Most forums seem to head in this direction sooner or later. The reason people join, surely, is because it's a forum where they can ask a specific question about their omega. Most answers (99.999%) are available just by reading, no need to join. Out of the 12000 odd members, very few contribute on a regular basis.
So....most people gravitate towards general discussion which, although not the primary function of the forum, is certainly the busiest. It is the only section of the forum where a personal opinion is genuinely valid. The technical parts are mostly cut-and-dried, where a specific question has (mostly) a specific answer.
Now to expect ordinary folk to respect each others point of view, without argument (not discussion) and friction, esp on such emotive subjects as welfare, politics etc., would be akin to trying to make a better world. Gen diss is what humans do and no amount of self-evaluation is going to change that. Personally, I try to take it all with a pinch of salt. There will be some very genuine people on here, but there will also be a few who are nothing like their online persona. It is emotionally dangerous to get too involved.
So, in conclusion, if you want people to stop acting like people, then you are on a hiding to nothing.
A truer sentence has never been spoken Steve!
All of us want to express our opinions, connected to whatever knowledge we have in that subject. Some of us have few words; some do not want to commit to "paper"; others have plenty to say but get frustrated when they cannot express their views, whilst the rest have plenty of words to say and the means to express them in print. We are all very different, and let's praise that fact!
If you think some debates on here are "heated", which actually I see as being rare, you should have attended some of the open debates I have attended in big lecture halls!!
For instance you can have 12 historians in one room, and have 14 opinions with view points, with plenty of heat behind those "professional" observations! I joke not
Same as in business, when I have been involved in real heavy commercial matters at a high level, and normally friendly colleagues will stab each other in the back to get their opinion across. Not to everyone's taste we know, and it obviously disturbs some on here.
The bottom line is though that some of us really enjoy the "debate", and we all know their names, no doubt including mine (!!), but for those who do not want to engage in them, well fine. Don't, and move on to another thread. Personal insults are one thing, that I have experienced on a number of occasions, and should never be tolerated, but straightforward heavy discussion is a normal human trait in many circles, which Steve rightly highlights. To me that is nothing to worry about. Horses for courses as some say!
Author
Topic: Why make every topic an argument? (Read 5205 times)