Bob gets the point. Bob got the point on post one. Bob thinks that lots of people saying bad things about someone is relevant, but not in itself a good process.
During the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic of China the Red Guards came up with things called Mass Democracy Meetings, where a crowd would gather and denounce a comrade for this or that failure to follow the teachings of the chairman, afterwards prompt action was taken to make sure that they never again had to opportunity to fail to follow those or any other teachings. Certainly, the mass democracy meetings were effective in a kind of way, but not a good one.
Yes, when participating on DPR, I gave up my right to call people morons even if they deserved it :).
Everything would be better if more people would adopt Thailand's attitude where expressing negative feelings emotionally is a sign of weakness (which it is).
I am one of those who values freedom of speech, thought and action with the usual caveats that any freedom must have.
But there are societies and cultures where authoritarianism is accepted, and shockingly, welcomed even. It is hard to make an absolute rule about it - I guess the best one can do is to state clearly what values this site stands for, without getting into the right and wrong of it.
I didn't get into the rights and wrongs of it - I just put it out there without any valued comment. People are free to dress it in their own values.
Plus, there is the little factor that thinking that authoritarianism is a problem in North Korea has a measurable effect on your life expectancy, which maybe increases the motivation not to think of it as a problem. Also said without any valued comment.
along with that right goes their right to sue you for defamation if it's not true. It also rather affects the attitude of your interlocutor and the direction of the resultant conversation.
Why do you think that you even know what you are trying to understand (what was happening behind the curtains), and that what he tells you has any information value?
I'm hopeless a learning by rote - so my learning style has always been to make a mental model that gives the right answers. Luckily, in some areas very clever people have been there before me and provided it on a plate. When it comes to people, I've found that with lots of people I simply can't work out what to expect from them. Sometimes, if I talk enough I see how what they say and do fits together. It's quite a useful thing to do if you're having a problem interacting with someone - try and see things from their point of view.
Of course it has information value. Talking to Hitler would have information value. The question is rather what is the value of the information?
You apparently never had a moderator at DPR harass you for expressing viewpoints contrary to their own. I did and it's still ongoing.
I was never banned because I didn't violate the rules. I was and am being harassed there, but I'm not easily impressed, bullied, or intimidated. I was there to express my viewpoint, not to join a club or find a leader to follow.
I can't speak to other forums there. I participated almost entirely in the "Medium Format Talk" forum.
Replying to myself, directed at @TheDavinator I’m sorry for the snarky reply. We put one of our dogs down today and I’m obviously in a terrible mood. Sorry again.
Sorry to hear. Always terrible when you lose a pet. As anyone who has had one knows, they're a member of the family. And they just don't have a long enough life span.
Have to agree with this. We lost an otherwise still healthy cat that had turned 18 years old to cancer a couple of years ago, and all those years felt almost like a blink of an eye. It's enough to put anyone in less than ideal state of mind. At least us photography-inspired people have lots of photos to remind us what we've had and lost, even though it's bittersweet.
I had some minor communications with moderators. I followed your posts on MF and can imagine that your discussion with moderators was different than mine. We have different communication styles.
Well, I think calling people out is fine and dandy, and don't feel any the less of myself when doing so. But just saying "you're stupid" is somewhat boorish. It's better to take the high road, and instead give them more opportunities to demonstrate it. : )
Not in the US, apparently. Or am I once again of making the mistake that I am not rich enough to call people a pedo without repercussions?