Mick -- Please Read

[guest]

Hi Mick,

Is there anyway to start a forum for those who want to bicker about something? If you show me how, I'll be the moderator that moves the whiny posts into the forum. I'm not joking about this and am very serious!

You've worked way too long and hard to lose viewers/readers due to this place turning into another rec.skydiving. Many, many experienced jumpers don't even waste their time coming here because of the constant bickering.

Please post and let me know if you'll be willing to do this and I'll send you an email so we can get started.

Preserve the Board!!!

[imported_Tom Aiello]

In the time I've been reading this board, Mick has tried this three (I think) times. He's established forums to discuss "events" (i.e. everyone complaining about Bridge Day, Petronas, whatever), as well as creating a "real" BASE board (where you had to log in, and were not allowed to post anonymously).

Unfortunately, everyone always came back to this board. Maybe it's time to try again, but I don't give us high odds of success.

My personal strategy for raising the quality of discussion on this board is usually (sometimes I lose control and just fire up the flames):

1) Always respond to honest questions from new jumpers as openly as possible.
2) Never post just to ridicule or antagonize people.
3) Always sign my name and email address.
4) Use the board sparingly, and private email a bit more, to call people when I think they are out of line.
5) Ignore anonymous bashing posts.
6) Never post to a thread which has devolved into senseless bickering (as that just brings it back to the top).

In the time I've been here, I've seen the number of people following these kind of basic courtesy guidelines increase. When I first started reading, it was pretty much Space and 311, now there are other posters like myself, crwper and you (except I still don't know who you are) who are regularly posting useful, thoughtful and courteous things. Several people are in both camps (D-Dog for example), but seem very positively influenced by both peer pressure and peer example.

I think that we can (slowly) reach a critical mass of regular readers and posters who are considerate, thoughtful and courteous. In doing so, I think that peer pressure is probably our best weapon (although I admit that if I were moderating this board, I'd remove far more posts than Mick does--I just don't have his impressive self restraint to allow freedom of expression).

--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com

[guest]

>3) Always sign my name and email address.

Not everyone who uses this board wants thier name posted to be added to some NPS or other law enforcement list. I appreciate the anonymity.
-anon

[imported_Tom Aiello]

>>3) Always sign my name and email address.
>
>Not everyone who uses this board wants their name posted to be added to some NPS or other law enforcement list. I appreciate the anonymity.

Easy solution. Don't post meaningless personal attacks. No one really minds anonymous posts (like yours) that make reasonable points and contribute to the discussion.

It's when people use anonymity as a shield for attacking other jumpers (as opposed to hiding from the law) that things get out of control.


--Tom Aiello
tbaiello@mac.com