Can I borrow your "cellar rule book"?

[lumberjim]

I am not aware of the existence of a cellar rulebook. Nor am i aware of a charter or a mission statement. As far as I am concerned, the whole point of an online message board, is to meet people you would otherwise never meet, and have discussions about whatever; whenever.

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about what should and what should not be included in the forums. There has also been talk about contributing to the "community" vs. seperating threads into user forums. Juju commented recently that where the cellar he enjoyed was comprised of more serious, lengthy threads about deeper topics, lately, he has lost interest because there has been an inordinate amount of idle chit chat. Wolf, in her wisdom, replied that this too shall pass.

Bruce, I felt, very rudely, posted "chatter " in each of the threads in my new forum. As i expected, when i asked him to tell me what was on his mind, he ignored it. This is harmful behavior at best.

I could delete those posts. but i won't. i don't think there should be any restrictions set upon the content here. nor should there be pressure applied that would make someone think twice about posting what's on their mind.

I am left to assume that by his comments, bruce thinks that I post too much, or i am posting idle conversation as opposed to stimulating content. Aside from the whole Pot calling the Kettle black thing, (which i won't get into because i really don't care if bruce posts every other post on every other thread) it forces the people who read that kind of shit to then decide how they feel about it, and which side of that issue they are on.

Do you agree that Lumberjim posts too much, or chatters; or do you think bruce is just being a hammer. How does one follow a post like that? If you post to that thread, are you, then chattering too? Can we assume that chattering is a bad thing?

HP made a little stink about the recent addition of the two new user forums. He has opinions about how they should be used. He stated his thoughts plainly without dumping on anyone, and we talked about it and that was that. i think we all understand what those forums should be about, and the discussion on that thread helped to identify people's expectations regarding them.

I'm relatively new here, and there are several " inner circle" members that have been here much longer. IMO time spent on these boards does not make your opinion count any more than someone who registered this morning. if anything, the "older" member has "older" views that need to be challenged periodically by new members or they will get stagnant and contribute less to the forum. I'm new enough that i still have new (to me) ideas for thread topics. just search new topics and count how many of those thread i've started.

Discouraging conversation about a topic you've already discussed or referring someone to the old thread does nothing but discourage the person who is interested, and the people that did not see the old thread from talking about it further. The new guy might have a unique perspective about the issue or just a different opinion. This also makes them think twice about starting another new thought for fear of being "rejected" again. Juju and Wolf are both guilty of this. Isn't the reason you log into the cellar to talk about what's on people's mind right now?

My message is this:

IN MY OPINION:

Post whatever you want, whenever you want. don't censor yourself or allow others to censor you. If you want a topic discussed, start a thread. If you want a series of topics to exist in an organized manner, present your intent to the forum administrator and ask for a user forum....
And if you are not interested in a topic DON'T FUCKING READ IT! and don't post a shitty comment that could make others think twice about contributing their thoughts to it.