Have you noticed this?
1) Someone posts a new thread with a title that solicits a binary opinion, or is mildly confrontational, or rehashes something often discussed, or is just plain opinionated.
2) Smart, friendly people attempt to make a good conversation out of a closely related topic, if not discussing the topic directly in a polite and relevant fashion.
3) Posters show up, and address the thread title with hostility, irrespective of how enlightened the conversation has become.
4) The friendly people leave, the post becomes a warzone. Babies cry.
In the worst cases, you'll have threads that answer important questions decisively in stage 2, and yet they march on to stage 4 as inevitably as death and taxes.
Consider this plea: name it well.
'A thread is only as good as its posters' is probably more apt. 'There is no thread either good or bad, but posting makes it so.'
Have you noticed this?
Yes
|
Well, I never heard the babies cry, but I agree for the most part. Still, it's not often the title alone that makes a thread erupt in flames. Perhaps a voluntary cool down thread is in order. There are many who escape the boards periodically to cool down, but a thread where someone can post "Hey, I'm a little too upset right now. I'm gonna take a few days off," might be therapeutic for the boards.
Elliquiy has Apologies and Absences threads. As a PBP site, it is useful to let partners know if you are not going to post for an extended period.