A New Forum Please

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Think of it like smoking in a restaurant - it might be your right, but every other ####### has to suffer for your habit.

If you smoke near me, I have no choice but to inhale your second hand smoke.

If you post on a topic that upsets me, I have a choice. I can choose not to click on the thread, I can choose not to read.

[PlatyPius 5]

Nope, you could say whatever you wanted. The only stipulation would be that what was said there, stayed there..... no coming over to VJ and rehashing it. (That's for everyone, not you.)

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30463

ok, what's marmite, 42, and a platypus got to do with it?

If you don't know, then I can't explain....

LOL

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Think of it like smoking in a restaurant - it might be your right, but every other ####### has to suffer for your habit.

If you smoke near me, I have no choice but to inhale your second hand smoke.

If you post on a topic that upsets me, I have a choice. I can choose not to click on the thread, I can choose not to read.

Sure you do - but how often do you have to overhear dinner conversation along the lines of, "I hate asian b*stards", as an exaggerated example, before you either start a fight in the place, or decide to go to a different restaurant entirely?

I don't think consideration of other members is asking too much.

Edited September 5, 2006 by erekose

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

... if you keep overhearing dinner conversation along the lines of, "I hate asian b*stards", as an exaggerated example, before you either start a fight in the place, or decide to go to a different restaurant entirely?

I don't think consideration of other members is asking too much.

It's showing consideration to ask people who want to talk about things they don't like to ghettoize themselves away from the general population?

If there are topic they'd like to discuss, let them post them. The topics that are more active stay on the first page anyway. Let the community decide, by means of post reply counts, what posts stay on page 1 and what posts one has to flip pages to find.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

It's showing consideration to ask people who want to talk about things they don't like to ghettoize themselves away from the general population?

I don't think moving the topics will stop people answering the threads and its hardly "ghettoizing" them.

As someone else mentioned, some of the thread titles are deliberately obscure and ambiguous, so to some extent the 'choice' is taken away from you as to what sort of material you're exposed to when you click on a link.

The political topics have a tendency to be much more aggressive, and have a much lower general adherence to the TOS (in terms of the flaming that goes on). At least if you put them all in one place, someone can make the decision that if they go in there and participate they do so at their own risk. As I said, I'm not sure what the problem is...

What I will say is that O/T has become an extremely unwelcoming environment of late, in no small part due to the preponderance of the political threads.

[rebeccajo 14]

I dunno how I feel about a separate forum. I've gotten the impression that Ewok isn't crazy about creating zillions of 'em.

I can say that when I come to OT and see several topics on the first page with politically-charged titles that I am more likely to go to another forum. It's kinda like walking into a room and being able to suddenly pick up on a bad vibe. Like a bad moon rising or something.

Mind you, to me 'politically-charged' means any topic relating to the war; anything with a middle-eastern reference; anything about fundamentalism (christian, muslim or otherwise; abortion; George Bush; - in other words any issue where people can rarely come to a middle ground.

If I had seen many such threads on here where I felt people could actually discuss and LEARN, I might participate in them. But such is not normally the case. There's not a lot of tolerance for enlightened discussion around here. The posted threads seem to have the intent to inflame. Very Springer-esque.

So - I just leave the room.

[incanada1234 0]

I missed so much good stuff in the last month.

[MrMrsKnight 0]

I dunno how I feel about a separate forum. I've gotten the impression that Ewok isn't crazy about creating zillions of 'em.

I can say that when I come to OT and see several topics on the first page with politically-charged titles that I am more likely to go to another forum. It's kinda like walking into a room and being able to suddenly pick up on a bad vibe. Like a bad moon rising or something.

Mind you, to me 'politically-charged' means any topic relating to the war; anything with a middle-eastern reference; anything about fundamentalism (christian, muslim or otherwise; abortion; George Bush; - in other words any issue where people can rarely come to a middle ground.

If I had seen many such threads on here where I felt people could actually discuss and LEARN, I might participate in them. But such is not normally the case. There's not a lot of tolerance for enlightened discussion around here. The posted threads seem to have the intent to inflame. Very Springer-esque.

So - I just leave the room.

Becca does have a way with words.... Sometimes it's easier to quote her than write about it myself because I agree with her almost every time!

But yeah... again, I agree 100% with the quote above. Just don't read it if you know it'll upset you. Creating a different forum for every hot subject is not practical and I doubt Ewok would do it.

Think with me.... Off Topic is off topic.... and what is the topic? Immigration, right? So everything not immigration related should go there. At least that's what I think....

[clloyd 0]

I don't like smilies and long signature lines. Can I get a forum free of those?

[Welshcookie 17]

I don't like smilies and long signature lines. Can I get a forum free of those?

Board settings is your friend!

[clloyd 0]

I don't like smilies and long signature lines. Can I get a forum free of those?

Board settings is your friend!

Awsome. I didn't know such a feature existed.

Goodbye smilies. Goodbye long signature lines. And while I was at it, goodbye avatars.

[michellek1976 0]

Wow even a simple request to limit the amount of religious dribble gets so much attention.

Is 'Off Topic' where everyone goes when they've had a shitty day and looking to fight?

I agree with you OP. And in reply to comment below: If there are only 3 / 15 muslim related topics on the board, it must the time of day and all middle eastern countries are sleeping. hahahah

Looking at the forum right now only shows 3 out of 15 topics are muslim related. And if no one posts in them they will drop off. It's as simple as that.

Edited September 16, 2006 by michellek1976

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I just read through this thread for the first time, but I remember when Chas first posted it - it was around the time of Steve Irwin's tragic death and he was very active in that topic.

One thing that became apparant to me reading the posts and responses in this thread is that even on this topic, people disagree - and Chas himself is arguing his point. I got the feeling that Chas' biggest gripe about particular subjects being in OT is because they spark a lot of disagreement. The other part that struck me was that he felt certain subjects in OT don't seem appropriate to be discussing outside of friends and family - certainly not in the cyber world.

While I can respect his personal taste and can understand his sentiment, I don't see the necessity for anyone here to have to even read or post in OT. I didn't even know it existed when I first joined VJ, but I stumbled onto it and found it to be like this large waiting room with a bunch psychotic misfits all waiting for their number to be called - like a doctor's office from hell (sarcasm). There's a wealth of goodwill and well wishes in this forum as well as humor. Then there are discussions that lend themselves to argument and there are some people who instigate arguments or compell other's to respond to their posts. As many have pointed out, we humans seem to love drama, so there's that element as well. The reality is that all of us here are already a bit on edge as we go through the immigration process. This forum is a place to vent, to be consoled and to sometimes get your head bit off verbally. There's the art of argument and there's also the grace of walking away from one. This is pretty much in line with how the real world operates.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

like this large waiting room with a bunch psychotic misfits all waiting for their number to be called - like a doctor's office from hell (sarcasm).

More like the waiting room at your local USCIS DO -- trust me, it will do that to you!

[ChristinaM 0]

There's the art of argument and there's also the grace of walking away from one. This is pretty much in line with how the real world operates.

I agree.