TexasCHLforum.com

In the last few days the general tone of this board has turned away from the friendly, helpful, compassionate fun place it usually is. Why is this? Have we become so jaded that we feel we can say whatever we want if the poster or subject doesn't fit our "little box". Just the other day Charles had to lock a thread and apologized for the way the OP was talked to. Folks, I'm not pointing a finger but please think before you post. People come for advise not to be preached to operate from the "adult" ego state instead of the "parent" or "child". That locked thread I spoke of may have done more damage to our credibility than any of us can imagine. Not mention, what it may have done to the whole CHL movement.

I hope everyone will look at what they have written, think about it, edit it if necessary, then hit "submit"

Mojo - I appreciate your concern. Overall, I don't think that there is any downward trend on the forum. With so many different members and diverse topics we hit a bump in the road every now and again. Sometimes things get a little out of hand, but we always manage to bounce back. Usually a gentle nudge from the moderators and from forum members like you puts us back on track.

One of my friends posted this a few weeks ago:

‎"Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down. It's staying down that's wrong." —Muhammad Ali.

Mojo, it's interesting because I had the same impression lately. Something just hasn't felt right about some exchanges lately. Nothing I can put my finger on, but just a feeling.

Lately, over the past couple of months, I have noticed a reluctance on my part to post on anything other than a very few simple gun-related topics, for fear of ridicule, such that I put down the keyboard (of course, that alone may have improved the forum immensely ). Maybe I would have deserved an ad-hominem response, so I can't say it's anyone's fault other than my own. I have begun ignoring the political/off-topic forums for that reason, again for my own personal (selfish) reasons!

MoJo wrote:In the last few days the general tone of this board has turned away from the friendly, helpful, compassionate fun place it usually is.

Oh, shut up.

Our forum has generally been very civil to both new and oldtime members.

I believe I know which thread it was that had people's opinions becoming a little
coarse towards the OP, who had a family issue and had solicited our advice.

We can disagree, but let's not be disagreeable.

Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Keep in mind that it's a lot easier to run other people's lives than it is to run our own. :-)

SIA

Pacifist wrote:

MoJo wrote:In the last few days the general tone of this board has turned away from the friendly, helpful, compassionate fun place it usually is.

Oh, shut up.

^^^^^^^^^^^^


Pretty good.

But seriously, I know the thread spoken of...and I agree...parts of it were handled quite poorly, BUT it is rare for that type of thing to happen here.

I disagree that any "general tone" has changed and most certainly the "entire CHL movement" has NOT been affected.

The post in question did not reflect well upon certain persons...no doubt about that, but it is NOT representative of what you normally see here. This is a great site and will continue to be so.

Always good to gently police our own though....and Kudos to Chas. for stepping in and trying to make things right with the OP.

I have say I saw a thread where the OP, a newcomer I believe, asked for some advice and instead got a bunch of smug assumptions about his age and character, and sanctimonious pushback about why it was really his own fault, and it was appalling. I typed up a reply but I was so angry I let it sit overnight -- and the computer rebooted and I lost it. Just as well. It did cause me think reconsider why I spend time on this forum, an internal debate I am still having. And I don't think it was quite as rare an occurence as is should be.

OldSchool wrote:Lately, over the past couple of months, I have noticed a reluctance on my part to post on anything other than a very few simple gun-related topics, for fear of ridicule, such that I put down the keyboard (of course, that alone may have improved the forum immensely ). Maybe I would have deserved an ad-hominem response, so I can't say it's anyone's fault other than my own. I have begun ignoring the political/off-topic forums for that reason, again for my own personal (selfish) reasons!

I admit it's me, I've only been here a few months and I have managed to make all post evil!

On a serious note. I find is forum very well mannered in responses, subjects, and moderation. Any one who has been to any other gun forum can tell you that some of them are no better than a mob mentality(cough Arf cough), or moderated so heavily that anything other than rainbows and unicorns praises leads to banning. Neither of those type of forums I enjoy going to.

As for the thread that the OP was referring to. It seemed to be only one poster who got judgmental, it's the Internet and it happens. Other members posted they didn't approve and for the most part it was done and over with. Unfortunately it seems the original poster in that thread took it a little too personally.

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:Our forum has generally been very civil to both new and oldtime members.

I believe I know which thread it was that had people's opinions becoming a little
coarse towards the OP, who had a family issue and had solicited our advice.

We can disagree, but let's not be disagreeable.

Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Keep in mind that it's a lot easier to run other people's lives than it is to run our own. :-)

SIA

I do not believe that the post you believe is at fault is locked, therefore it must not be the post MoJo was referring to. Then again, with what I have seen in this forum, I wonder if the membership in general is aware of the increase in trolling occurring on many forums across a broad spectrum of subjects. Still, without a link to the offending post, I am left to speculate as to the behavior members are accused of. Left to MY imagination, I can formulate a huge list of possible scenarios in which new and old members could innocently become involved.

If we are to spank the members, let's also remember the words of the most read book in history: "...all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of GOD."

PS: I am under the assumption that this is still a CHL and firearm forum; thus I wouldn't be expecting to post a conspiracy theory or something more appropriate for a reality tv forum nor would I be expecting to find such here. I prefer to believe the long time members are largely innocent.

I'm going to bump this just in case anyone missed this or has any more comments. Since I am fairly new here, I am interested in the opinions.

...nothing wrong with strongly expressed differing opinions...sometimes the parties all part still feeling the same...sometimes opinions are changed...sometimes new info is learned...but whatever happens in a thread, there's no excuse for mean-spirited ex-wife-type sniping and belittling comments...not to be confused with jesting and joking...and most times we all know the difference when we read it...ain't nobody here better'n I am...and ain't nobody wusser'n I am...so respect should be the order of the day...there is a way to tell someone you totally disagree with their idea without denigrating them...usually a cheap shot is taken when there's nothing valuable to be said...those contribute to the uneasy feeling spoken of earlier...they just don't add anything to the discussion...kinda like bustin' wind in the Sunday School class...speakin' of which...that old Golden Rule would heal this problem nicely...Do to others as you would have them do to you...

This is one of the tamest forums on the internet. You should round out your view by looking at some of the other fodder out there and you will realize that this forum is ran well and quite tame, even when people make snarky comments and/or use the "dreaded" dead horse icon

...we have...and that's why we're here...

KaiserB wrote:This is one of the tamest forums on the internet. You should round out your view by looking at some of the other fodder out there and you will realize that this forum is ran well and quite tame, ...

speedsix wrote:...we have...and that's why we're here...

x2

I think recent legislation bills have gotten everyone on this board into battle mode. Maybe there has always been a sense that people with differing opinions need to be brought in line, but now these attitudes have a tangible reward besides winning an argument on the Internet. Are we heading down an irreversible path of callousness? of course not. Should we be mindful of what we say and how we act? Always.