Has the Forum become a Cesspool?

Aye… the “Beaver Death star”…

2 Likes

Attack? You gotta be kidding. This is Hotel Giza, man. We are celebrating. We’ve had enough attacks for one day . . .

Screenshot (23)

2 Likes

Agreed. Every online forum is going to have trolls, bots, spies, personality clashes, etc. Most don’t have the eclectic group or brain power that shows up here.

3 Likes

I have so many questions I would like to pose, so many things I would like to discuss, so many articles I come across that are subsequently posted by others. Some of us come to these subjects a lot later in life and find some of the concepts quite hard to grasp, even after reading Dr. Farrell’s books. Good debate is hard to find on the internet, people willing to answer a newbie’s question even harder to find. Thats why so many of us “lurk” and don’t enter into the debate for fear of ridicule and rudeness. The forum isn’t a cesspool, the light touch moderation while sufficient for most day to day problems may need a slight adjustment.

5 Likes

@FuLnu

I agree for the most part but would not know how to give form to a “light touch moderation”. I don’t see volunteers working satisfactory, but what else is there?

1 Like

… I must admit that the Hotel California reference was … well … think about the novel The Magus by John Fowles and …

“So I went down when I could tell a lot of people had already arrived, when the ugly girls — they always arrive first — would, I hoped, be disposed of. The door was open. I went in through a little hall and stood in the doorway of the living room, holding my bottle of Algerian burgundy ready to present. I tried to discover in the crowded room one of the two girls I had seen before. Loud male Australian voices; a man in a kilt, and several West Indians. It didn’t look my sort of party, and I was within five seconds of slipping back out. Then someone arrived and stood in the hall behind me.” - passage from The Magus.

… or instead of The Hotel California … maybe Merton College, Lord Byron School of The Giza Dearth Star (located on beautiful Phraxos) … or Behold the Cave of Caerbannog! … but what do I know? … I’m just a humble Colporteur, Chapman, Costermonger wandering aimlessly in this, our Ancien Régime. …

"From the moment I fell down that rabbit hole I’ve been told where I must go and who I must be. — “I’ve been shrunk, stretched, scratched, and stuffed into a teapot.” — “I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole—and yet—and yet—it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life!” - Alice

2 Likes

You had me rolling on the floor, laughing with this one!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

1 Like

Please, we beg of you… Pose Them! … genuine questions are the KEY to inquiry.

1 Like

… Thanks Justa! … We both try (if I may speak for you David). :slight_smile:

The Roo image is not photoshopped. It is an image from The 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Contest. The contest raises funds for wildlife and conservation organizations. Enjoy!

other images can be seen at;

4 Likes

Light touch moderation is what I have heard Dr. Farrell state is the current type undertaken in the forum. The forum has 8 members that have “Level 4” and are labeled as “Leaders” by Discourse. Discourse states that they are “almost moderators.” There are people/volunteers in the forum already who may be able to give a slight adjustment.

Trust Level 4 – Leader

Leaders are regulars who have been around forever and seen everything. They set a positive example for the community through their actions and their posts. If you need advice, these are the folks you turn to first, and they’ve earned the highest level of community trust, such that they are almost moderators within the community already.

… maybe we might practice moderating ourselves. A possible place to start … C.S. Peirce observed that there appeared to be a set of characteristics of those he referred to as “Scientific Intelligences”. For Peirce a “Scientific Intelligence” was someone who conducted inquiry in a very particular manner. From various places in his writings one can develop a list of what he thought to be those characteristics. The following is the list as it currently stands. It is not exhaustive, and similar to Lay’s Potato Chips, there may be more.

1.) The ability to engage in SELF-CORRECTION;
2.) The realization that, while NO STATE OF KNOWLEDGE IS PERFECT, still some states of knowledge are demonstrably better than others;
3.) KNOWLEDGE REVISION IS ALWAYS POSSIBLE AND IS EAGERLY SOUGHT;
4.) One is COMFORTABLE WITH DOUBT;
5.) One is EAGER FOR IMPROVEMENT;
6.) One is LOYAL to one’s (in our case Giza’s) community of fellow Objective Intelligences;
7.) One AVOIDS PRECONCEIVED CONCLUSIONS;
8.) One is OPEN TO ALL SIDES of a question;
9.) One is aware of the necessity for MORALLY SOUND COMMUNICATION AND CLEAR TERMINOLOGY;
10.) Devoted to the realization of OBJECTIVE TRUTH.

… I would also suggest boning up on Logical Fallacies so that when arguing we might avoid them. There are quite a few with the most common being Ad hominem - attacking the arguer instead of the argument, Cum hoc ergo propter hoc - correlation implies causation, faulty causation, Petitio principii - using the conclusion of the argument in support of itself in a premise, and maybe the most insidious of all … Equivocation - using a term with more than one meaning in a statement without specifying which meaning is intended.

… not Self-Control but Control of the Self. There is a difference.

… and to paraphrase Russell Crowe in Noah “The Fallibilism is not just in them, it is in all of us.”

5 Likes

The point of my talk is precisely what you said here:

It´s only the ego that can get hurt, the emotional construct who is not strong enough to make irrelevant when someone tries to attack. If you read what the @thebeaver said to that crying baby @WuWu you will see that it was nothing of what he/she alleged.

