Should General Chat (Off - Topic) forum be closed?

[matt]

How about everyone just stops stressing about the lively debates? Take part if you want to or walk away if you prefer not. If you do take part then do so on the same basis as you would in any other walk of life. What is it about forums that seems to foster a different mindset?

That said... I must be living in a bubble cos I've never seen anything particularly offensive or upsetting on here - at least nothing that I would not expect to see/hear/or otherwise experience in everyday life where there are no moderators.

I belong to another forum which is not moderated at all and it does have a core content matter (i.e. in the same way as this one has woodworking). There's mostly a good conversation with the odd tussle as the alpha's all try to assert their authority.

I actually quite like the more heated discussions. It makes everyone so much more expressive and interesting. Perhaps I'm just weird.

(I'm seriously going to go and look for some of Rich's threads now (like prolly a good percentage of members who've seen his post will also be doing right now ))

 

[MikeG.]

....... they have their views and I fully respect them for holding such views.....
Rich.

Unfortunately, Rich, you really don't come across as though you do respect those who disagree with you. I am sure a lot of the issues on this forum are due to the nuances of language being removed by the filter of the keyboard, but you do often come across as strident and combative, even angry, with people who disagree with you.

With no body language to read, no subtleties of tone to judge, and no pints to share, it can easily be that we misjudge the intentions of those posting, and I may well be misjudging your intended tone, Rich.

That said, there does appear to be a lot of winding up and a lot of over-reaction going on here, and I particularly dislike it when a good normal discussion is taken off in weird directions by a couple of people who just want an argument.


Dan,

bigoted and moronic individuals spouting their Daily Mail derived drivel

.......I couldn't agree more with the sentiment, or less with the way you express it!


Personally, I think the site as a whole would benefit from this particular forum being changed to some sort of workshop, technical, DIY-type forum.....a place for non-woodworking type discussions, but still revolving around DIY hobby-type questions. I am sure that lots of people are scared to even ask a straight-forward sensible question on here for fear of what argument will be started in the thread.

Mike

 

[Smudger]

Or being called the Village silly person...

 

[wizer]

That title is mine

 

[Smudger]

I think that for a certain poster it covers quite a lot of us. Something to do with sandals and tofu.

 

[ByronBlack]

Personally, I think the site as a whole would benefit from this particular forum being changed to some sort of workshop, technical, DIY-type forum.....a place for non-woodworking type discussions, but still revolving around DIY hobby-type questions. I am sure that lots of people are scared to even ask a straight-forward sensible question on here for fear of what argument will be started in the thread.

Mike

The poll clearly suggests that most people aren't afraid to post a question or have a problem with the current setup. Really, there is no problem with the off-topic forum, so if a few threads get a bit heated and some get locked so be it, but clearly the vast majority of threads don't and 99% of the time there is no issue. [edit: maybe recently that isn't the case]

But really, I don't think in the long run we need to start removing the forum, everyone should exercise the right to ignore the threads that don't interest them.

 

[filsgreen]

I voted 'Yes' out of pure selfishness.

Countless times over the last few months I have vowed not to enter the Off-Topic forum again because of the presence of certain bigoted and moronic individuals spouting their Daily Mail derived drivel.


Unfortunately will-power alone does not seem to be enough and I find myself repeatedly drawn back. This takes up valuable time which I just don't have.

An enforced spell of cold turkey would do me good!

Cheers
Dan

Dan, I respect your input into the whole forum, so I am surprised when you say that you cannot hold your counsel. Do you need this section to be closed, so that you can refrain from posting your opinions? I think not, for what it is worth.

Cheers

Phil

 

[Finial]

I belong to the UK debate forum and I don't have the same problem there,if as it seems that I am the CAUSE of ill feeling on this forum then I wholeheartedly apologise and will refrain from posting in the off topic section if this is what the members want.

Rich.

Keep it going i say. Rich, Daily Mail drivel it may be, but don't you stop. i like these arguments, and even the worst seem mild compared to some other forums. i always look first at the general forum then this, and value them both. We get provocation from some people, sense from others, all good fun, and we are lucky to have this forum to keep the rows off the other areas. i can't see that it interferes with them.

