rayjazz21
Expat XO
 Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 296
Thank You
-Given: 5
-Receive: 28
|
 |
« on: October 07, 04:53 PM » |
|
You know, I'm very thankful that this site exists. Through this site I've been able to find quite a number of good contacts who have really helped me out a lot with my recent move to Ukraine. In the beginning, I was a frequent poster who enjoyed reading every single post that was posted here due to the depth of intellect and interest in Ukrainian and global issues. I also enjoyed the sense of community and helpfulness in the forums. After a few months of being a member, something changed. The posts began turning into fire fights full of childish personal attacks. As a result, I quit reading the forums and quit posting on a daily basis. Now I only post when I need some kind of quick information or when I know that my post can't turn into a target for childesh insults. Now, there has been a lot of talk about Moving and his presence here on the site. Granted I do think that this has something to do with this shift on the site, I don't think that he is the only problem. Other posters have fed this fire, too. A person cannot argue with himself, am I right? To Moving, I'll only say that you tend to forget about the "ad hominem fallacy," which is when you attack the person and not the issue. Moving, I've been reading your posts and have noticed small phrases like -
"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE SAYING THIS."
"I really see no reason why you are criticizing..."
"Jon, you seem to have a strange idea about what means learning a language..."
"You seem not to understand..."
"Vera dunno what your projections/fantasies are suggesting you..."
"Still feel like lecturing? Who are you?"
"Are you high on booze?"
Now, the majority of these phrases were taken from your earliest posts. I've italicized all of the words that take the focus from the issue and place them on the other poster. In philosophy this is known as the ad hominem fallacy. These types of phrases come off as quite condescending and belittle the person with whom you are speaking. Granted opinions differ and that many of them can be quite off the wall, everyone is entitled to his own opinion and has his own experiences and interprets them по-своему and he should be allowed just that, and having said that, so should you. But I find that these types of phrases rarely come up in, let's say, the posts of Nik, who always keeps a nice distance from the topic and strives to keeps things friendly and objective. That, in my opinion, is the difference between trying to develop yourself intellectually through the process of dialectics and entertaining yourself with useless arguments that go no where. Does anybody agree?
Now, this is what I think started this change here on the site. However, as I stated above, one can't argue with himself. Many people have added fuel to this fire, and yes, once or twice I have too. However, I used to see this site as having a goal and as a good place for learning about Ukraine and developing my intellect, but now I think that this site is going nowhere very fast.
Moving and others: Take this as constructive criticism and as an attempt to passively point out some things that are going on here in these forums. I don't think that anybody should be banned, but I do think that there should been some ground rules. The first should be ATTACK THE SUBJECT, NOT THE PERSON. And if these rules are broken, the post should be deleted, no questions asked. It might also be good to have posts go through a moderator before they appear on the boards as moderation sometimes comes a bit late and before some kind of personal attack can be edited, a fire fight has started.
What are your thoughts on this?
I'm requesting that THIS post not turn into a fire fight. Keep your thoughts ON TOPIC and polite. If anyone decides to bring a personal attack into this thread, I too will leave this site, because if this kind of behavior keeps up, there will be no need for me to stay here. So let's agree to this, OK?
Ребята! Let's work together to make this site constructive and helpful!
|
