[Redrum]

Sorry, Ferrari.....you've been terry-fied.  And in the nick of time, too.  Terry is famous for speaking truth to power, or at least truth to the dominant paradigm on the Bootleg's Current Affairs Board.  Unfortunately, it's too little balance for too long over there.  The only thing salvageable is that we keep the partisan political disease from spreading to here.  Ferrari's post was just a spark and mostly harmless in itself,  but that is how conflagration starts.  The CEB now looks mostly like Hiroshima in both tone and content.  The fuel for the holocaust over there is the wave of links to articles/post/sites that promote one partisan side.  That, in turn, sparks a series of comments by the same cast of characters agreeing and endorsing.  Not much enlightening discussion. Mostly an echo chamber.

I have a problem with that.  I think partisan or elective politics should be treated like ebola  or like an unexploded, booby-trapped bomb.  Messing about with it offers little to gain,  everything to risk for the kind of community we've built here.  I have no problem with disagreement, even strongly-expressed disagreement.  But the internet world of partisan politics offers unlimited other places to start or continue those kind of fights.  But that's not the Cardboard world historically or now, and linking partisan outside sources is an easy away to light the fuse.

By contrast,  In this single thread, the discussion has gone into several topics.  .  And it was reasonable and informative as members gave their perspectives.  I and (I think we) learned a lot.  But this thread was all or mostly all original material thought-through and crafted by the participants.  Also it was mostly personal.  It is very different thing to share backgrounds and the views that come out of those experiences.  Putting in the work to craft a post explaining the larger issues is one thing I can respect.  We have many members who are very good at that.  Posting links to partisan viewpoints (particularly without accompanying personal content explaining the context of why the viewpoint expressed in that link has meaning) is contrary to the main purpose of this board.

Anyway, I'm touchy on this particular subject.  I might be the only one.  But I don't care.  So many larger issues have been discussed here with reason, skill and humor.  Let's keep it that way.

And, as I stated earlier, Ferrari.  It's not personal at all.  You just happened to step on the tripwire.

[Redrum]

Sorry, Ferrari.....you've been terry-fied.  And in the nick of time, too.  Terry is famous for speaking truth to power, or at least truth to the dominant paradigm on the Bootleg's Current Affairs Board.  Unfortunately, it's too little balance for too long over there.  The only thing salvageable is that we keep the partisan political disease from spreading to here.  Ferrari's post was just a spark and mostly harmless in itself,  but that is how conflagration starts.  The CEB now looks mostly like Hiroshima in both tone and content.  The fuel for the holocaust over there is the wave of links to articles/post/sites that promote one partisan side.  That, in turn, sparks a series of comments by the same cast of characters agreeing and endorsing.  Not much enlightening discussion. Mostly an echo chamber.

I have a problem with that.  I think partisan or elective politics should be treated like ebola  or like an unexploded, booby-trapped bomb.  Messing about with it offers little to gain,  everything to risk for the kind of community we've built here.  I have no problem with disagreement, even strongly-expressed disagreement.  But the internet world of partisan politics offers unlimited other places to start or continue those kind of fights.  But that's not the Cardboard world historically or now, and linking partisan outside sources is an easy away to light the fuse.

By contrast,  In this single thread, the discussion has gone into several topics.  .  And it was reasonable and informative as members gave their perspectives.  I and (I think we) learned a lot.  But this thread was all or mostly all original material thought-through and crafted by the participants.  Also it was mostly personal.  It is very different thing to share backgrounds and the views that come out of those experiences.  Putting in the work to craft a post explaining the larger issues is one thing I can respect.  We have many members who are very good at that.  Posting links to partisan viewpoints (particularly without accompanying personal content explaining the context of why the viewpoint expressed in that link has meaning) is contrary to the main purpose of this board.

Anyway, I'm touchy on this particular subject.  I might be the only one.  But I don't care.  So many larger issues have been discussed here with reason, skill and humor.  Let's keep it that way.

And, as I stated earlier, Ferrari.  It's not personal at all.  You just happened to step on the tripwire.