What is the Community?

Catherine,

I haven't thought of the pack of rabid dogs -- which are features of people, not individual people -- as emanating from one single third-party website. Geez, I hope that isn't the case. I thought it was a little more diverse and therefore genuine and not faked-up or plotted. But, I've been wrong before in terms of estimating how this analysis would be received. I thought it would be so self evident that there'd be a whole chorus of "yes" and I still think that chorus is out there somewhere, but just not here. I always have the experience of people coming to me and saying AMEN about something I've written in the forums but they don't want to be torn to bits saying the same thing.

I dn't think there is any "world watching" though. This isn't Chicago in 1968 lol at the Democratic Convention LOL.

It's just a game, but we do bother about it because we all do care about it, and I guess we do have that much in common, even if nothing else, and even if wildly different perceptions of what it is, and where it is going. And I think it is only that sum of caring and bothering that we do have in common, but it's not enough to make a shared sense of purpose given wildly different agendas.

I continue to think that the task for the task for "the community" is to realize it is not united and to manage differences and resolve conflicts without reaching for unanimity or some holistic uniformity or branding.

Yes, it's a blog Cristiano. Did you think it was mainstream RL media?

What I find quite nasty is this sort of comment:



What this implies is that people have to *fall in line*. If they happen to disagree with me but still defend some matter of principle that says I should express my views -- whether a friend like Coco or someone I barely know like Jake -- then they have to do double duty to disassociate themselves from me and "dress me down" now and then -- it's appalling.

They should do nothing of the sort. They don't have to "set me straight" like all the other Hectoring Hannahs.

Honestly, just try to picture your post surviving an oped page in a RL newspaper for a minute. What is it about? What is your point? What were you going to tell everyone?

Try to put some perspective on it. Try to return to the topic.

The community is not what you say it is. You aren't running it by chairing the Disciplinary Committee and the Self-Criticism Circle where people are suposed to Dress down" others.

The community is indeed bigger than that, and I invite you to step outside the magic circle and contemplate that idea.

Stoneself, I think, is indicating that there are folks who "dress down" those who would dare debate with you, and pointing out the one sidedness of that dressing down. I see it too, and to be quite honest, it's frustrating, and I usually end up not taking the individual very seriously.

I never understand when you roll over and play obtuse. The forums in which you posted the comment about a person's gender is no more a blog than these forums are a blog. A blog is a very specific thing - a diary entry format web log. These are message forums, as are the SLU forums that you posted in. Why is that so hard to understand?

Also, you have a very bad habit of misusing quotes. If you are going to quote someone, attribute it to who actually said it. You change focus so often in your posts sometimes it is unclear who you are talking to or about, or who said what that you are rally against.

I'm going to have to agree with this bit as Prok's last post was 1/2 to me and 1/2 to you, but I didn't realize that right away. I had no idea what he was talking about or why he was saying it to me lol. Hey its late peace all.

Cat

Cristiano, could you focus on the problem of moral equivalency rather than nit-picking?

And I don't have any "habit" of misquoting, LOL, that's just your notion based on some silly thing.

And yes, it is a blog. There are hardly any posts there but your own. Remember, I was on it for a few days and found it inactive, filled up with just a few posts by a few people, it seemed. Well, the pictures are the main attraction I guess.

Catherine, the part addressed to you was addressed to you, with a paragraph.

Then a new paragraph started, and a new person was quoted and addressed. Whatever.

Prokofy,

You frequently leave off the name of who said what you are quoting - that is misquoting. Hell, in your last post, it looks like I said what you are quoting - you give no reference at all to who you are talking about. Look at your posts, you leave off the name all the time, even in cases where it is not clear who you are quoting.

prok, i think all the choices are different kinds of communities in sl. except the last choice. it's everything except the last one.

so to your question: "What is the Community?"
my answer is: Yes.

Look I know what it's like to be in your shoes, as for who's doing it. well look threw the archives and see if you dont see some familer names.

Editing last post to you.

btw this community is a database and we are all in it

Not whatever ok.

Cat

Um, that's not misquoting, Cristiano.

That's just assuming that like a dog with its heated breath on my neck, I know that person is hovering *right near* that post and reading EVERY WORD EVERY SECOND, stopping even in the middle of some RL thing that's important, and so I don't even have to write "Cristiano said" and press "wrap quote tags" because I know that as close as my jugular vein, there is Cristiano, reading that post *within seonds* and responding *within milliseconds*.

So who needs quotes and salutations?

Yes, that's a good answer, Jauani. IT's everything. It's not that last thing. Except you hope it will be that last thing merely to be able to accommodate all the visions and choices that come in the other things.

Community?

You know it when you're in it.

Sill don't know - get a meettin' hall and create the experience of community - it's more about the walk then the talk.

I'm still reading this thread, but Forseti here pointed out beautifully what my response would be! Other than calling SL a "game", I agree completly with this post! hehe

It is misusing the quote feature - you are one of the only people who uses it this way. You want your posts to be this "important public record", yet you leave out the simple courtesy of including who said the statement you are quoting. That is just a basic - to attribute who said something you are coopting to comment on. The quote you used in your post to me was not even from me - so your answer to this question hardly applies. It is funny, given how quickly you often reply to any post that you would comment on anyone's hovering to reply.

Well not citing a source does afford one protection from being accused of misquoting and misattributing. If one is prone to such errors.

Ok. I know I'm committing "Internet Forums Taboo"... But these two posts really struck home for me. So I am going to quote them. Beat me if you must!

Well Stone,

I guess I don't see it as my place to dress down prokofy for the FIC and the other remarks, because, as I noted I just don't see them as insulting and attacking. I have read Proks posts and the quotes you posted, and I still don't see how thats justifies some of the attacks that have been levelled. In my own opinion I do not see any insult there. Stereotyping maybe, but thats hardly offensive to be, I am simply who I am.

When I have dressed down people it is usually aimed at a groups, and typically it involved the shunning of prokofy and the attacks on his gender and the mental health diagnoses. I promise that if some one was doing this to you or anyone else, I would be as outspoken in my opposition to this sort of conduct. For me it is the conduct I oppose, not the person.

But really the purpose of my posts is not to dress down anyone, rather they are to advocate reasonable and respectful behavior towards everyone, by everyone. this thread is opn the topic of what defines our "community" and I have tried to make the assertion that memeber of the community are deserving of some fundamental courtesies. People reading this will make up thier minds about the merit of my ideas, and thats fine.

Besides, realistically, if i did think Prok crossed a line, what could I say that twenty others haven't. There are more than enough people dressing down Prokofy. I really am not trying to be forum nanny, just looking for things that can be seen as more general statemetns about what behavior we all expect from the community as a whole. Hell yes I am on a soapbox, that is what the forum debates are for.

I think your points about respect being earned and lost were well stated counterpoints to my argument. If we were to spin off a thread of our own, I think the debate would be valuable along two lines: 1. what is the basic level of humand dignity we afford to memebers of the community; and 2. is someone who has taken unpopular and hostile opinions, and has engendered much hostility in the forums entitled to the protections of the TOS? ( I am not really sure this states the essence clearly, but i am trying).

yes, good point pendari -- i sometimes use the term "game" but I don't really consider it a game either.



egads, did I write that? speak english much Forseti? reminds me of the scene in Princess Bride: "grab the thing! no the other thing! and turn the thing! no, not that thing, that thing!"

lol must have been late... i hope

This flame-fest is being closed. Do not post personal attacks against those you don't agree with. If you must further engage those you have disagreements with, please take your conversations to a better equipped space, such as in-world chat or private messages.