OK. To start off with, why are we here? Why are we posting on an internet forum instead of some other activity?
Human contact
Social interaction
To learn something
Interesting conversation
To meet interesting and different people
When you get down to it, when you ask, "why are we here?" you get something different from "teh interwebs is srisbzzness".
We are here, ultimately, to entertain ourselves.
So why CFC? Specifically, why CFC OT? Well, the Civilization series brings in a lot of people. And CFC, because of the size of it and the longevity of it means that there are simply more people available to find OT and the Colosseum and discuss all sorts of things. Some interesting, some inane, most only interesting to a subset of the people wandering around looking for something to do.
What makes a good discussion is good people to have a discussion with.
It does not need to be at the level of philosophical debate. It does not need the formality of said debate. And doesn't need the rules of one.
There are very good, informative, posters who write very well. And there are other equally good posters who use a lot of shorthand and quips. Most of the people who express a good point do not necessarily make it in a really well presented way. Does that make it bad points?
No. We are not being graded on style. We are having a casual conversation for the pleasure and the entertainment of having a conversation. Sometimes we are trying to educate others. Or learn something. But this is not the University of CFC. And it will not be issuing diplomas.
I don't expect a lot of people to agree with me. Though I'm only human and more often than not the people that I'm somewhat in agreement with I find more congenial than those who I entirely disagree with.
It's harder to find friendships and respect with people who you are badly in disagreement with on issues you find important. That doesn't mean it never happens. But when people are far apart, the sniping comes easier than finding common ground.
The problem here is not that people see the world differently, but that they are seeing 2 worlds that cannot be reconciled with one another. And keeping the vitriol, the trolling and the flaming, out of that is really an awful lot of what the moderators are exhausting themselves with. But it's a losing battle.
I don't necessarily want people who agree with me, even though they are usually easier to get along with. I have long thought that if it were just the handful of the least civil posters that were gone, then there would be more civil posts by more members. And then there would be more room for diversity of opinion without quite so much of the rancor.
Rather than crack down on everyone, just crack down on the worst. Rather than crack down on silliness, crack down on meanness. Rather than crack down on disagreements, crack down on bad faith.
What makes a good post is that it makes people think instead of making them mad. What makes a good post is that it entertains instead of annoys.
