Dear Members- A point and a reminder

[CHJ]

Are we saying to use the for sale section, members have to make 20 posts before using ? I've seen numerous new members lately using it

Coley

Members have to have 20 posts to other areas of the forum showing participation in contributing sensible information or asking for genuine help and guidance before they can use the free for sale advertising facility to SELL items.

This restriction had to be put in place because UKW was getting 10's of FS post a day from first time or low post count folks aiming to avoid internet market place charges, with no intention of contributing to the forum.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I come from a forum where we used to have a particular member who would post a lot of controversial stuff and disagree with people and generally cause all sorts of issues and hassles including legal threats to the committee on a regular basis. He was eventually told that his membership was going to be reviewed and he then walked away from the club. What then happened was that the number of people taking part in the online forum declined because despite a lot of people moaning about him the controversy he brought made things interesting.

As I was the brunt of a lot of the legal threats (I'm chairman of this club) I don't miss the threats but I do actually miss the guy and his alternative take on some things. If we all thought the same thing life would be pretty dull.

Now having said that the referendum thread is well past its sell by date in my opinion and if it were down to me, I'd lock it and ask people to move on. Has nobody asked how to sharpen anything for a while?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Er.......the referendum thread is locked (was 2 days ago).

I understand about the controversial poster syndrome (Jacob springs to mind). It might interest you to know that as a measure of how tolerant (of controversy and eccentricity) this forum is, some "controversial" individuals are banned from pretty much all alternate woodworking forums that retain membership here. Quite frankly the mods here don't give a monkeys about controversial, they care about rudeness and insults ie when someone takes umbridge at the controversy and stoops to a personal level, slinging mud. It's the self control and lack of maturity we moderate, not the content per se.

One last point about Jacob. He has a particular, traditional style and does raise a few eyebrows now and then! It particularly butts up against modern technology where the rub is "why did you buy it, you've wasted your money". The respondents in those cases are usually the ones that start insulting ironically. Jacob seems to be something of a lightning conductor for rage! He also has a strong sense of social justice and is clearly very interested in current affairs. I rather suspect that political interest sometimes spills over into the forum when really it's about woodworking....another rub point.

But my point in raising Jacob (sorry to use you as a case study by the way Jacob) is that, here he is, warts and all (sorry again....just paraphrasing). Not banned, posting away like a proverbial pig in a poke. So I hope people can discern the difference in the moderating ethos here which is that the censorship is not aimed at controversy, it's aimed at unacceptable behaviour. Particularly, repugnant, personal, insulting behaviour. I know online communities are full of it (the word troll springs to mind) but we don't want this place to get like that do we?

 

[heimlaga]

I don't always agree with Jacob but I am aware that he is an adult with a right to vote. I have also noted that he uses his brain capacity more actively than most people though I don't always agree with his conlusions and I tend to tell him rather frankly than I disagree.
Jacob and every other forum member is in his full right to express his oppinions and nobody is entitled to insult him for that.
SHAME ON THOSE WHO DID IT.

I think we have an inherent problem in the modern rather urbanized and globalized society. I call it "comfort bubbles". When a human brain is flooded with too much and too complicated facts and even more lies and threats all at once without time to process the facts something is bound to go wrong.
What usually seems to happen is that people isolate themselves in comfort bubbles together with likeminded people of the same social standing and with similar experiences of life. Inside the comfort bubble they try to avoid uncomfortable input from the outside. That makes them feel safe. Every person who isn't up to the standards is considered a troublemaker and expelled. The phenomena is further exaggerated by the fact that lots of human interaction theese days go by facebook where everyone try to pretend that they keep up with the joneses and try to pretend that they fit in.

Then suddenly two bubbles collide.
A typical example may be someone who has worked 10 years in the decent part of the Finnish job market who come to discuss work related politics with someone like me who was unfortunate enough to end up on the parallell substandard job market where bribes and unpaid wages and nonexistant safety gear are facts of every day life and where a troublemaker cannot ever get another job.
Because of the "bubblification" of society both persons tends to believe that the other is a liar and a fool. While the fact is that both realities exist. It is just a matter of luck on which side of the divide you find yourself.
I am sure there are similar reality divides in Britain too. Let's say between a person from London and a person from Foula. Between a well paid banker in London City and an unemployed welder in the poorest parts of Glasgow.

I think all people should try to open up our personal bubbles and accept that the daily realities are the way they are. That all of theese realities exist. Only then constructive exchanges of thoughts and oppinions will be possible and only then it will be possible to sort out the problems that abound in societies all over Europe.