I heard something today that I hadn't heard before, well from something that couldn't be counted into bias due to on going events, but I digress. What I heard was that SCoD had a reputation of having a "hostile community", it's something I take rather seriously, having worked long and hard in the past to make just the opposite of one and would hope to properly address the issue. Now I'm sure some of the accounts can be dismissed easily as negativity bias too, and some of the recent dramas remain in recent memory, but I don't think it'll hurt anyone to take that extra few minutes to self-moderate themselves like decent beings. Now I was thinking of writing a new post, but instead, I'll copy one of my old posts:
It's easy to get negative in the current global climate, news and the comment sections have become increasingly more toxic over the past year, and are feeding a more polarised perspective on things. It's manifesting itself in two ways:Mr_Otyugh,Feb 28 2017 wrote:I can't help but to notice how we seem to go from one argument to another at a rather fast pace. Now I'm nothing but a huge fan of drama! But sadly I know not everyone can stomach such venue of non-stop intrigue quite as well as I, that and I'm kind of tired of becoming so large number of peoples "fix-it-all" button all the time. So I figured that I'd again make a post trying to urge for unity, this time on the side of how to post and take criticism, because that seems to have been awfully at fault lately.
First of all, lets get one point straight: People aren't obligated to agree or like the changes made. And it is perfectly okay to desire a change. And mistakes are a genuine possibility, although no one is going to be a big fan of hearing such being of their own doing, no you aren't an exception either.
Differing opinions are infact healthy for a community, it'll bring out new perspectives and can improve features in unforeseen manner. However when things become a shouting match, they start to work to everyones disfavor. Something I think everyone need to realise about public discussions is that the general dynamics change. Where arguing to win works in small crowds, arguing to win in public won't achieve the goal, it'll only divide people and get them to talk in their own groups that'll reinforce their opinions. That's not an end goal anyone genuinely wants.
To expand on that thought: In private the more people know you, the better they can put a tone into your words, but when you are dealing with public and large number of people who may or may not be aware of your usual demeanor and thus they will be left to put a tone into your posts with the only thing they have to go by, that is your posts. That's something that doesn't happen with friends, you the meaning of "Go kill yourself :P" changes a lot in meaning if you say it as a friend vs if a stranger just says it to you out of blue. Even if the tone it is said in remains the same. So yes, try to remain mindful of how you present yourself to the strangers.
I tend to be sent a lot of reports of bugs, features or issues and tend to make the case as reasonably as possible when I deem so important. But I can't help but to feel it's becoming unsustainable for me to be a mouth piece for so many, and that's the reason I'm making this post. I do need people to be able to sort out their own issues as well, and that means being reasonable, on both sides of the argument. Here's a few things that are useful:
Elaboration there's few things that can't be solved by just elaborating properly on your meaning and not assuming that everyone knows. Truth is, not everyone are in your friendslist, so they won't be already familiar with the abstract version you might be inclined to give in order to save time. More likely is that you're going to need to still elaborate or be misinterpreted so you won't be saving time anyway.
Try not to jump to conclusions People still do suck at elaboration more often than not, so try not to jump to conclusions, knowing that's the case. People in the opposition probably are not horrid people, even though may not share the same preferences.
Don't trivialize others concerns the moment you do, you've lost their respect. And it's only going to be more difficult to solve the problem without external interpreter/mediator.
Individualize there's definitely a human nature in categorising people. "That guy is with us, that one doesn't agree with us completely so they must be with them", that doesn't help anyone. Try to assume less group-mentality and think for yourself.
Abandon Fruitless Principles if you're doing something for no reason other than principles... lets just say that's probably not helping. If it doesn't affect to you negatively, then you don't need to be aggressively against it. There's nothing wrong with things happening that don't affect you, there are other people also.
Take a deep breath and a pause especially if you find yourself getting frustrated. As much as your senses are telling you to further engage and defend your views, you're probably doing yourself a disfavor by gradually bypassing your inhibitions with adrenaline driven vigor.
The fact remains: we all want the same thing, our methods may differ in how we wish to achieve it, but the end goal is more or less the same. And we will still need to share the same place for it at the end of the day.
- more insensitive manner of talking has been made "acceptable".
- people are getting hyper aware of the #1 and react more easily to defend the values that were, and still are of importance.
My general perspective is that we, as a community, need to try to better have patience to inquire meaning. Not assume the worst of people. And suppose that people have a reason for their opinions. Whether or not those opinions are valid, well that's a matter of individual judgement and discussion.
And remember that integrity is still a base standard that we all still can sustain. If not to be nice to each other, at least for the purpose of being effective, by minimising side-tracking into drama. Trust me, you won't be saving words by shaving off the fluff, then you are just going to start a much longer argument of another kind.
