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As an aside, It would also be a great way to throttle yourself. Eg, I too would love to have the discussions you speak of. Despite this, I often see an escalat

As an aside, It would also be a great way to throttle yourself. Eg, I too would love to have the discussions you speak of. Despite this, I often see an escalation in tone and fight the urge to respond in kind. I often fail at not responding in kind. Doing so of course escalates the conversation, something I've now contributed to, and it will likely escalate yet again. Over and over, until all reasonability in the conversation is dead. If I knew it wasn't allowed, and especially if it gave me some type of non-public meter of how much further I can go before my conversation will be blacklisted/etc, then people like me have clear visual feedback over .. well, not being such a douche. It would be like having a state patrol a few lanes over on the interstate. If one is around, most people behave quite well, because we can all see what will happen if we step out of line. Likewise, our speedometer gives us the visual feedback to know what is out of line (with regards to speeding of course). It would feel very weird at first, especially if the system was not perfect, but at it's root I think it's needed for us to be able to discuss sensitive topics. Which, tend to be the ones we need to discuss the most.

dsfyu404ed 9y ago
So you would rather sit in a traffic jam because everyone is scared they'll be the one who gets made an example out of for behaving normally? That's what having visible cops patrolling the highway devolves into and it's pretty terrible. I'm not sure if your opinions are bad or you just made bad comparison.
- mcguire 9y ago
  Plus, you're ugly and your mother dresses you funny.
- nitrogen 9y ago
  Your last paragraph is definitely uncivil. The other two, maybe borderline uncivil in tone, though accurate in reality.
- notheguyouthink 9y ago
  I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was promoting/supporting this (or maybe I misunderstand you). I was talking about a tool to monitor yourself if a forum existed where users were banned/etc based on civility. Ie, a speedometer, in the car example. In the case where there is a forum that requires civility, yes I do want a tool to help me stay civil. Likewise, I also like having my speedometer. It's nice to know when I'm speeding, and when I'm not.
sametmax 9y ago
It's like forcing everybody to eat lettuce in a restaurant because some clients are on diet. It's horrible.
- OtterCoder 9y ago
  This is an excellent example of comment escalation.
  - devrandomguy 9y ago
    I disagree, and I'm glad we can do that :) IMO, analogies are fair game, and a useful tool for simplification. They can also work well for highlighting hypocrisy, when a supposedly universal rule is not being applied as widely as we thought it was.
    - OtterCoder 9y ago
      I understand what you're saying, but not all analogies are useful. I've seen variations on the diet analogy applied to vulgarity or pointless offensiveness fairly often, and I think it's a pretty poor one. There's nothing wholesome or 'meaty' about vulgarity. It raises the temperature of the argument and doesn't contribute useful information. It's more akin a diner pouring pig slop on a restaurant table and insisting that it's the other patrons' fault for finding it impossible to eat in those circumstances.
      - devrandomguy 9y ago
        Ah, so the problem is hot-button topics, not analogies. That is a bit more complex. It is hard to know where to draw the line between the listener being over-sensitive, and the speaker being a sophisticated troll. Dang and I actually butted heads over that one a few weeks ago. I think it is just as important to take things at face value, instead of assuming malice, as it is to be sensitive to other people's issues (for lack of a better term). I've actually had decent results debating obvious trolls, just by postponing emotion, identifying and avoiding assumptions, and focusing on the actual meaning of their statements.
deleted 9y ago
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dsfyu404ed 9y ago

So you would rather sit in a traffic jam because everyone is scared they'll be the one who gets made an example out of for behaving normally? That's what having visible cops patrolling the highway devolves into and it's pretty terrible. I'm not sure if your opinions are bad or you just made bad comparison.

mcguire 9y ago
Plus, you're ugly and your mother dresses you funny.
nitrogen 9y ago
Your last paragraph is definitely uncivil. The other two, maybe borderline uncivil in tone, though accurate in reality.
notheguyouthink 9y ago
I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was promoting/supporting this (or maybe I misunderstand you). I was talking about a tool to monitor yourself if a forum existed where users were banned/etc based on civility. Ie, a speedometer, in the car example. In the case where there is a forum that requires civility, yes I do want a tool to help me stay civil. Likewise, I also like having my speedometer. It's nice to know when I'm speeding, and when I'm not.

sametmax 9y ago

It's like forcing everybody to eat lettuce in a restaurant because some clients are on diet. It's horrible.

OtterCoder 9y ago
This is an excellent example of comment escalation.
- devrandomguy 9y ago
  I disagree, and I'm glad we can do that :) IMO, analogies are fair game, and a useful tool for simplification. They can also work well for highlighting hypocrisy, when a supposedly universal rule is not being applied as widely as we thought it was.
  - OtterCoder 9y ago
    I understand what you're saying, but not all analogies are useful. I've seen variations on the diet analogy applied to vulgarity or pointless offensiveness fairly often, and I think it's a pretty poor one. There's nothing wholesome or 'meaty' about vulgarity. It raises the temperature of the argument and doesn't contribute useful information. It's more akin a diner pouring pig slop on a restaurant table and insisting that it's the other patrons' fault for finding it impossible to eat in those circumstances.
    - devrandomguy 9y ago
      Ah, so the problem is hot-button topics, not analogies. That is a bit more complex. It is hard to know where to draw the line between the listener being over-sensitive, and the speaker being a sophisticated troll. Dang and I actually butted heads over that one a few weeks ago. I think it is just as important to take things at face value, instead of assuming malice, as it is to be sensitive to other people's issues (for lack of a better term). I've actually had decent results debating obvious trolls, just by postponing emotion, identifying and avoiding assumptions, and focusing on the actual meaning of their statements.

deleted 9y ago

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