That being said, I must admit that I disagree with you.
See? I knew if I waited long enough, someone would come along and say what I was thinking for me. Thanks, Stellie.
Quote: One point I've got to make about this boards system that I like is that, if I feel really really strongly about something and want a change, I can initiate a process that may change it. I can do that. I don't have to uselessly PM an admin or mod over and over until they either ban me or try to do what I want. I am not merely a member. Yes, it may be a hassle sometimes, and it may be annoying sometimes. The fact is, I can make a difference here, and no one has the right to tell me "You don't have the authority to say/do that."
My feeling in all of this is pretty simple.
1. No system, bar none, is going to be equally pleasing to all involved.
'Tis obvious enough, I suppose, but it bears repeating.
2. When many opinions are involved, things get complicated.
While each of us may easily have covered what we considered the salient points in one page or less, many of us "having a say" makes the end result... more than one page.
I was on the constitutional committee, for a brief time there at the end, and I was floored, daily, by what other people considered to be important. And yet, in a democracy, their viewpoints held equal weight with mine, and this simple fact dictates that their viewpoints be investigated and documented. Astonishingly, what I believe to be right isn't always right for the group. 'Tis a fact I am puzzled with to this very day.
3. This messageboard matters a whole lot to a whole lot of people.
You yourself said that you were thinking about b77 whilst at the gym; jny mentioned she was considering territorial behavior and how it affects groups of people, and how it pertains to messageboards in particular, over her nightly cup of cocoa (for the record: I, personally, would be thinking... mmmmm... chocolate.... ); and I am often astonished about how many times a day my thoughts turn to people here at b77 and the words they share.
So this statement:
... does not ring true for me. I would have easily agreed with you before the TORCquake; but I was astonished to learn on a daily basis how high the stakes on a messageboard really are. I was really, actually, real-time grieving for what I saw happen to my friends-- friends I had met on an internet messageboard. Are they real people, are they feeling real pain? Yes, and yes. It sucked in a really big way, and I was completely impotent to affect that pain. I was really surprised by that level of emotion, actually. It did matter, and it does matter.
Quote: I simply do not believe the stakes are high enough on a messageboard for due process to be necessary.
My reaction was: never, ever again. Not if I have any say. Which, at TORC, I didn't.
Which brings me to:
4. I want a chance to make a difference.
b77's main lure (besides the fact that most of my friends were here, the rebels that they are) was this one fact. Here, the processes may be slow and creaky, but the rules CAN CHANGE. They can. If I, or anyone else here, has a strong issue with something, I am not left with the choices of a. publicly rebelling and risking be banned, as so many were, or b. silently writhing in anger and frustration. HERE, I have a shot, however cumbersome the mechanics of the process may be, to affect things. I think that's pretty groovy.
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Quote: I am half-cringing to write this, because I'm sure this is a heretical view for this board
You, my friend, can write whatever you want to, here at b77. As long as you are not trolling or harassing someone, your honest opinion is not only tolerated, it is welcomed by many. If we had a dictator, however benevolent, and your words offended that ONE PERSON, you could eventually, OR very quickly, be out on your can... without any sort of fairness filter being engaged at all. It certainly has happened elsewhere.
Here, you would have hordes of posters, whether they agreed with any word you had ever written or not, who would point to that cumbersome charter and say... I don't think so. Not here. Not now.
I do want to say that venting frustration about something is perfectly acceptable... happens all the time. It's pretty human, really. But in this case, it puzzles me.
I think it may be the way I was raised; I was 3 years younger than a sibling with a severely debilitating and terminal disease. My parents got to watch him die degree by appalling degree for 21 long years. With all that very real trauma and drama a daily fact in our family, I think my little brother and I would basically have had to be dragging our livers behind us to get a whole lot of sympathy from the family. So maybe the "keep a stiff upper lip" is just unusually deeply etched into my psyche... along with “don’t sweat the small stuffâ€