September 26, 2022 5:19 PM PDT
Forum Etiquette Conundrum is the in-between place we all seem to find ourselves in from time to time as we participate in forum discussions.
The etiquette part is all about posting politeness or the conscious part of politely posting back to another member's remarks or argument to a discussion.
The conundrum part is having the intuition to know when either a) the topic has escalated and time to bail, b) the topic has exhausted itself, stop beleaguering it; let it die, or c) when to put yourself in check before going all out posting postal on another member because you disagreed with them.
On Etiquette level A, it's not unusual for topics to get escalated and it's okay to have friendly spirited conversation on a topic. Here's the "however" part. It's not okay to start name calling, bullying and basically strong arming a member because they won't agree with you. This is where you actually must be conscious of the heat level in the room and know when to stop or even better when to be the adult in the room and help to bring the temp down on the conversation, rather then inflame it.
On Etiquette level B, this is a common issue where a member has started a thread and the thread is not taking flight and despite the little amount of conversation, the member will keep "bumping" up the thread so it appears active. To those that have created the most sincere thread topic and it didn't fly, don't be too hard on yourself, maybe evaluate your topic, consider your thread title and writing style and maybe your topic will fly at another time, but the worst way to handle it is by bumping the thread or making short posts to keep the thread from befalling it's natural demise.
On Etiquette level C, this would be def-con level, flashing lights, sirens and bring in the forum SWAT team, just in case the postal posting reaches a no return level. This posting level is also too common and I blame moderation on some of this because heated conversations can be dialed down with the right approach. Here's the "however" part.... there are websites that rather like a certain level of friction and allow this behavior to flourish, much like the news media allows a "shocking news story" because it raises their ratings....Social media and forums are the same. The fine line, is being part of a good forum or social place where there are Admin's and Moderator's that care about watching topics that may become too heated and want to prevent bullying or any other threat and do their best to bring it down. It doesn't always work and sometimes people get banned. There's a key word there, that most miss; people. As we are online, and we are talking to someone else, remember that we ARE talking to another human being. While we may not agree with them, we can do our best to understand their side. This is where humans seem to be failing in the past few years online. No one is listening to each other, they are just telling.
Forum Etiquette Conundrum is the in-between place we all seem to find ourselves in from time to time as we participate in forum discussions.
The etiquette part is all about posting politeness or the conscious part of politely posting back to another member's remarks or argument to a discussion.
The conundrum part is having the intuition to know when either a) the topic has escalated and time to bail, b) the topic has exhausted itself, stop beleaguering it; let it die, or c) when to put yourself in check before going all out posting postal on another member because you disagreed with them.
On Etiquette level A, it's not unusual for topics to get escalated and it's okay to have friendly spirited conversation on a topic. Here's the "however" part. It's not okay to start name calling, bullying and basically strong arming a member because they won't agree with you. This is where you actually must be conscious of the heat level in the room and know when to stop or even better when to be the adult in the room and help to bring the temp down on the conversation, rather then inflame it.
On Etiquette level B, this is a common issue where a member has started a thread and the thread is not taking flight and despite the little amount of conversation, the member will keep "bumping" up the thread so it appears active. To those that have created the most sincere thread topic and it didn't fly, don't be too hard on yourself, maybe evaluate your topic, consider your thread title and writing style and maybe your topic will fly at another time, but the worst way to handle it is by bumping the thread or making short posts to keep the thread from befalling it's natural demise.
On Etiquette level C, this would be def-con level, flashing lights, sirens and bring in the forum SWAT team, just in case the postal posting reaches a no return level. This posting level is also too common and I blame moderation on some of this because heated conversations can be dialed down with the right approach. Here's the "however" part.... there are websites that rather like a certain level of friction and allow this behavior to flourish, much like the news media allows a "shocking news story" because it raises their ratings....Social media and forums are the same. The fine line, is being part of a good forum or social place where there are Admin's and Moderator's that care about watching topics that may become too heated and want to prevent bullying or any other threat and do their best to bring it down. It doesn't always work and sometimes people get banned. There's a key word there, that most miss; people. As we are online, and we are talking to someone else, remember that we ARE talking to another human being. While we may not agree with them, we can do our best to understand their side. This is where humans seem to be failing in the past few years online. No one is listening to each other, they are just telling.