how do we keep it from getting personal?

[Climb01742]

those of us who were around when the first forum was shut down may be having flashbacks. when things get personal and nasty and profanity-laced e-mails start flying offline, nothing good is gonna happen.

sorry for sounding like mr rogers here (or maybe rodney king) but how do we keep things from getting personal?

i bet for each of us, there's one (or maybe more) forum member(s) whose posts get way under our skin. i know i've got mine. (and i bet i bug someone a lot too.) but how do we keep that either civil or just to ourselves?

what happens here does reflect on serotta. do we want to hurt the company and ben?

maybe it's like ron artest. maybe we feel justified or provoked by someone. but do we go into the stands? it's hard to imagine gary sheffield as a role model, but you gotta give him credit for not pulling an artest at fenway last week.

if we keep going into the stands after someone, is that good for us, the forum, serotta or ben? when the first forum was shut down, it sucked. and we pretty much lost dave n., which is a loss, i think. any ideas for how we stay out of the stands? :beer:

[saab2000]

Simple.

Don't respond to negativity. Threads with no responders die pretty fast. If there is one which bothers me I simply won't go to it any more. There have been plenty and I simply ignore them.

Walk away. Take the high road. Cliches all, but it works.

[victoryfactory]

Climb;

My take is to just lighten up!

It's just a message board dude, take the humor and good information
and discard the junk. Ignore the posts that offend you, but realize
that they need to be included or we are not getting the whole picture.

Excluding the crap skews the picture, leads to a unhealthy
(censored) enviornment IMO.

It's like the jungle... If you remove the top predator, the entire eco system
goes out of balance.
As for us, a bunch of over-opinionated civilian quacks having any negative
effect at all on the reputation of the Serotta brand is absurd.

I'm going for a ride

VF

[OldDog]

This board, as is any mesage board, is cyclic, in that it goes through it's periods of interesting posts to times when it seems members are posting anything, just to post something.

And, as in real life, sometimes you connect with someone who turns out to be a real bud, and then you come across those who just rub you the wrong way. What do you do in real life? You walk away and distance yourself from such person. Do the same here.

Threads come and go, posters come and go. Go with the cycle. Then go out and do some on the road.

Take care.

[cycleman_21]

Simple.

Don't respond to negativity. Threads with no responders die pretty fast. If there is one which bothers me I simply won't go to it any more. There have been plenty and I simply ignore them.

Walk away. Take the high road. Cliches all, but it works.


Totally agree,stay away from neg. posts,you WILL just be adding nitro to the fire and the poster loves that,it can be hard to do sometimes negatives need to be brought out help others from making the same mistakes, kind of a catch 22 but profanity and personal insults are just unessasary in this day and age,leave that stuff at the playground.This place is great,lets help keep it that way.(stepping off soapbox now :) )Now lets have some fun and maybe even learn something :beer:

RC

[Ray]

Yeah, I think any of us can tell the difference between a spirited disagreement over substance (which is healthy and rather the point of forums like this) and personal attacks on another's character. When the former turns into the latter, I bail from the thread, maybe monitoring it every now and then to see if it comes back from the brink to be something useful again. Some do, some don't. And don't punish someone you don't like because of PAST posts. Just respond to individual posts, or not, based on the content of THAT post. That actually creates the possibility of changed behavior, rather than just reacting to an old grudge.

Of course, I don't post that much, so it makes it pretty easy to avoid the heavy personality conflicts.

-Ray

[Sandy]

I agree that the easiest and most productive way is to simply ignore the posts of those that you find offensive. To do otherwise justs helps perpetuate the negativity. A one way conversation can only last so long.....

Silent Sandy

[Kevin]

Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Life is too short.

Kevin

[coylifut]

Don't wrestle with pigs: You'll get all muddy and the pigs will love it.

[slowgoing]

Don't repsond, and use your ignore button so you can be your own administrator. Mr. 93legti is on my lifetime ignore list because everything he said, up until the time I put him there, was negative, plus he brought a few in the forum down to his level.

[Bill Bove]

The lovely and missed Serotta Alyson set forth some simple rules for us to follow. They , with a little self discipline will work just fine. I personally changed my signiture when I realized that certain owner of an older model Legend Ti didn't share my political views. That's cool, he's got his, I've got mine and this NOT the place for us to argue them, as set forth in the rules. No big deal. Now we've got a nice civilized forum and all we have to do to keep it that way is to read our post before we hit the post button.

