Forum Civic Duty

[doodle]

Do any of the regulars here participate in other forums (not necessarily related to investing and finance) in an attempt to raise the level of dialogue? I mean, what goes on here is great and I gain immensely from the discussions, but I feel like this successful example of intelligent, respectful dialogue needs to be exported to other internet forums. I've taken on www.gasbuddy.com as a experimental project to try to improve the discussion over there. Judging by what I have read so far by many of the posters, the general understanding of energy and economics is pretty dismal. It is a challenge to try to stay respectful and levelheaded when being confronted by some people.

[Reub]

I hear that M.T. and CraigR occasionally go to the Bogleheads Forums, but that hasn't been confirmed.  :D

[MediumTex]

I don't know if our style of communication here is in any danger of going viral.

[doodle]

I don't know if our style of communication here is in any danger of going viral.

That is a bit of a shame. I am going to try to recreate the style of discussion here on another non-financial forum to see if the level of discourse can be raised. Maybe a slight impetus is all that is needed to shift the culture of mean spirited attacks that persists in the majority of online forums.

[6 Iron]

I don't know if our style of communication here is in any danger of going viral.

I think it requires a critical mass of members devoted to it. This place is remarkable for how truly out of the ordinary a rude post is... It bothers me when I see one here, while hardly registering when I am reading other sites.

[Reub]

As a wise man once put on a bumper-sticker:

"Mean People Suck".

[MediumTex]

I don't know if our style of communication here is in any danger of going viral.

I think it requires a critical mass of members devoted to it. This place is remarkable for how truly out of the ordinary a rude post is... It bothers me when I see one here, while hardly registering when I am reading other sites.

I was sharing this sentiment with my wife and she said that she visited a forum one time that was like that where the topic was women who are having fertility issues and sharing tips and encouragement with one another.

If ever there was a place one would hope for kindness and patience it would be on a forum for women desperately wanting to have children.  It would be a bit discouraging to go on a forum about fertility and find women flaming each other and talking trash about the vitality of their reproductive systems.

Another forum with a lot of friendliness is any one that discusses things related to Disneyworld.  Talking about Mickey Mouse to those people is like giving them a narcotic.

I have found that forums devoted to certain professions can be very collegial, though some can be hostile, and sometimes very small professional differences can bring a very different atmosphere.  For example, in trucking forums, you find an entirely different tone to the discussions among straight truck drivers, as opposed to tractor trailer drivers.  Similarly, low moisture carpet cleaning forums tend to be very civil, while traditional hot water extraction forums can get pretty rowdy.

Ironically, I don't know that much about legal forums, though the ones I occasionally visit in my practice area seem pretty civil.

[jackely]

I appreciate the civility demonstrated in this forum too but sometimes there is a fine line between civility and boredom. Case in point: Facebook. Sometimes I post something controversial there just to see if everyone is still awake. They usually aren't.

Speaking of bogleheads, when I was first researching the PP on the internet and before I found this forum, I read through some closed threads over there about the PP that had gotten to be very acrimonious, due mostly to one individual calling himself CFB, I believe. As nasty and arrogant as he was his challenging questions and put-downs brought forth a wealth of information that I found very valuable in making my own decision to proceed with the PP. If I recall correctly, he was predicting in about 2008 or 2009 that the PP fad would soon fade as gold lost its luster. The fact that he was so absolutely wrong about what he was saying might very well have been the decisive factor in my own decision.

[MediumTex]

I appreciate the civility demonstrated in this forum too but sometimes there is a fine line between civility and boredom. Case in point: Facebook. Sometimes I post something controversial there just to see if everyone is still awake. They usually aren't.

Speaking of bogleheads, when I was first researching the PP on the internet and before I found this forum, I read through some closed threads over there about the PP that had gotten to be very acrimonious, due mostly to one individual calling himself CFB, I believe. As nasty and arrogant as he was his challenging questions and put-downs brought forth a wealth of information that I found very valuable in making my own decision to proceed with the PP. If I recall correctly, he was predicting in about 2008 or 2009 that the PP fad would soon fade as gold lost its luster. The fact that he was so absolutely wrong about what he was saying might very well have been the decisive factor in my own decision.

That's a pretty well-reasoned case for being confrontational with people.

I still prefer a more respectful style of discussion. 

What you are saying reminds me of how apparently it used to be common in university classrooms for there to be a lot of sneering and hostile criticism of less popular points of view.  At some point it may have occurred to people that this process tends to make a lot of people just keep ideas to themselves rather than engage in an emotionally exhausting exchange with a person who just wants to argue.  The other end of the spectrum, of course, is where no one says anything controversial and I don't think that is anything to strive for either.

The one thing I like to minimize is exchanges where the person who is the biggest jerk or has the loudest voice is the one who gets heard the most.  That doesn't seem like a very efficient truth discovery process.