 

[joiner_sim]

When the rest of the site's gone all quiet, I tend to come to this part and have a quick look at a couple of the posts and it kills the time.

I did mention introducing a chat room a few weeks ago, for chatting to other members currently online. :?:

 

[bobscarle]

A no vote from me as well. People hold strong and sometimes controversial views, some of which I agree with, others I don't. Simply not agreeing with somebody is no reason for not allowing them to speak. I hope that anybody who feels that they have something to say and who wishes to air that view, does so.

I have to say I do enjoy some of the heated discussions that we have here and I would be very unhappy to see it removed. We have lost a lot of very well respected members for a number of reasons and whilst we cannot always be lovey dovey, we can treat each other with respect and tolerance and allow others to have an opposite point of view.

Bob

 

[Maia28]

A no vote from me as well. I hope that Rich isn't driven from this part of the forum as he adds much to the general debates; often I find the responses made to some of his messages quite offensive and demeaning. We all come from different backgrounds and outlooks and this comes accross in this part of the site. But like discussions on techniques or tools, there often isn't a right answer just an individual preference.

On the moderating front, I think that this site, and this forum in particular, is very well moderated. I would hope that it coninues in the same way.

Andy

 

[BradNaylor]

I voted 'Yes' out of pure selfishness.

Countless times over the last few months I have vowed not to enter the Off-Topic forum again because of the presence of certain bigoted and moronic individuals spouting their Daily Mail derived drivel.


Unfortunately will-power alone does not seem to be enough and I find myself repeatedly drawn back. This takes up valuable time which I just don't have.

An enforced spell of cold turkey would do me good!

Cheers
Dan

Dan, I respect your input into the whole forum, so I am surprised when you say that you cannot hold your counsel. Do you need this section to be closed, so that you can refrain from posting your opinions? I think not, for what it is worth.

Cheers

Phil

Sorry.

I was trying to be ironic. I obviously failed!


Dan

 

[Raggy]

Sorry.

I was trying to be ironic. I obviously failed!


Dan

That is the main problem with any kind of communication via text, no one can hear the humor sarcasm or whatever tone in your voice as you type it out, most misunderstanding come from this as a lot of people take comments far too personally.

 

[MikeG.]

The poll clearly suggests that most people aren't afraid to post a question or have a problem with the current setup. Really, there is no problem with the off-topic forum

I am not sure that the poll is actually saying that, Byron. There must, of course, be an element of "turkeys not voting for Christmas" about this poll!

Mike

 

[ByronBlack]

The poll clearly suggests that most people aren't afraid to post a question or have a problem with the current setup. Really, there is no problem with the off-topic forum

I am not sure that the poll is actually saying that, Byron. There must, of course, be an element of "turkeys not voting for Christmas" about this poll!

Mike

I don't agree Mike, almost all the responses so far in this thread have all expressed a desire to see the forum stay as it is. We can't keep sanitising everything down to the nth degree, there has to be some personal discipline in choosing not to personally attack someone or to add to a 'wind-up'.

Cheers,

 

[MikeG.]

there has to be some personal discipline in choosing not to personally attack someone or to add to a 'wind-up'.
Cheers,

If there was a little more of that, then this topic wouldn't have arisen!!

 

[mailee]

We all have our different opinions on here as in life and it is healthy to have a good debate at times. If everyone agreed we would be clones wouldn't we? Sometimes these 'debates' will degenerate into arguements sadly but this is also life and we must just try to meet midway. I know it doesn't always work. The general chat is a place where we can post things unconnected with woodwork ad have a good chat. I voted no too. :wink:
P.S. better to argue on here than go out and beat the **** out of each other. :lol:

 

[Paul Chapman]

P.S. better to argue on here than go out and beat the **** out of each other. :lol:

 

[Mark Hancock]

No

 

[Waka]

I'm also for a No, I've found it very useful in the past when I've had "Off Topic" questions that need answering.

What I like about the forum now is that it tends to be self regulating, it seems a long time ago (correct me if I'm wrong) that a thread was closed down for whatever reason.

Lets have the healthy debates of the past , still remembering that we are not all the same in our views on life.