(04-30-2015, 06:34 PM)C Wrote:(04-30-2015, 02:22 PM)Natalie Mcbeef Wrote: I think dissension is healthy for a community, and I don't like permanent penalties placed on users who dissent.
That's just the long and short of it. Communities without some level of conflict end up stagnating into circlejerks and hugboxes. The trick is managing that conflict, to keep it from spiraling out of control, but also allow members to feel like they are not being censored.
Nat, did you know that people have managed to have discussions - complete with dissension and conflict - without falling back on petty insults and the like? There are examples stretching waaaaaaaay back in history!
I understand what you're trying to do. You're worried that you'll fail to consider the words you write, and you'll get shut out of this community. But you're going about it all wrong. Dissension is good. On that you and I (and pretty much everyone here) can agree. Conflict is fine. This discussion we're having right now? It's got dissension and conflict. Notice how neither of us has had to resort to insulting one another?
This is not a black and white issue, where there is one side that is filled with free-spirited people tossing around insults in the spirit of free speech and another side filled with 1984-esque thought police. Trying to cast it as such is simply ludicrous.
"Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man's nose begins."
Ironically I think what she's saying is dissension in the sense that disagreeing with people and the in general 'popular opinion'. I don't think I've ever seen Natalie come off and call someone a jackass directly, for example. What she, and to the same extent I, are likely worried about is if disagreeing with the hive mind and holding an opinion that is for some reason 'unpopular', is going to be used as leverage to oust people from the 'community' because of a status quo being maintained in the hugbox.Â
That, I feel, is a very relevant concern. I.e. the forums are either for discussion or they are for agreeing with what everyone says all the time no matter what because disagreement (or dissenting opinions, if you will) hurt people's feels or some such nonsense.
She's of course free to correct me if I'm wrong. For my part I'd much rather have a community with open discussion, debate, and discourse is not only common but encouraged while people who act unreasonably and go out of their way to shut discussions down for no other reason than 'just because' are the ones slapped down. As I learned as a youngin' in critical thinking circles "No topic is off limits to discussion; always exercise your right to be skeptical" This, as you can imagine, really rubs some people raw as it has in the past. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop being that way, but knowing if that's going to be a bannable offense is certainly a major point of concern.Â
No one is advocating for "Why can't I be a dick to people and get away with it!". ;-P
