unfold. I have to say that if it wasn't for such entertainment I might not even keep coming back here. I mean there really are only so many ways that you can answer the same question. With more "Enquiring Adults", (Newbies just smacks so much of naive children), joining every day you are always seeing the same question.

We are and have been moderated since the beginning. We just have a moderator that has had the infinite wisdom to allow us to express ourselves as adults. It has been a formula for success.

There are times when I have to make a joke, times when I might be an ass and times when I will be making a contribution. The idea of someone judging me for being myself and chiding me like an errant child is appalling to me.

It is a forum, people get to react and state their opinions. How you react to those opinions is under your control. People who try to get personal, only succeed if you take it personally. If there arguments resolve to name calling, then put them in the category of someone who isn't listening. If they aren't open, then why waste your energy trying to change their minds.

CG your suggestion is well intended and I applaud you for it, but if enacted I know it would probably drive me from the board. It may not be a consolation, but you should know these things happen in waves. There seems to be a spate of them every couple of months. The good news is they all die down and the board survives.

I mean what do you expect from a board with cranky tired people as the contributors?

[-SWS]

My thoughts regarding a few of the comments brought up in this thread:

Freedom of speech- I hope continues on this message board.

More aggressive "formal policing" of this forum- Like others here, I hope to see this only as a last resort.

Expected expressions of human behavior- I think we should expect to see them all, both here and in the real world. And in either case we must devise our own personal and social means to resolve what we perceive as conflicts of <insert applicable noun here>. Developing a "thick skin" is a necessary personal tactic to cope with the real world and any public forum. That personal tactic might be supplemented with the following collective tactic.

Social encouragement of courteous discussion- This can be a decent and entirely apolitical social gesture in my opinion. As long as this gesture stays sincere and spontaneous, then it avoids the caveat of becoming politically correct or even an unwittingly well-intended example of group think syndrome. There is absolutely no political correctness or group think syndrome involved in freely expressing human decency. However, when "correct" social behavior becomes either legally required or implicitly and socially required, then you have a sociopolitical element of "political correctness" seeping in.

I'm a big fan of free will and encouraging social decency. I'm also a fan of collectively and spontaneously improvising social solutions as we go along---if and when that becomes necessary. Most of all, I'm a huge fan of human decency. Let's simply take it upon ourselves to continue being kind and respectful to each other. Social norms, either good or bad, have a way of gaining critical momentum. History books are replete with both examples.

When we hear a faint inner voice telling us what is correct, then we hear our own morality speaking to us. When we individually heed that inner guidance, then we are following our own voice of morality. When enough individuals do precisely that, then positive social norms once again gain critical mass.

I absolutely love this caricaturing site as well:

http://redwing.hutman.net/%7Emreed/index.htm

[Julie]

So many terrific opinions here, so many brilliant people (and that's after maybe not sleeping half the night ). While I do find some people literally shocking in the way they express themselves to others, how crude and rude they can be, I also think we're adults and can fend for ourselves. If you can't take the heat... What in fact worries me most about having a moderator is that when you give some people a little power, they can grow up to be monsters, need to do things to justify their being given the power, and it would just be a shame to lose anyone from the forum who happened one day to end up in a heated discussion and use the wrong word, when they otherwise may have been e.g. very helpful to many people for a long time prior to that incident. People are pretty bright most of the time and if they either don't like a thread, or a poster, are free to go elsewhere and/or not read any further. But I've seen too many instances where moderators have become carried away with their mandate and needlessly either spoiled a good argument, banned posters, and/or try to enforce their own viewpoints on people... and I really don't think the majority of us wants that, do you?

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): Power

[tangents]

mikemoran said:
A little drama, a little humor and a lot of help describes this board for me

We need to keep our sense of humor. It's what enables us to look the way we do every night and still keep our heads held high.

