Wes asked me
to be a moderator for the Hudson Leick Online Forums. Of course I
agreed because I'm power hungry. But then there are responsibilities
for which I'm like the first line since I'm online all the time. There
is one poster who occasionally has coherent somewhat on topic thoughts
amid a deluge of deranged ramblings. So I go behind him and edit out
the ramblings.
Then there was an almost flame war last week. On young girl says she's
a lesbian. A guy says that's because she hasn't met a good man who
"rocks her world". She responds perhaps a bit heatedly. Other people
come in to defend her. The first guy says you're all going to hell.
Meanwhile I'm not sure when to jump in and stop it, since nothing has
been really bad. I do post a warning but it doesn't help. Eventually I
have to delete a post and that gets the message across.
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People just
don't realize how easy it is for these things to get out of control.
You are never going to convince the other side and responding, making
arguments only makes it worse. It's something I learned over years of
watching these pointless arguments start up and flame. Worse is that
both sides think they're right and refuse to see the other side or
refuse to empathize with the other side.
After that little argument last week, the girl sends me a message
saying she's sorry but he started it. The guy sends me a message saying
"I was only joking!" Yes, he might have been joking but I don't see any
smilies. Meanwhile, she just couldn't leave it alone and had to bait
him into responding. The advise to "sleep on it before sending an
email" applies to bulletin boards (though perhaps not waiting that
long) -- and it is so often ignored.
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