I appreciate this place

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Remember that for some people, political discussions aren't merely theoretical, they're personal because they genuinely and directly affect that person's life. In such a situation, any form of "let's try and keep it non-political please" can easily come across to the person as "we don't care about your problems", even if it's not your intention, and that causes folk to lash out.
oh, absolutely. I know this person is in pain because, while their particular views don't change especially, the volume with which they say them changes a lot. I feel for them. I know they lost their job recently. I know they have a small child and a spouse they are supporting. I know they have views that are academically well informed but lacking in information that would add in a lot of nuance.

So, this is just better for the time being :smile:
 
We can have a calm and polite discussion about which edition of D&D is the best because it's inconsequential and nobody cares, but we can't have a calm and polite discussion about whether some people can be considered not human, and we definitely can't have a calm and polite discussion about whether you can be considered not human.
Wait, you guys are HUMANS? My bad I thought this was a forum for Crab People! I'll just leave now.
 
Wait, you guys are HUMANS? My bad I thought this was a forum for Crab People! I'll just leave now.
Nah, crab people are fine. Just as long as you're not a goose person...
Yeah, crab people are fine. Pay no attention to the cauldron of boiling water and the large stick of butter that just happened to show up...
 
Remember that for some people, political discussions aren't merely theoretical, they're personal because they genuinely and directly affect that person's life. In such a situation, any form of "let's try and keep it non-political please" can easily come across to the person as "we don't care about your problems", even if it's not your intention, and that causes folk to lash out.

I don't think that there's anyone whose life isn't directly affected by politics in this, Year of Our Lord 2021. But I surmise what you are talking about is the manner in which personal identities have been politicized in recent years, something I find abhorrent and immeasurably harmful. As far as I'm concerned, being a bigot is not a political position, and our rule about no politics neither implies anything besides a common sense and basic human decency-based blanket condemnation of any form of -ism, nor any implication that a person isn't free to express who they are without fear or repurcussion.

The Pub's line in the sand is always going to be discussion of how anyone else should live their lives.

We can have a calm and polite discussion about which edition of D&D is the best


I roll to believe...
 
I notice on other sites that some have said “if you don’t want to talk about politics, what have you got to hide”? Like there is some sort or requirement to talk about it, especially on RPG forums. Meanwhile, these people probably don’t even talk about politics with their parents, siblings or neighbors. The other thing that drives me crazy is the gotcha game, where everyone is looking at what everyone has said on social media back to when they were teenagers to see if they said anything offensive. If so they should be permanently punished, because we know nobody matures from the time they are 15 to 30, give or take a few years. I find the maturity to discuss politics online to be lacking so I don’t want to have anything to do with it.
 
Remember that for some people, political discussions aren't merely theoretical, they're personal because they genuinely and directly affect that person's life. In such a situation, any form of "let's try and keep it non-political please" can easily come across to the person as "we don't care about your problems", even if it's not your intention, and that causes folk to lash out.

We can have a calm and polite discussion about which edition of D&D is the best because it's inconsequential and nobody cares, but we can't have a calm and polite discussion about whether some people can be considered not human, and we definitely can't have a calm and polite discussion about whether you can be considered not human.
And we really can’t have calm and polite discussions when people engage in dramatic hyperbole.
 
We can have a calm and polite discussion about which edition of D&D is the best because it's inconsequential and nobody cares, but we can't have a calm and polite discussion about whether some people can be considered not human, and we definitely can't have a calm and polite discussion about whether you can be considered not human.
"I Am Not A Human Being"
- L'il Wayne
 
The other thing that drives me crazy is the gotcha game, where everyone is looking at what everyone has said on social media back to when they were teenagers to see if they said anything offensive. If so they should be permanently punished, because we know nobody matures from the time they are 15 to 30, give or take a few years.
I'm so glad I'm not quite young enough that my teenage rants are online. Let's just say that Ladybirds Young and Old would not have been friends.
 
I'm so glad I'm not quite young enough that my teenage rants are online. Let's just say that Ladybirds Young and Old would not have been friends.
I'm just glad that no photographic evidence exists of the time I tried to singlehandedly start a Kaftan and paisley shirts revival. In 1988.
 
I went through a phase around the millennium when I bleached my hair, wore a lot of black, had like half a dozen chains around my neck at any given time, and painted my fingernails. My boss asked me to tone it down so I stopped painting my nails.
 
You guys have some fucked up ideas about fashion and jawlines. That's what makes this place great. :grin:
 
This was also when I was using that neon hair gel that made it look constantly wet, so just picture a 6'2" skinny pre-adolescant Scot trying as hard as possible to look like a Puerto-Rican Gigalo...
 
I'm so glad I'm not quite young enough that my teenage rants are online. Let's just say that Ladybirds Young and Old would not have been friends.
Shocked! Shocked I say!
 
I really enjoy this forum. The people a very knowledgable about gaming and very funny. It's a great combination. I don't know why talking about media IPs, Prog Rock or geese is more fun when done with other roleplayers, it just is.

But we shouldn't kid outselves. We're not that special. We've had out share of drama. A bunch of threads took a very unswo turn and some people have left this past year. I can imagine there were days being moderator here was no fun at all.

We should not take this forum for granted. I'm not a mod here or anything, but in my view if we want to preserve this place and see it all do out part to managing the tone of the discussions, avoiding needless confrontation or provaction, even if it is really, really funny or we know the other guy is totally wrong. We'll all get carried away from time to time, doesn't mean the rest us should add fuel to the fire when it happens. Of course if that were easy we would not have terms like "flame wars" (do the kids still say that these days?).

I'll be so embarassed by this post come tomorrow.
 
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But we shouldn't kid outselves. We're not that special. We've had out share of drama. A bunch of threads took a very unswo turn and some people have left this past year. I can imagine there were days being moderator here was no fun at all.


Honestly, I'll take the worst day here over the best day at the other two places. Because in the end, I know there are posters here that are going to be my friend and have my back no matter what. I know that the drama will pass. And I know that after 3 years, we can still have something like _DELETE THREAD PLS spontaneously happen.
 
[ . . . ]
We should not take this forum for granted. I'm not a mod here or anything, but in my view if we want to preserve this place and see it all do out part to managing the tone of the discussions, avoiding needless confrontation or provaction, even if it is really, really funny or we know the other guy is totally wrong. We'll all get carried away from time to time, doesn't mean the rest us should add fuel to the fire when it happens. Of course if that were easy we would not have terms like "flame wars" (do the kids still say that these days?).
This ^^^^

We have got something good here, and some vigilance, effort and self-awareness is needed if we want to keep it that way.
 
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The corollary to that being don't let it go to your head. The best way to stop being great is to get wrapped up in how great you are. There's a quote from Matthew Mcconaughey I heard once when he was being interviewed about Dallas Buyer's Club: "Focus on the process."

Focus on being warm, clever and funny, rather than on how warm, clever and funny you are.
 
The corollary to that being don't let it go to your head. The best way to stop being great is to get wrapped up in how great you are. There's a quote from Matthew Mcconaughey I heard once when he was being interviewed about Dallas Buyer's Club: "Focus on the process."

Focus on being warm, clever and funny, rather than on how warm, clever and funny you are.
Speak for yourself. I plan to bask in my humble cleverness, my unpretentious genius and my undeniable sense of humor.
 
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