I haven’t had much time to spend on the board, lately, and I’ve spent part of this evening catching up with this thread. The September posts reflect a greater camaraderie than some of the earlier ones may have. Informal discourse may be like drama arriving as it often does at prescribed endings. In fact, this may be one of the chief pleasures of certain kinds of conversation. And I take the presence of such forms here as evidence supporting the notion that what we do here is, after all, to engage in an informal discourse.
What has always struck me in Anu’s almost complete absence from the board is his apparent recognition that informal discourse is self-regulating. As far as I am concerned, the “parliamentarian” concerns that have sometimes been raised in this forum are neither more nor less than other parts of this inherent regulatory mechanism. But if the expression of these concerns hasn’t always been out and out belligerent, it also has not always risen to the level of kindness.
It is a perhaps unfortunate quality of language that in use it will generally refer to some *thing. While proselytizing and bar room brawling may not be welcome here, to rule out content would seem futile. If we cannot trust one another to both write and *read posts discerningly, there can be little hope that the kind of dialogue many of the posters to this thread have described enjoying here could ever be realized.
And, to some degree, it has been realized.
For myself, part of the reason I haven’t been around much lately is simply that I’m very busy. But it would be untrue to exaggerate the significance of that. As have others, I have found the board can be hostile. While the discussions here can be informative and entertaining, they can also be careless. And the existence of cliques sometimes seems to harden carelessness into a kind of sport.
I have come to respect many of you enormously, and once eagerly looked forward to what you had to say. I think I can even say I have found friendship here. But it is always hesitatingly that I come, now. More than that—I come with a vague sense of agony.
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I imagine the title (newbie/pooh bah…) business was originally a ruse to get people to post frequently and get the board off the ground. If that is the case—or even if it isn’t—I would suggest titles be abandoned altogether (even at the software level). A tally might be given beside a posters name, and that’s all.
IP