I used to have a professional mentor, who always ended a conversation by telling a joke, and walked away with you laughing. I always thought that was a marvelous trait. So many threads try to do this - insert a little comic relief when things get hot. But instead of letting the thread die on a silly note, someone almost always takes offense at the humor itself, and feels the need to restate the seriousness of the original topic.

I'm a newbie, so I don't expect to have accumulated any credibility. (And because of my irresistible urge to insert humor, I may never have any!) But I agree wholeheartedly with Mike Moran that if we all post in a "Stepford Wife" sort of way, I won't be coming back.

[roster]

Now Johnny Goodman does occasionally step in and take actions as a moderator. He does a very good job of keeping his hands off of this excellent forum. I am very much against any other moderator especially one who is "active".

Maybe we need a code of conduct at some point. X-Box has a pretty good one (excerpts below). However, I would not include a prohibition against sexual innuendo on cpaptalk.com.

Xbox Code of Conduct



This document was last updated: November 2005

The Code of Conduct outlines the rules that you need to follow to ensure that Xbox Live and Xbox.com are fun for everyone.

What not to do:

* Don't use Xbox Live or Xbox.com to do anything illegal. Microsoft is not responsible for anything you say on the service/website or for anything that happens because of what you say; you alone are responsible.
* Don't harass, abuse, or spam other players.
* Don't scream, yell, threaten, or stalk other players.
* Don't distribute, post, publish, upload, disseminate or discuss defamatory, infringing, obscene, sexual or other unlawful materials like child pornography or illegal drugs including images, audio, video, or text.
* Don't post links to websites that violate the Code of Conduct.
* Don't give out information that personally identifies you (such as your real name, address, phone number, credit card number, etc.) while you're playing. This includes voice chat and the names you create for your gamertag or mottos. This information could be used by other players for illegal or harmful purposes. Also, don't give out the personal information of other players.
* Don't create a gamertag or motto that other users may be offended by, this includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate any of the following: profane words/phrases, sexually explicit language, sexual innuendo, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances, or illegal activities.
* Don't create a gamertag or motto that references controversial religious topics, notorious people, organizations, or sensitive current or historical events that may also be considered inappropriate.
......................
* Don't post links to materials that could harm other users' computers or would allow others to inappropriately access software or Web sites.
.................
* Any non-game-related conversation that takes up a substantial amount of the forum or chat space and prevents users from finding game-related information may be considered a violation of the Code of Conduct.
* Don't use the forums or chats for any commercial purpose without the express consent of Xbox.com. You may only create an account for yourself as an individual. You may not create an account for your corporation or other business entity.

[Vader]

So many terrific opinions here, so many brilliant people (and that's after maybe not sleeping half the night ). While I do find some people literally shocking in the way they express themselves to others, how crude and rude they can be, I also think we're adults and can fend for ourselves. If you can't take the heat... What in fact worries me most about having a moderator is that when you give some people a little power, they can grow up to be monsters, need to do things to justify their being given the power, and it would just be a shame to lose anyone from the forum who happened one day to end up in a heated discussion and use the wrong word, when they otherwise may have been e.g. very helpful to many people for a long time prior to that incident. People are pretty bright most of the time and if they either don't like a thread, or a poster, are free to go elsewhere and/or not read any further. But I've seen too many instances where moderators have become carried away with their mandate and needlessly either spoiled a good argument, banned posters, and/or try to enforce their own viewpoints on people... and I really don't think the majority of us wants that, do you?

Normally I don't like posts that merely say " I agree", but I must say I couldn't have said it better!

[Rabid1]

I'm curious as to why you thought I was being sarcastic with the word "wonderful." I wasn't at all. I DO sincerely think this is a wonderful forum.

Let me clarify this for you. I did not imply, or mean to imply any sort of sarcasm when I made the statement about this being a wonderful forum.

My point was, and still is, this has become a wonderful forum without any moderating, so what's the point?

It appears your idea is very unpopular.

[tangents]

Rooster Said:
However, I would not include a prohibition against sexual innuendo on cpaptalk.com.

Rooster, you fowl thing, you!