Discussion

[Stewart]

Referring to the post How Now Brown Cow by the late forum member, Not Edna, I want to ask a question in the same vein albeit without the stream of consciousness and postmodern - yet trying too hard - style.

Why is there no real discussion in the off-topic chat? The majority of threads are simply links to this 'funny' photo or that 'amusing' game with an influx of reply posts in unison saying, what can be summed up as, cool!

I've asked myself this and I'm left with a few areas that might explain it although - by no means - do I expect a reaction upon it (or, for that matter, proaction).

One possible thought I had was that those regular posters are young and, for the most part, silly things amuse them. Indeed, are paramount. However, there's thread discussing alcoholic preferences so (unless some people are acting illegally) the majority are of adult age. Some may even be beyond! There's also threads regarding novels that one wouldn't, ordinarily, associate with children. That arguement then is crumpled and tossed in the wastepaper basket.

The other one is the forum rules, the censorship. These, explicitly, advise against the discussion of religion and/or politics unless these subjects are hoisted forward on the back of a book's discussion. Fair enough. I wonder why though. I hardly see religious or political discussion as being, for want of some examples, Hinduism vs Shintoism or Republican vs Democrat. These things, if discussed with maturity can be educational. The forum has moderators, if such conversations step out of line then it's not beyond their powers assess the direction of the thread and act.

I'm not looking to change the forum's rules by this post, I'm merely interested in a discussion - of some sort - to compliment the light hearted threads.

Opinions on discussion?

 

[Martin]

First off, I'm 24.

Secondly, this is the General Chat forum, intended for just that, general chat. If you wanna discuss something there, discuss something there. If you wanna post a funny pic, post a funny pic. It's all allowed.

For book discussion, I refer you to the 'General Book Discussion' forum.

Cheers, Martin

 

[phil_t]

Well, i will admit to being the youngest of the so-called 'regular posters' that you are referring to too - Martin is a year or two older, and we are noth in our early(ish) twenties, but i believe Wabbit is over 30 and Raven is even older!!

Perhaps you should consider that maybe we just enjoy have fun, non-sensical conversations, and that in GENERAL chat maybe we dont have to take things so seriously?

For the most part i dont think much about the censorship, ive read the forum rules and try to stick by them, and although i may have overstepped the bounds slightly on occasion i have never flaunted them, and have never been reprimanded by Darren for anything ive posted. Indeed, i think he and the mods manage remarkably well to leave off some of the posting that we make, knowing that it is either harmless fun or non-inflamatory rather than anything more.

If you wish to start some more mature conversations in General Chat then do so, im sure that most of us will take the time to respond.

Phil

 

[Martin]

You'll just have to excuse us kids if we make a wisecrack every now and again.

Cheers, Martin

 

[warm_enema]

From what I've noticed, most people cannot talk about politics or religion without the conversation getting heated. They are the fibers of their being, having them challenged is understandably upseting. I conclude it is just easier to not allow it at all, than nit pick at bits and pieces.

Personally, I don't pay attention to either of them. I'm anti-both.

 

[kskyhappy]

thank god!

mile i agree with you, not to put anybody down - we all like to have fun! a chatroom would probably do wonders for this site. I like to debate, thats part of the reason i sought a book forum out, i'm getting rusty.

i thought not edna was interesting - if a little frustrated (lol - trying too hard style!), it's a shame not edna lost their composure.

i'd like to debate something or discuss a book properly. for example i'm reading Steppenwolf at the moment, the mixed narratives are interesting, i'm only a third through. Hesse discusses some interesting ideas regarding the healthyness of multiple personalities and a kind of inner struggle with self.

just to let you know mile - i'm on hols for the next week so i may not get access to the machine! which is a shame because it might get interesting.

ksky

 

[Martin]

On the discussion of religion and/or politics; I agree with Enema (imagine that!). This is a bookforum, not a religionforum or a politicsforum. As Enema said, people will get heated, and, in due time, insulted or angry. No need for that.

