Hi All,
expanding on what Allan posted, I would suggest don't forget this is
the Internet.
I've posted on quite a few forums and Birding-Aus is really quite tame
and people generally very helpful, if somewhat easily distracted into
mundane threads like myself. I don't recall seeing any real full on
flame wars or other such phenomenon that happen elsewhere. (If you
don't know what a flame war is look at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_%28Internet%29 )
People vary in their skills with the written word and can come across
as blunt, pedantic or even bullying, even when that is not the
intent. Forums or mailing lists are also somewhat anonymous, where
some people may be more inclined to blunt or unpleasant than they
would in other situations. Then there is the lack of body language,
intonation, timing which can change a message or convey sarcasm or
humour that doesn't happen real well in typed responses, so make it
easy to step on toes without realising it. This is common to every
internet forum/mailing list I have come across to a greater or lesser
extent.
Then there are the reports from people getting personal emails with
abusive/bullying replies. I haven't received them on birding-aus, but
have received them from other forums once or twice, on one occasion I
received a near immediate retraction/apology. Unfortunately this is
part and parcel of participation in internet forums, the anonymity
encorages some people to behave this way, it's generally only a small
percentage but they tend to be highly visible and can easily taint the
whole feel of the forum.
My suggestion is that there is little you can do about people who
misbehave on forums other than ignore them, set your mail filter to
delete their posts before you read them and enjoy the posts that
interest you. A little bit of moderation and calling people to order
does help but really on an internet mailing list where you can send a
personal email at the touch of a button there is little you can do
about it, other than recognise there are those in the world, who
behave that way and be prepared to delete their mail and ignore them.
It's no different to selecting your friends in real life. In other
words don't let the misbehaviour of a few upset your enjoyment of what
is on offer from everyone else.
A forum type environment allows greater control compared to a mailing
list where personal emails are visible, you can hide email addresses,
using personal messaging instead and many forums allow blocking of
messages from individuals and moderators can definitely intervene and
deny access to people who refuse to play nice. But even on a forum
I've seen people take offence at a post and leave even though they
obviously enjoyed participating.
Seems to me you have to be a little thick skinned to get the most out
of internet forums. My philosophy is to ignore the 1% of bad apples
and get on and enjoy what is on offer.
regards,
Chris Ross
Helensburgh NSW
"There are different personalities in the group and it sometimes means
that the
words don't always come through softly even when the author means it
that way,
you can't change what others say only our own response.
Happy Birding
Allan Richardson
Morisset NSW"
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