By the way James, orange has got to be the fugliest color for a bike ever:-)

[dave thompson]

Sometimes it's hard not to get personal, particularly if a 'good forum friend' is being attacked or demeaned.

I've been on this forum since back in the pre-Kahuna 'old-old' days and have seen various trolls, malcontents and general trouble-makers come and go. We've survived but sometimes at a cost: the loss of some really good folks who don't care for the petty crap that can happen here.

My personal feelings are this is a wonderful playground for us with the depth and breadth of knowledge, experience and valuable opinions unparalleled on any other bicycling forum. Many of us have made personal contact and have become friends with others on this forum. Many of us, me included, have made serious buying decisions based on what we have learned here. Eminent frame builders regularly drop by, not to peddle their wares but to contribute, converse and be a part of our 'society'.

So when others post things that amount to 'crapping in our sandbox' I get miffed and take it as a personal affront, even though it may not be directed at me. And I've been guilty of responding to those posts, in my perceived defense of my neighborhood.

This is far too good a place to let others spoil it for us.

[Andreu]

"....have made serious buying decisions based on what we have learned here".
I would second this.
I think it is a shame when it gets personal...but it is inevitable in such an open forum. I have been guilty of this and sometimes get dragged into petty tit for tat notes (on the forum not e-mails).
I think

[Andreu]

"....have made serious buying decisions based on what we have learned here".
I would second this.
I think it is a shame when it gets personal...but it is inevitable in such an open forum. I have been guilty of this and sometimes get dragged into petty tit for tat notes (on the forum not e-mails).
I think Saab2000 summed up the best approach but it can be difficult sometimes.
A

[shinomaster]

Don't wrestle with pigs: You'll get all muddy and the pigs will love it.


Wow!!! What truth!!! haha ha haa...

Am I really that bad?? :confused:

[93legendti]

A strong moderator, willing to enforce Forum rules, is the only way. For example, when a certain someone went to The Gear Page last week (I had posted in the Classified's that I post there too), registering for that sole purpose to smear me, his post was immediately deleted and he was banned. Luckily, the forumites there were smart enough not to believe the person.

What's the point of Forum rules if they are not enforced?

[dave thompson]

Wow!!! ....
...Am I really that bad?? :confused:
Yes............................................... ...................................... :D

[Sandy]

Be easy on pigs, Sir Super Shino. My dad was very successful in the wholesale meat business. He specialized in selling pork products. It was said that he sold everthing in the pig except the squeak. :)

Softly Squeaking Sandy

[Air Jer]

Sandy, should we adopt pigs too? :confused:

[Too Tall]

During Snack Recess
Students will :

eat before playing,
eat only on the blacktop or paved areas,
dispose of all trash in garbage cans,
stay on their playground,
not play between or in buildings, hallways, or restrooms.
Play safely on the school yard.
Students will:

keep their hands and feet to themselves,
not play tackle games, piggyback riding, or wrestling,
wear shoes at all times,
not climb on fences, trees or roofs,
use all playground equipment responsibly. [up]
Use playground equipment correctly and safely.
Students will :

not stand or hang upside down from bars,
keep two hands (for balance) on the bars,
not sit or jump from bars,
use jump ropes for jumping only,
bounce balls against the "ball wall" and never against the walls of the school building.
Follow the sandbox rules.
Students will

keep sand in the box,
not play in the sand under children who are playing on the bars,
respect other people's sand structures,
not run in the sand,
not throw sand, rocks or sticks.

When the bell rings at the end of recess
Students will:

stop playing and walk to their waiting area,
not go through the buildings.

[cs124]

just my stupid, under-informed viewpoint...

Worry about the things that are truly important to you, family, health, setting a PB up Mt Washington etc. If you decide it's not important, don't waste any time or energy on it, let it go.

[Elefantino]

OK, I feel really bad about that snot rocket comment now.

[Doc Austin]

Climb;

My take is to just lighten up!

Precisely.

you guys ought to see some of the threads on the motorsports forums involving the Indycar politics. God, somebody is going to get killed one day. You have people threatening each other all sorts of sillyness.

I think we all like cycling and we all like Serottas. If you don't, you'de spend your time in a more healthy fashion on a forum that features something you do like.

I don't see much to argue about, but I'm sure I'll get called a name for saying that. :)