It´s all there for anyone to check, what the Wuwu personage made was pure theater in order to draw attention, perhaps he/she has some kind of emotional disorder, and needs to be the center of attention from time to time, in order to feel happy. Just do an honesty check of the beaver texts, you will see for yourself that there was no reasonable way of thinking what the wuwu said about.

I personally have no motives to make this case, the beaver person made some very agressive remarks about me in the recent past, but this is life, he/she had the right to say as she/he pleased, and it was up to me to make something of if, or to feel hurt and all those infantile reactions that are inevitable in the emotionaly capped.

If allowed to go unchecked, this kind of dis-honest behavior spread like a pleague, and stops all meaningful discussion. This is the precise tactic of the Woke Mob, which, whenever something says something that they don´t like, or wich is nothing politically correct enough, they cry: “You are hurting my feelings”, “This is an agression”, “i´m not feeling represented”, and etc… and then, the other side is shut out of the discussion.

About this, i respectfully disagree. What can be extracted from any communication depends only on the degree of intellectual sharpness of the sides listening, not on the ones talking. As the ancient sages used to say: “Everything you say to fool and makes it even more foolish. Everything you say to a wise person only makes it wiser”

If there is really something of value in the message, the communication of it without total disregard for others peoples feelings will make no difference, because information does not depend on politeness, neither kindness, neither social skill or tact, if it did, information theory would take it into account, and Machine Learning and other computer technics of information gathering would be impossible.

You do have an honest point, in making that, educated communication, respectful use of words, is much better to convey a message, for both sides, but to make myself dependent on it to talk to another one, is to make myself a slave of those who are not bound by any standard of education, kindness, or respect in their communication, wich is a non-sense, and waste of good information.

If there are people capable of being violent in their ways towards us, we must be capable of being much more violent them they are, so that we don´t become prey in their mind games, as the people who rules the planet, knows that 99.9999% are mere sheep and cattle that wouldn´t try to pose the minimal resistance even if their loved ones were being killed right in front of them.

Theres is no need to cry, or ask for attention like a child with emotional issues, just answer the person who talked with you in the same intensity, or even greater, than they put in their talk.

Wise observation.

Words can influence emotions, but in the end, it´s a choice to feel anything about what someone has said. The person feeling hurt is the only responsible for the feeling. Two people, hearing the same offense, one laughs, the other cries, showing that it wasn´t the words that hurt, but the interpretation of the words that caused the wound.

Not Kidding, lady Alicia.

Attacks are VERY welcome, since they make me grow, both intellectualy and emotionally. I like a lot when someone tries to. I like much more when i´m NOT attacked, but since i deal with human beings, of wich some can be agressive, and even deadly, i learned to use attacks to my advantage, rather as a tool of using my weakness against me.

Feel free to use any kind of communication that better suits you.

“I can’t control what others speak or write, but I can control how I react.”

3 Likes

The chinese have a saying:
“He who asks a question is a fool for 5 minutes. He who doesn´t asks a question is a fool for the rest of his life”.

To be ridiculed is one of the best parts of entering in a debate, of talking in the public arena. It makes us question our information, behavior and way of being, and in the end, you feel very grateful for the people who humiliated you, for they made you a better human in the process.

Have no fear of the rudeness of others, much less of the possibility of being completely ridiculed when talking, instead, go right for it, aim exactly in this kind of reaction, so that, when it comes, you can deal with it like a good joke, just laughing.

Nothing that anybody says can determine what you are, or your worthness, so there is nothing to fear.

1 Like

My personal self regulation posting in forums and pretty much everywhere else in life is keep the ego in check. Seems pretty effective.

3 Likes

FuLnu: My guess is that no forum is perfect, or, free from turbulence. (Wherever a group of human beings are interacting, there is turbulence, even within families, and even within small intentional communities). We’re recent newcomers to the forum world, and while we wince when people insult one another, overall, we appreciate the diverse intellect and different knowledge among the people here. Many of the topics in Dr. Farrell’s books were new to us, we come at them late in life. People on this forum seem to be mixed – some have deep knowledge of these kinds of topics, and a few, like ourselves, have knowledge in other areas, but are now learning about these topics. One never stops learning. If you have topics to explore, we’d love to see them discussed on other threads!

One challenge that I’ve found with the forum (and I don’t know how this compares to other kinds of forums, as we have not tried others) is the rate at which brand new topics get posted every day. For that reason, we do feel overwhelmed with the steady stream of new topics, and simply can’t view them all, and each of us (we’re a married couple) just pick a few, and then discuss some points at the dinner table. I, particularly, love to monitor lively discussions, where people bring forth very different perspectives (those are my favorites!). Especially when the different perspectives are not accompanied by insults. As for moderation, given that this is a private forum, which would not be possible without Daniel and Dr. Farrell, who are both very busy, we embrace the responsibility to try to contribute constructively.

The thing I love about this forum is that there is no Group Think! The monochrome thought patterns of the wider TV-Watching society are quite frightening, and we come to this forum to get a relief from all of that.

“You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave”
"Hotel California" by The Eagles 1976

To quote Clif High, “We live in vulgar times, and I am a man of my time”
F!#, F(@#! S&*% ! :rofl: