kirkswig
Jun 6, 2004, 5:14 AM
Post #7 of 7
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Re: [TomG] Phenomena of locking threads
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I'm new here, but I've been participating in online forums for a couple of decades now, and my experience is that people get into trouble when turning a forum that's devoted to a single issue into a general chat room where anything goes.
I mean, think about it. Most everybody here agrees that Mexico is a good place to live, ergo, we frequent a forum called MEXICO Connect. This is our common interest. But scratch the surface and I think that very quickly differences would appear; I'm pretty sure that most of you don't share my political persuasions for instance, or my taste in music. And I can get really ugly if you diss my music, no doubt I would become abusive, and then you would reply in kind, and then even if the thread is locked and posts deleted the next time we share a thread together -- even if it's something as mundane as "How do I get my FM-3?" -- the animosity will be quickly rekindled, and that's in nobody's interest.
Nobody is saying that you can't discuss music of course, only that you should take that discussion where it's appreciated: a forum devoted to music.
Where it gets tricky is where political issues intertwine with those unique to Mexico. I didn't see the thread but I saw a post that alluded to it regarding some controversy over the discussion of Gays and Mexico. I can imagine that would be an interesting conversation. Certainly, if you're gay and you're thinking about living in Mexico it's a big concern, and hence on-topic. Then again, many people have strong feelings about the subject of homosexuality. One solution would be to open up a forum just about Gays in Mexico. But then there is a lot of information about living in Mexico generally that gays would miss by not being here, and information they in turn could share that we would miss here. A little tolerance and common sense would seem to be in order; if the topic is clearly marked as being about gays, and you have issues with that, don't read any of the messages there. Conversely, if you're creating a topic about gays, try not to be too explicit in the thread topic.
The short version is: if being online is a social outlet for you and you hang out in one forum and one forum only, you're likely to get into trouble. Mix it up. I say things in other forums that would peel the paint on your computer monitor, but you'll never know about it because I know not to bring that stuff over here. And vice versa.
To boldly go where no wig has gone before.
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