I came here for the music, and I still listen. But a few years back RP's forum became my watercooler, the place I engage with bright creative people with something in common. It's a lifeline.
During a particularly bad troll infestation I've pondered wandering off. The signal-to-noise ratio gets so low that a quick glance at the RAFT is all I need to know. It's driving good people away, the people I come here to engage with, the people who make this what I need.
And I need this.
Here's the rub: what you need you should be willing to pay for. RP is a commercial enterprise. Bill & Rebecca make their living from this. If the forum is more of a sideshow, a distraction, then it doesn't deserve the attention that keeping the stream on the air does and it won't get it. Maybe what the forum needs is a show of support.
My favorite idea so far for fixing the troll problem is an Ignore button, because it would allow us to solve the problem ourselves without Bill having to play forum cop. Remember, when Bill has to kick someone out he's alienating a potential subscriber. That's not something we should ask him to do, but we can ask him to make it easier for us to enjoy this place.
So here's what I'm proposing: vote with your wallets. Make it worth Bill's time to do this. Send some money, along with a polite message that this is a vote for an Ignore button to try to keep the forum civil.
How he implements it is up to him. Timetable, details, whether it's visible to the troll or not, all up to him. If he decides to do it I'm sure he'll welcome suggestions but the harder the problem the fewer constraints, and the less whining about it from us the better.
Let's stay positive, think positive, act positive. Put our money where our mouths are. If you already subscribe kick in a little extra this month.
I'm overdue for a donation and I'm making it today. I encourage like-minded folks to do the same.
Location: No longer in a hovel in effluent Damnville, VA Gender:
Posted:
Aug 21, 2012 - 11:09am
winter wrote:
Not at all.
There's a difference between setting up an "in crowd" and excluding those who don't fit in and creating/maintaining a healthy community that's safe and welcoming.
An in crowd is about who likes who, who "belongs", who is "the right kind of people". It's about conformity, not diversity.
A healthy community encourages diversity, and one of the ways it does that is by refusing to tolerate the intolerant. The foundation of a healthy community is respect for others, even if they're different. Trolls and flamers don't demonstrate that - they don't get it. They think respect for others is less important than getting their kicks or making their points. They don't value others. They value themselves.
That's what makes them jerks. The person who gets carried away and goes too far once in a while still understands that others deserve respect. But the person who makes a habit of being insulting and rude doesn't. And while they have a right to express themselves as they see fit, I see no reason why we shouldn't call them on their immature, inappropriate behavior until they either get the message or find the door.
Like Samuel Clemens once said "I'd never join a club that would have me as a member"
Exactly. Although I get your sarcasm, isn't that what excluding the trolls and "dicks" really all about?
Not at all.
There's a difference between setting up an "in crowd" and excluding those who don't fit in and creating/maintaining a healthy community that's safe and welcoming.
An in crowd is about who likes who, who "belongs", who is "the right kind of people". It's about conformity, not diversity.
A healthy community encourages diversity, and one of the ways it does that is by refusing to tolerate the intolerant. The foundation of a healthy community is respect for others, even if they're different. Trolls and flamers don't demonstrate that - they don't get it. They think respect for others is less important than getting their kicks or making their points. They don't value others. They value themselves.
That's what makes them jerks. The person who gets carried away and goes too far once in a while still understands that others deserve respect. But the person who makes a habit of being insulting and rude doesn't. And while they have a right to express themselves as they see fit, I see no reason why we shouldn't call them on their immature, inappropriate behavior until they either get the message or find the door.
I read back a little, I like rolo's idea of a thread creator having the ability to remove disagreeable posts. I go one step further and allow the thread owner to exclude post from an individual completely.
I read back a little, I like rolo's idea of a thread creator having the ability to remove disagreeable posts. I go one step further and allow the thread owner to exclude post from an individual completely.
