Dear Thaimonk,
The only moderation I do consists on deleting posts from electronic intruders. I do not moderate what people say in the Forum (with the exception of Thom, but I don't do it as moderator, simply as a friend).
All the rest I post is my opinion.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity, though, to expand on the oldies and newbies matter. It's a fact that this Forum radically changed when we had in January a flock of new people all sharing a common view: that the views of the older people of this Forum was wrong, and theirs, right. Since this is a debatable question, no problem, it has been debated and will continue to be debated.
Together with the new blood that should be always welcome came a new element, though, or a collection of new elements, that many cannot appreciate because they were not here before, and the gist of the matter consists precisely in the difference between old and new.
Today emotions run high, reasons are taken as insults, some judge the practice of others based on their participation on the Forum, for the first time people gang up many against one person ... And just right now, in the last few hours, in the post just close to yours, people dare judge the ethics of the Forum participants. This never, ever happened before. Heavens know that we had heated discussions in the past, even outbursts of anger, which are natural. But never such tensions nor hostility. The old Forum was a better place to "live" in. The secret is that we were all friends, I guess.
Since we didn’t insult members of the Forum, since we didn’t gang up against a member of the Forum, since we didn’t judge the ethics of a member of the Forum, since it didn’t occur to us to judge the religious practice of a member of the Forum, then what’s left? That the new majority of the members of this Forum (with happy few exceptions) dislikes our views.
To dislike the views of others is not the best of feelings, it produces all of the above. It’s preferable to disagree and to give reasons. This constant turning debatable matters into personal fights it’s tiresome, sterile and is giving this new athmosphere of hostility and suspicion that I truly regret because it does not benefit anybody. This Forum used to be a gem. I would like the new people to enjoy that same athmosphere that we had before, relaxed, friendly, and very interesting because we were constantly debating different and opposed points of view.
So this is all it is about oldies and newbies. It’s not about different views, it’s about a different way to be together.
Now, I don’t wish just to point to problems without giving a solution.
This is a difficult thing to do, because of course all of those that fit the description above are going to be angry with me, and it’s understandable. And it's a well known fact that younger people don't like to be given unsolicited advice by old people like me. I just beg you to forgive me the pointing out of the differences, it’s just this once and I do it not to defy anybody, just to try to create a new awareness that will make our relationships here more pleasant.
The only “recipe” that occurs to me is to try to establish a rule: LET’S ONLY GIVE OPINIONS ABOUT THE VIEWS OF OTHERS, WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE PERSON EXPRESSING THE VIEW. Like for instance, let’s say that I disagree with Loneranger about the brochures. In this case I should talk only about the brochures, not about Loneranger. Not telling him you’re wrong, or you’re not enthousiast enough, or you don’t truly love the Protector, etc. Instead, “the brochures are good for such and such reasons, and to oppose them, even if it’s anybody’s right, might harm for such and such reasons”. Something like that.
I love you all.
Dear newbies, I love you all, and I wish we could become friends.
