Didn't do that.

Yes you did, through the structure of your assertion, as I plainly explained in the section of my post you chose to ignore.

Capital I to start a paragraph, Robin :)

Someone say hi to her from me, OK?

I'm supposed to see her this weekend; I'll try to remember.

ok, we are ignoring it?

hmm. Elena can post Deathmatch notices in Press whenever she wants. The board as a collective never ever took action on the requests of Steph, Ple, Kat, and others, Elena took action.

More than three people posted that the announcements did not bother them, I was one of them it was more than three.

That takes care of background, I think.

Today, I think I can count on my hand the number of posts that took a hostile tone towards you (perhaps your reading would make that number higher though). In contrast, there have been, I think over a hundred posts in here today mostly discussing your points. People have asked for clarification, people have agreed, people have disagreed, people have suggested that we look at ourselves and take your posts into our thougts.

I do not understand how that is being ignored.

t hearts msbelle, despite personal loathing for pink *g*

you were lurking during the Great Voting Arguments, and the Constitutional Convention

John Hancock was a lurker! The lurkers support me in the Pony Express!

(Yeah, I know...historically inaccurate. You make a mail joke.)

For example, there was a period (and still occasionally) when folks on the board addressed each other as "fucko".

Good times, dammit. Good fuckin' times.

It's interesting to me that Rafmun is saying that he "heard about" gentler Buffista days, not that he "read" them. To me, that suggests that he's going by megan's comments about her participation in the board rather than by posts he's read himself. (Please correct me if this is a wrong impression, Rafmun.)

If that's the case, I might respectfully point out that there's a big difference between something someone tells you about and something you've experienced yourself. Plenty of things are all golden-colored and fuzzy when seen through the eyes of someone who loves them, and much uglier and harsher when experienced first-hand.

Edit: Which is not meant to discredit Rafmun or discount his points, but I do think that the issues he's complaining about are ones where board experience matters.

Asking for compassion and a little less harshness translates to 'descending deeper into hyperbole'?

I started this discussion by raising this very point. And what I was trying to do was to push this notion closer to the center. That's really all that can be done.

One reason the voting causes friction is because any extended talk in Bureaucracy about tone or direction becomes a lightning rod for general crankiness. People address their long held grievances. Which is what is happening now. And that's okay - they need to be addressed. But sometimes those aren't board problems. They're not issues that can be resolved by the community - they're issues that the individual has because they're feeling out of sync with the ever-migrating center.

Just as an amusing sidenote interjected: I just re-read the thing in the FAQ about Hec and Knut, and Dana TOTALLY imposed her will on others! Kinda. She didn't get to pick their new names, as it turned out, but she sure tried.

Hey!

That could be why Knut left....

Hey!

and Dana TOTALLY imposed her will on others!

No picking on me while I'm in class!

That being said, I would suggest that the first step would be acknowledging that there is a problem.

That obviously seems to be a major challenge in itself.

Rafmun, (anyone else have to spell that out backwards each time?) I find the tone of your posts a major distraction to the points you're trying to make. To be honest, it reads like you think you have the on correct opinion, and when anyone disagrees with you, you dismiss them by accusing them of misdirection. Which is basically the same thing you're complaining about.

I do believe everyone has a right to comment on the board. That's why we have all these threads. But one thing that will absolutely not help in this discussion, where we have at least twenty people running in circles, trying to figure out if there's a problem and how we fix it, is taking that condescending tone.

Most importantly, keep an eye out for those few far-between posters who always seem to get their ways simply by persistence of posts, intractibility, refusal to engage on issues through either denial or misdirection.

Self-referencially quoting myself, in a referencial manner, in response to piling on.

No, I'm not being ignored, and yes, a number of people have chimed in agreeing with the issues I've raised, while a few others have suggested they'd be more aware of the situation in the future.

But then there is a whole other small, agressive, assertive, verbose group that is cross examining my cred rather than discussing my points - calling the newbie cheeky (this is. A. Bad thing. Here?), taking offense, suggesting my notions are descending into hyperbole, that my ideas 'suck', being defensive, suggesting there is no problem etc

How do you, gentle veteran, think a Newbie would feel and respond to the totality of this discussion? Encouraged, or put off and unlikely to consider it 'safe' to express an unpopular idea again?

Everyone will answer that for themselves, so I will leave it at that.

I keep trying to stay out of this...

I actually do think newbies should think twice before posting an unpopular opinion. Not that they shouldn't do it, but they should think twice. Because we do take shit seriously, and we also are a community. Shit, I don't know, can someone just Nilly poor Wolfram's brouhaha? All of this was said then.