So this is what I posted here earlier ...
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I'm sorry.
I raised an interesting topic hoping for intelligent discussion. I was, perhaps,
testing the waters, thinking that the days of excessive, unnecessary anger were long past. That we can get back to an age of good
exchange.
I was wrong.
I guess this forum will continue to be limited to only the most banal topics that have no weight whatsoever.
Sorry.
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And I have since received
word from several folks that they would like to have another go. And that they promise to be good. And the staff have mentioned that they will delete, delete, delete anything that might bug me even a little.
So ... here is what I propose ...
I would like to see this forum fill up with interesting topics that are of interest TO ME! I would like to find the discussion to have some grit to it and at the same time 100% respect for everybody on JavaRanch.
I think it is possible for some very interesting discussion without people getting snarky.
I would again like to point out
this document about this forum. Especially this part:
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Suggestions for avoiding the horrible offense of a "personal attack":
1) Talk about the issue, not the
thread participants.
2) Avoid the word "you". The word "you" frequently indicates a personal attack.
3) Every person on JavaRanch is without flaw. If a message suggests anything to the contrary, that message is a personal attack.
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And it might not hurt to take a gander at
my fallacy document.
If I can see some examples of this over the next week or two, I'll loosen up restrictions here a bit.
Personally, I rather like the idea of a collection of rather intelligent engineers discussing art, literature, humor, culture, science, etc.
The problem is that it too often ends up too harsh for my tastes and I want to delete the whole forum just to get rid of the ick.
So ... I'm going to unlock this thead and open it up for a bit of discussion.
Does what I describe sound like something you all might be interested in? Can you all stay within the bounds of being civil? If the moderators delete your stuff, will you accept it without complaint?
If "yes, yes and yes" then I'll put that thread back and we'll give this another try.