Like a lot of us, I'm active on a certain popular social media site. And for the most part, I enjoy it: It lets me keep in touch with old high school friends, comrades from my career, and relatives in distant places.
Within that site, there are many special-interest pages, and I subscribe to a number of them on a wide variety of subjects: World War II history, aviation history, shooting sports, sports cars, BMW motorcycles, the fire service, etc., etc...
Over the past couple of years, I've watched many of those enthusiast pages deteriorate, as people get personal, or post about politics and other issues unrelated to the subject of the page. Differences of opinion deteriorate into insult-trading, discussions get ugly, and the Administrators and Moderators are constantly playing catch-up, dealing with complaints and outrageous comments. (Holding the opinion that the B-17 was a better airplane than the B-24 doesn't make someone an idiot.)
I recently left a Smith and Wesson group on that page, because of the insults people were lobbing at each other over minor differences of opinion. I felt like I was in a kindergarten classroom, or a bar with too many opinionated drunks.
All of this has made me appreciate even more The Rules here on the Forum. I tell folks all the time about this place, and how refreshing it is to be on a site where civility is the norm and not the exception...I love it!
Within that site, there are many special-interest pages, and I subscribe to a number of them on a wide variety of subjects: World War II history, aviation history, shooting sports, sports cars, BMW motorcycles, the fire service, etc., etc...
Over the past couple of years, I've watched many of those enthusiast pages deteriorate, as people get personal, or post about politics and other issues unrelated to the subject of the page. Differences of opinion deteriorate into insult-trading, discussions get ugly, and the Administrators and Moderators are constantly playing catch-up, dealing with complaints and outrageous comments. (Holding the opinion that the B-17 was a better airplane than the B-24 doesn't make someone an idiot.)
I recently left a Smith and Wesson group on that page, because of the insults people were lobbing at each other over minor differences of opinion. I felt like I was in a kindergarten classroom, or a bar with too many opinionated drunks.
All of this has made me appreciate even more The Rules here on the Forum. I tell folks all the time about this place, and how refreshing it is to be on a site where civility is the norm and not the exception...I love it!
