'but now we can see two camps drawing forum battle lines...'
In your dreams.
tigertiger is certainly not the first and nor will he be the last. I can guarantee he won't be the last. While this puerile tosh, thread hijacking and just about any post is used to spread bile and propaganda, then posting on GK is risking guilt by association. Two camps, if they exist, will bore themselves out of existence. It's a shame.
create "preferred posters", wrote blobbles.
this is elitist horse manure. and you say what i write is manure.
no need to classify people like the nazis did. take it easy. take it easy. take it easy. take it easy. we all come from chimpanzees, remember? relax. have a banana.
this forum is a toilet of arrogant idiots.
And you, Magnifico, are the leading idiot while possibly being the most arrogant. You claim to debate but you just toss insults.
More than once you implied I was a drunk. Not very kind of you but what the heck, you are safe here. Actually, you are right. I am a drunk. As a friend of Bill, I am a drunk that has not had a drink since 1986.
So while you say "no need to classify people like the nazis did," you do it. You, for some reason delight in posting ill informed, insulting, inane comments that give you some weird satisfaction. Slander and insinuation are your debate tools.
I'm outta here.
Yeah, I implied you were a drunk because you posted 3 consecutive posts that were totally unrelated to what I was talking about. But you're right. It was out of line and I apologize.
Being called a drunk is not that bad. Christ, I've been reduced to manure. Doesn't that make you feel better?
No, I don't just toss insults. But sometimes there's nothing left to do but toss insults when people are making ridiculous suggestions like "the black posters should be moved to the back of the bus."
Ps. Good riddance, Anti.
Posted by @magnifico on Oct 6: "but the good news is I'm taking a permanent break from the forum."
Number of posts in the less than two days since: 11
The forum was established by the site's founders as a place where people living and/or interested in Yunnan could come together online and discuss things pertinent to living here. Since then it has grown organically as has GK's audience. This means threads are no longer only concerned with things like where to buy cheese or how to get to far-flung places across the province – although discussions such as these still abound.
Navigating forums, as well as moderating them, can be a frustrating and tricky business, not just on GK but pretty much everywhere. The concerns in this thread are fairly universal: trolling, hijacking, needless and unhelpful remarks and attacks. Such annoyances have led many sites to disable their comments entirely, most recently Popular Science:
We have no intention of shutting ours down. We could of course adopt draconian policies or, conversely, leave them completely unpoliced. Neither of those is going to happen. Instead, we are working on an "up/down" vote system so users can express approval or disapproval without resorting to attacks. Also, if any forum or series of comments devolves into two people having a back and forth conversation, it will be locked. Discussions of those types are for the personal messaging system.
Civility is the name of the game and sometimes difficult to maintain. It includes being sensitive to the culture and atmosphere most of us are living in, as well as respecting others' points of view.
Of course, people will disagree about what should and shouldn't be allowed. Tigertiger asks an excellent question above: should a discussion on making yogurt at home have anything to do with Monsanto? Splitting forums is a fine idea and we will look into it. But, at some point, users need to understand their responsibility and accountability in fostering respectful, useful and pertinent dialogue in the forum and comment sections.
We are quite happy there is such a dedicated and lively interest in how the site functions. But if the forums are to remain a place where ideas and opinions can be discussed constructively we all have a part to play in making sure people are not ostracized. This forum is a perfect example of everything we are talking about: a civil discussion marred by attempts at hijacking and trolling, devolving into needless insults. As a result, it is locked.
This thread is locked.
