Rob Keeble
Member
- Messages
- 12,633
- Location
- GTA Ontario Canada
Hi All
There is something i have been wanting to get down to writing and asking about here for oh must be more than a year so here goes.
I think i can understand the background to our COC rules as it relates to most of the points it contains. But spare a moment to consider some of these points.
So i ask you all do you not ever talk about politics with your friends. Do you never share any religous views or discuss the religous goings on in some other group? Do you never comment to friends on current affairs?
Surely if people like ourselves adopt an approach to remain silent in the public arena on any current affair topic, then we leave nothing but the noise created by others that do and that leads to pretty one sided or extreme views being the only offering on the public stage.
I know we are a family forum. I know we are a primarily woodworking forum.
Are you indirectly saying that you have segmented your life into
woodworking only friends
computer friends
gardening friends
motorcar friends
cycling friends
etc
and that the only topic you entertain in contact with these friends is the subject at hand.
Believe me i aint trying to stir the pot i am really trying to understand this whole concept.
I struggle immensely with some of the changes taking place in the social realm.
I dont have time for numerous forums, heck i am overloaded already with who told me what such that when i have to write a pm and go back to someone on something they told me for further clarrification, its quiet a mission to remember who it was and i first have to go back and look it all up. I refuse to believe i am alone in this paradigm.
How is it possible to have thousands of friends and be able to keep in meaningful contact???
Surely this is the simple basis of why a forum ends up with a core group that sticks to it and shares all sorts.
If that is even somewhat the case then why do we shy away from discussion.
Surely we are adults, have demonstrated that we can share views in a civil fashion and as such allow each other to hear alternative views to our own which, as in my case has improved my quality of life and outlook.
I say it again, i think as a population group, both Canadians and Americans dont quiet realize how valuable it is for others to hear their views especially once one comes across a group of people that are in my view pretty balanced.
How do you all cope with the idea that you cannot discuss certain topics?
I certainly dont have experience of loads of forums so perhaps thats what i should be doing to get a taste of what some of you have probably experienced at prior places.
I would welcome though hearing some views around this subject.
I tend to have a deja vu feeling about this self censorship.
There is no question that there is serious intellectual capacity on this forum, dont you feel that it should be allowed to manifest itself.
I dunno maybe some of you could do with a stint living under the kind of regime i did. Seems i appreciate some of your rights more than you guys do.
I would welcome any feedback either public or private. Help me iron out my head or put a little air in it if you think i am a flat head.
There is something i have been wanting to get down to writing and asking about here for oh must be more than a year so here goes.
I think i can understand the background to our COC rules as it relates to most of the points it contains. But spare a moment to consider some of these points.
- I lived in a country under sever censorship my entire adult life until 1994.
- We had sanctions impossed on us by the world (for what was inmho the right reasons).
- Thing is those sanctions achieved nothing except to isolate people and allow the ruling dictators to further entrentch their views in the minds of generations of the population.
- The forum is hosted and was started in North America but is open to members of the world.
- The forum has a off topic subsection which has nearly 70K posts on it very high by comparison to other subsections so to argue that its purely a woodworking forum to me seems odd.
- Even though i spent my entire working life up until a few years ago, being involved in international trade and travelling, one never gets to discuss certain subjects with business people when one is not familiar with them.
- I find it incredibly valuable and interesting to hear other peoples views particularly when as in the case of this forum one finds a group of people one can relate to. I have learnt a great deal about many subjects here both woodworking and non woodworking some of which has enabled me who lived with a very skew picture of our world, to rethink entirely certain outlooks in life and view on certain approaches to a multitude of subjects.
- It has made me aware that more damage is done by isolation of silence than good. I cannot quote you exact examples without violating our coc but i think i could fill a few pages with examples of the merits of engagement rather than isolation.
- The people i have found here seem to be pretty level headed even keel sensible kind of folk with a healthy dose of common sense and much the same value set.
- I have not been able to make it to the forum as much as i would like the past few weeks but when i do get back to it, one can just pick upwith no problem.
- This on its own says one feels comfortable and have made friends with people through the forum.
So i ask you all do you not ever talk about politics with your friends. Do you never share any religous views or discuss the religous goings on in some other group? Do you never comment to friends on current affairs?
Surely if people like ourselves adopt an approach to remain silent in the public arena on any current affair topic, then we leave nothing but the noise created by others that do and that leads to pretty one sided or extreme views being the only offering on the public stage.
I know we are a family forum. I know we are a primarily woodworking forum.
Are you indirectly saying that you have segmented your life into
woodworking only friends
computer friends
gardening friends
motorcar friends
cycling friends
etc
and that the only topic you entertain in contact with these friends is the subject at hand.
Believe me i aint trying to stir the pot i am really trying to understand this whole concept.
I struggle immensely with some of the changes taking place in the social realm.
I dont have time for numerous forums, heck i am overloaded already with who told me what such that when i have to write a pm and go back to someone on something they told me for further clarrification, its quiet a mission to remember who it was and i first have to go back and look it all up. I refuse to believe i am alone in this paradigm.
How is it possible to have thousands of friends and be able to keep in meaningful contact???
Surely this is the simple basis of why a forum ends up with a core group that sticks to it and shares all sorts.
If that is even somewhat the case then why do we shy away from discussion.
Surely we are adults, have demonstrated that we can share views in a civil fashion and as such allow each other to hear alternative views to our own which, as in my case has improved my quality of life and outlook.
I say it again, i think as a population group, both Canadians and Americans dont quiet realize how valuable it is for others to hear their views especially once one comes across a group of people that are in my view pretty balanced.
How do you all cope with the idea that you cannot discuss certain topics?
I certainly dont have experience of loads of forums so perhaps thats what i should be doing to get a taste of what some of you have probably experienced at prior places.
I would welcome though hearing some views around this subject.
I tend to have a deja vu feeling about this self censorship.
There is no question that there is serious intellectual capacity on this forum, dont you feel that it should be allowed to manifest itself.
I dunno maybe some of you could do with a stint living under the kind of regime i did. Seems i appreciate some of your rights more than you guys do.
I would welcome any feedback either public or private. Help me iron out my head or put a little air in it if you think i am a flat head.