Cheers, Martin

 

[kskyhappy]

p vs r

i agree with the no religion and no politics rule, as you can't change people's minds on these points and any attempt seems to start a war!

what about philosophy - lol

kskyhappy

 

[igkuk7]

If people want to discuss religion and/or politics, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you as far as I can see.

I enjoy discussing religion, what I don't enjoy are the people who take it very seriously, get really upset and then resort to insults and bad language. No need for any of that.

 

[Wabbit]

There is a simple relpy, and I promise you that I'm not being snarky If you don't like it... leave

Milo-0, while I respect you because it's quite obvious that you are intelligent and knowledgeable... Well, ok, knowledgeable because the two are often confused as the same thing. Anyway, I do respect you and enjoy some of the things you have to say, even when I don't always agree. Having said that, you are also very rude and arragont, and insulting. When somebody makes a mistake with spelling or a wrong book title. It matters not what it is, you pounce on them and make fun of them. You seem to go to great measures to prove to people know you are how cleaver you are. I wonder if you are insecure?

With this posting you insulted and alienated almost every person that posts to this forum. Half of them that post fun stuff you call "childish" and the other half you claim are idiots because they like to read things that you class as stupid or for kids, such as Dan Brown of Harry potter.

Personally, I don't care what you say or what you do. I'm that way I just don't care. I'll do my thing and if somebody don't like it, well, that's totally their problemo. BUT, some people do care and you may upset quite a few people.

What am I telling you? I am telling you that you need to be a little nicer. I am telling you to be less arrogant and understand just because YOU personally don't like something won't make it bad or the person an idiot.

Basically, milo-0, you need to get some people skils dude!

Regards
SillyWabbit

 

[RaVeN]

You'll just have to excuse us kids if we make a wisecrack every now and again.

Cheers, Martin

And us adults too.

As Phil was saying, I'm 40friggin7 years old. Where did the time go?

Maybe I did imbibe there for a decade or 3

Everyone has a good point in this conversation but overalll I'd say if it's not broke don't fix it!!!

RaVeN

 

[Wabbit]

If people want to discuss religion and/or politics, go right ahead. Nobody is stopping you as far as I can see.

I enjoy discussing religion, what I don't enjoy are the people who take it very seriously, get really upset and then resort to insults and bad language. No need for any of that.

Actually, somebody IS stopping him because it's against forum rules lol



I did not know myself but found out when my thread got closed lol

I would love to be able to discuss religion/politics and hate all forms of censorship. However, there are 2 very important points.

point 1) This is Darren's forum. He built it. He maintains it and he pays for it. We must all respect the rules laid down by hime and if we don't like it we can leave. Hey, this is the NET. It's not like there is not about a million religieon/politics forums if you want to talk about that stuff. This IS a book forum ( even if, with my help , it seems like it's not lol )

point 2 ) As I said, I would love to be able to talk about that stuff BUT I can see where Darren is comming from. I think He want's this to be a friendly book forum. People come here to talk about books and have fun. Both politics and religeon are pretty hot topics where people easy get heated and soon a friendly discussion can turn into an open flame war! Darren want's us to all get along and have fun freindly talk. So I think that's why the rule exisits. If its part of the discussion of a book, then of coarse, it's fine.

Anyay, I think that's what he is thinking. Who knows...!!! That guy is CRAZY MAN!!

*hids from Darren*

Regards
SillyWabbit

 

[igkuk7]

I should do more research before saying anything. But then, that's what Wabbits are for.

 

[Wabbit]

At yoru service!

I'm here to make the mistakes and you can learn from em!

Regards
SillyWabbit

 

[Litany]

Ooh, an actual discussion. Crikey. Well now. I'm 27, been through uni, done all the deep philosophical (drunk) conversations and I think I just got it out of my system. I sorted it all out years ago, science is mostly bunkum, atoms don't exist and vacuum cleaners are filled with fairies with sticky hands. This is not spam, just the logical conclusions of my reasoned observations.

