How about a "Thoughtful Discussions Without Rancor and Personal Aspersions" Forum?

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

I'm kidding, but not really. I suggest it just to provide Skinner and all the Mods an easy out for every person who claims that all discussion on this site has become irrevocably polluted and too painful to participate in further.

I would even suggest a weird modification to this single forum. DO NOT IDENTIFY THE POSTERS. Now, that would provide some real fun and make people respond to the thought of the moment and not have all those, "But what about in April of 2008 and when you were AGAINST lemurs?" replies.

[ZombieHorde]

1. I strongly support a Thoughtful Discussions Without Rancor and Personal Aspersions.

I would read and probably post on this forum often.

Fantastic idea. Recommended.

eta: I don't really care if posters are identified or not because the no personal aspersions rule should forbid personal aspersions.

[redwitch]

2. works for me.

:-)

[Jamastiene]

3. Ah, quit casting asparagus.

:P

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. If it weren't so inside baseball, "No Asparagus" would be a great name! nt

[sam sarrha]

4. so.. it would be a Spelling Nazi Free Zone.... !!

:fistbump: :bounce:

[jmondine]

18. "so" should be capitalized, and "Spelling Nazi Free" should be hyphenated.

[StarfarerBill]

5. K&R

Your idea of anonymous posting is particularly fine. One question, though: would the mods know who was who in order to identify and possibly TS disruptors?

[ZombieHorde]

7. The forum could probably be set up so the mods could see the names. nt

[StarfarerBill]

10. Excellent. A place to post without personalities and animosities getting in the way so often...

...would be sweet. Thanks. :)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

9. I think they always know. After all, they are "them" .

The job of them is to identify those who would disrupt.

Disrupter's would be escorted quickly to the exits, their visas for the forum revoked if they proved incorrigible.

[StarfarerBill]

12. True. But we *all* can see who disrupts now;

in an anonymous setting, the mods would really need to see who's who.

Again, great idea for a new forum; I hope you can make it happen. Thanks. :)

[LooseWilly]

8. I hate you all !! ... Err, I mean... yeah, sure. Sounds good.

I kind of like the face of hostility though, personally.

Just out of curiosity... will posters be banned from the forum for discussions that aren't "thoughtful"? Are we really toying with banning the thoughtless and the dumb from a forum? Isn't that just the Barack Obama Forum? (Oops, violation of rancor and personal aspersions I think...)

[freddie mertz]

11. An excellent idea, including the anonymous forum.. that would be fun.

We could, of course, just try to be civil on all of the threads.

Just a thought.

[EFerrari]

13. LOL!

:applause:

The LatAm forum used to be that way. It was a great place to just get info and talk over situations. Or, maybe I'm having the Golden Age Delusion. :)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

14. You would have to respond to the post and not the poster

It would test us all in a good way.

Your only identity would be your post position in the thread.

The OP would be identified only as "OP"
If you made the first reply, you would be identified throughout the thread as Poster 1.
If you then returned and made the 56th comment, you would still be identified as Poster 1 instead of your usual DU handle.

People could still follow threads, sub-threads and posters comments that way and make sense of them.

You would read a thread and start to think - Hey! Poster number 5 is pretty damn smart. Think how shocking it would be if Poster #5 was really someone you had always jumped on as either a "cheerleader" or a "whiner"? ( Of course, you would never know that, but the Mods could have a good laugh over cocktails at the end of the day over the strange bedfellows and alliances that grew throughout the day once people were not burdened with their preconceived notions)

[villager]

15. Why heck, would this force me to clear my ignore list!?

;-)

The forum's a really good idea, though...!

[woo me with science]

16. Good idea, and here's another suggestion:

A forum where stories and news can be posted, but without identifying the hair-trigger poliical, social, or religious affiliations of those involved.

I would love to see people comment on the FACTS contained in stories about crime, social issues, or political goings-on BEFORE they know whether the person is a Republican, a Democrat, a rich fraternity brother, a Southerner, a Wal-Mart shopper, a vegetarian, a Code Pink representative, a Baptist, or a Unitarian Universalist.

[planetc]

17. Excellent! And "No Aparagus" would also be a great name for a rock band.

Where can I vote for these fine ideas?

Someone above wonders where all the unthoughtful, indifferently civil posters could express themselves. They would have the rest of the board to express themselves on, as they do now.

If the forum were set up so names would be publicly invisible but visible to the moderators, it might give the mods a rich source of amusement, and a database for sociological study, if they were so inclined. Heaven knows they deserve some entertainment.

[jmondine]

19. What kind of frakking, smegging, gorram nerf-herder are you?

[blondeatlast]

20. Enthusiastically endorsed by this purist, apologist, pragmatic, Obama fangirl!

Heck, if I weren't called names, and without my username, I'll forget who I am myself!

[uppityperson]

21. k&r for But what about in April of 2008 and when you were AGAINST lemurs?

[pipi_k]

22. I think it would freak out a lot of people, though...

OK, here's what I saw happen on another online discussion group I used to visit...

A couple of us were not real popular with some of the others, mostly because (IMO) they were younger and many people really don't like the frankness of older women. They don't like that we're so opinionated, or that we won't kowtow and grovel and apologize for having opinions, but whatever...

So a couple of us created "alter egos".

People who disliked us before really didn't have a problem with us when they didn't know who we were behind the pseudonyms.

When they eventually found out, they were horrified.

Imagine!!!!

MAKING them like us!!!!

I don't think they ever really forgave us for fooling them into liking someone they thought they hated.


Anyway, I realize this wouldn't be the same thing, but it just makes me laugh to think that people might be a little freaked out if they found out they were having a reasonable discussion with an anonymous person they would otherwise jump on if they knew who it was

:7

[Fumesucker]

23. Self delete, double post..

[Fumesucker]

24. Welcome to DU..

Obviously you are new to DU and teh intertoobz in general. :evilgrin:

[ZombieHorde]

25. Kick nt

[JVS]

26. Sounds like a troll magnet to me