Bert Robbins wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

Charlie Brown wrote:
As I read this board, I don't understand why so many people seem to
hate each other so much. People on both sides seem to be
knowledgeable about boats. Is it just political differences that are
creating the animosity? Do you guys just enjoy bashing each other?
Some people sound like they are really upset when posting.

Quote from another thread (about Darwin) on this forum:

"I don't come here for approval. I just come here to **** a few people
off."

If you are going to quote me then you need to give me attribution.



Was that you?

A lot of the content here is pretty interchangeable from party A to
party B and its pretty easy to lose track of names since most people
don't use a real name or change it every douple of days.

Sorry I didn't give you full credit for admitting that your purpose for
participating here is "to **** a few people off". The honesty of such a
statement is commendable.



It has nothing to do with boating. These people would behave the same
way if this were a sports, zoology, or foreign language newsgroup.
I suspect many of them are anti-social misfits that go out into the
world each day, routinely get the emotional or psychological crap
kicked out of them, and look for almost any venue where they can become
anonymous or semi-anonymous and "strike back" at total strangers. Too
bad.

The problems all started in early Nov. 2000. This is when the newsgroup
devolved into a partisan political cesspool. All factions the
liberal/progressives, "moderates", "independents" and conservatives are to
blame.


The problem will continue until we individually choose to remove our
own bad
acting from the scene. Too many guys reason, "BS. As long as XXXXX
XXXXX is posting hateful crap here, I have to do my share to get or
stay even with that negative and anti social behavior and I won't stop
until he/she does!" IOW, certain people have no control over their own
lives, and allow other people to determine the standards for their
behavior. Wowzers. To me, that's a scary sceanario.


So, Chuck, what are you going to do to elevate the level of discussion? Are
you going to go on one of your self imposed sabbaticals and come back just
as angry and nasty as your were before?

1) Continue my effort to refrain from name calling.
2) If I choose to disagree on an issue, do so from a fact or
opinion-based perspective rather than launch a long harangue listing
the past and present shortcomings of some person in the NG, calling
names, and otherwise operating from the personal attack and insult
level.
3) Resist the temptation to start a lot of OT threads. (When I really
get up to speed, I'll work on resisting the temptation to participate
in them as well).
4) Try to introduce some threads that are boating related.
5) Turn the other cheek. If in doing so, a few people notice that it
happens to be the cheek of my arse I guess that's a personal
imperfection.
6) Try to avoid ever getting to the point where I have to admit that my
purpose for clicking into the NG is simply to "**** a few people off."

Does this work?

I would submit my improved on-line relationship with a former nemesis
in this group as an example. Only a few months ago, another person and
I were at each other every day. Who knows whose fault it was? Who
cares? After a long, bitter battle we were always in a perpetual
stalemate. Our feud was simply one of many stinking up the NG. The
other party and I somehow mutually and informally agreed to give the
whole mess a rest, and so far it's working. I'm as big as jackass as I
ever was, but that individual has now chosen not to continuously point
out "you're a jackass!" (no need, it's obvious) in every thread in
which I participate. I have made a serious effort to extend a similar
courtesy in return. The other party and I have some major philosophical
and political disagreements, and that has not and most likely will not
ever change. In that particular case, two people who were acting like
(nasty) children simply elected to begin acting like intelligent
adults. I believe that option is probably open to just about everybody.
How sad it would be if the "side" of
some people we see displayed in this forum turned out to be an accurate
profile of who they are in "real life."

My own behavior here is far from perfect, but I can honestly say I make
an effort. I am trying not to sink to the level of the lowest common
denominator in this forum. How about you?