This is a discussion forum about books, and I joined it to talk about books. Mostly. But, if it was my only forum then I think I would get a bit fed up with not being allowed to discuss politics and religion. But I can get that fix elsewhere, so I don't miss it too much here.

Something I have noticed here is that there's a few people who take things to heart a bit too much. I've read a few posts which I've found to be quite innocent which others have taken as personal attacks and end up getting quite narky about. Not naming any names. Just an observation. But in light of that, maybe it isn't the best place to have a debate about how great communism is, or why Christians will never understand the duodecimal system. I even think that the much feared Jaffa Cake debate could end in bloodshed. I have to admit, that I find myself biting my tongue (or should that be crossing my fingers?) on numerous occasions when in other places I would have been quite critical. It just doesn't feel like criticism is allowed here. (We'll see if the comments about this paragraph prove my point. )

Anyhoo, I'm a moderator on another forum (www.futurenoir.com plug plug ) and though it's sci fi based, as long as you stick it in the right section you can post about whatever you want to, though I must admit it's been a while since we talked about anything particularly deep and meaningful in a while. Or there's another forum run by the same chap (http://www.akpcep.com/ which isn't currently letting me in) which welcomes the sort of discussion I think you're looking for. Alex is gonna love me for all the site pimping I'm doing here.

Other than that, I would love to have an actual discussion/debate. But it's quite hard to think of subjects that won't start or end with politics and religion. Also everything that's really worth talking about tends to be a bit emotive.

 

[Ashlea]

I find it's very difficult to have any sort of deep conversations on the internet. I think it's the nature of the communication, people tend to blow more stormily when they aren't face to face. Also, and I've found this a problem with email as well, people tend to have trouble identifying irony or sarcasm and so forth and get all worked up over nothing. So much additional meaning is communicated in face to face conversation, so it's easier to have potentially risky converse. Plus, it's hard to have a deep, intense conversation with people who, really, you only know one side of - the internet side.

Not to say I'm not game for anything anyone is ready to start up, as long as it follows Darren's well-thought-out guidelines and everyone plays nice.

 

[Nicola]

I've been on quite a few boards where religion and/or politics have caused a lot of bad feeling, so it was considered etiquette to add "possible controversy" somewhere in the title. That way, people who could/would be offended could either choose to ignore the thread or get wound up by reading the posts but they were fairly warned beforehand ...

It seems to work, so far anyway

 

[tugger]

I think there's plenty of room on this board for everyone and all types of dialogue. I enjoy the more deep intellectual discussions and often learn a lot from them. But, at the same time the banter between Wabbit and Martin and Phil_T and Raven often has me rolling on the floor in stitches. I think each has its place here. And the fact that we're all from different parts of the globe just makes it that more interesting. Just my humble thought.

 

[RaVeN]

as long as it follows Darren's well-thought-out guidelines and everyone plays nice.

Cool, i've been looking for an excuse to sit this one out.

At my near senile age I've pondered 'til i'm out of ponders. I went through that phase and was lucky to survive without a severe case of carpal tunnel. I finally decided to listen to a few wise old Brits and just Let It Be.

RaVeN

 

[VTChEwbecca]

I agree that deeper discussions are interesting, but I agree with Ashlea....without being able to speak to others in person, its harder to gauge where they are coming from without the benefit of facial expressions and voice inflection. I tend to save my political/religious discussions for those around me in person and come to the book forum for a bit of fun and relaxation.

Plus, religion and politics are subjects that can get people quite stirred up in a small amount of time. I can see not wanting them to be topics of discussion if one wishes a place to remain friendly and pleasant. And its true, if you don't want to read it, don't read it, which is the rule with which I read various sites on the internet.

I think if more philosophical discussions can be had without turning into wars, it would be a great addition, though the light-hearted banter is always welcome relief for me....especially on a bad day.