Quoting Rifter:

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My biggest problem with all of this is that instead of people working their differences out the old fashioned way, we're relying on some artificial system that has the potential for abuse.  Too many people want to solve a problem by muzzling the people who disagree with their point of view.  Yes, I am opinionated; yes, I am stubborn; yes, I am blunt.  But I don't hide behind an artificial persona either.  I am what I am, and make no apologies for that.  But I also don't expect anybody else to have to apologize for being the same way.  I don't need my mommy following me around to wash out my mouth with soap if I say a naughty word.

Like I said, maybe this will work, maybe it won't.  I hope it does.  But, it saddens me greatly that people would rather turn over what amounts to their sovereignty to an artificial system.  If we're going to go down that road, I'd just as soon have a real flesh and blood moderator.

The unfortunate truth is that nothing was being worked out the old way.  The same arguments happened with the same people on a very regular basis.  In most cases, common courtesy and basic rules of civility would level out much of the bile, but in this disconnected, impersonal world of the internet, that doesn't seem to work.  That is why we needed some 'artificial' system.

As for people being opinionated and stubborn, I don't think that many people here really have a problem with that.  I'm somewhat opinionated and stubborn myself and I absolutely love a good debate.  But, the problem that was showing up here quite often was in the way these opinions were presented.  Like I always tell my son, it isn't always what you say, it's how you say it.  The exact same message can be delivered in many ways, and some are more effective than others.  I have always felt that if someone is trying to convey a message, they want people to listen to it and understand it.  The hatred in some posts was hiding some very valuable information.  We are all trying to convince people to agree with us, but we have to accept, hopefully with some grace, that we will not be successful in convincing everybody.

I don't think anybody needs to hide behind an artificial persona.  Being polite and civil is not artificial, it's part of becoming a community.  You can still be stubborn and have your opinions while being polite.

I'm looking forward to the changes that are coming.  Lots of people are walking around on eggshells right now, but once we get comfortable with this new system, we will hopefully see the debates come back.  But, with civility instilled, the threads may be much shorter with more posts on topic.


If you look back at this thread, I think you will see some wonderful examples of how we can all disagree and still get along.  I've seen some very different opinions, and definitely some stubbornness, but none of the bile and hatred that other threads have produced.  This is a great debate.

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Bad Request (Invalid Hostname)

Was that what that was - updating the website code?

It scared me!  *sniff*

Quoting EnryWiki:

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The bold formatting in that quote is not my formatting.

I got my first (AFAIK) negative feedback on that post saying "The bold formatting in that quote is not my formatting". 

Quoting EnryWiki:

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Quoting Dr. Killpatient:

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One thing I like about the reputation page I like is that if you click on the thread you got a vote on, it'll take you to the page and post for it. 

I noticed that when you get more votes on the same post you'll see just one reference to that post and the total number of votes you got on it.
But what happens if you get both positive and negative votes on the same post?

You'll see both counts in the two columns at the far right of the message they apply to.

Quoting Mithi:

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Quoting EnryWiki:

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I got my first (AFAIK) negative feedback on that post saying "The bold formatting in that quote is not my formatting". 

Rightfully so 
If you make changes to quotes, besides obvious deletion of whole lines or sentences, it should be common courtesy to clearly state this.

cya, Mithi

Actually, someone else quoted him and 'bolded' a portion of the text.  Enry simply pointed out that the bold formatting wasn't in his original post, but was added by the person who quoted it.  I don't think he should have gotten a negative mark for that.

Quoting TomGaines:

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Wouldn't have a simple "report post to moderator" link sufficed? 

Even though I initially joked about it, it occured to me while in the shower this morning that in essence that's exactly what has been done.  Since all negative votes are reviewed by an admin, you are indeed reporting the post to a moderator.

With that in mind, one should ask themselves before casting a negative vote "Is this something I think a moderator would want to look at?"

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Quoting Dr. Killpatient:
With that in mind, one should ask themselves before casting a negative vote "Is this something I think a moderator would want to look at?"

I'm pretty sure that most of us already do that! But I'm afraid some users don't care about this