Ponder This. [very off topic]

[TomW]

Fellow board members:

Yes members, not the web wanderers seeking attention!

Just a few points I would like to share with you to hopefully assist you in seeing this "problem" for what it is.

Before, on the old board we had lots of non registered user posts and most were at least on topic with very few flame wars and personal attacks. The occasional piece of SPAM slipped onto the board but overall it was quite manageable.

Then we got featured in HomePower Magazine shortly after that we got mentioned on http://HTTP://Slashdot.org and by now I am fairly sure we are on the list of Scoop sites.

The trend I see is that we have gotten exposure from our success and that has drawn the lunatic fringe of web wanderers willing to disrupt any community type board simply for the attention it gets them. These people could care less for our passion for home brewed power but many intersperse their diatribe with cool pictures or snippets of ideas that do pertain to the community. The true reason for their [often unsigned] stories and comments has little or nothing to do with our stated purpose.

I submit that many have pulled this same stunt on many boards across the web. I, personally, have seen it on several boards. The pattern is unmistakable.

New people show up with a chip on their shoulder or at least a great desire to argue, generally off topic.


The community tries accommodation.


It does not work.


The argumentative newcomer claims censorship and call people Nazis.


The term Free Speech is thrown around without the necessary modifier responsible.


It causes a huge upheaval in the community and often the community loses good people who just don't want to hear it or be involved.


If allowed to continue the board becomes unusable to those who actually want the information it provides.

Bottom line is:



Lets not let this happen here.



Nobody cares exactly who you are in real life but it is simply courteous to let us know who you are on this board because it contributes to the continuity of your dialog on the board.

Cheers.

TomW

[Norm]

   Right on TomW, What bugs me the most when members fall for these wanderers augumenative comments or questions and answer back...feeding the flames...best way I always found was to just ignore, I've got better things to do in life, Still havin fun in NE Ohio! By the way what does that mean by Norm(on soon) (I can be kinda dense at times) :>) Norm.  

[TomW]

Norm;

Since you are me [according to some] seems redundant to reply to you but here we go:

By the way what does that mean by Norm(on soon)

I think it simply means that the timestamp is not set because you have not posted the comment or story. I could be wrong but its in the spot that would hold the date the comment was posted after you squeeze the trigger on it.

And thank you for your ongoing support in face of these disturbances. I could just as easily [oh, hell, it would be easier] let them win but while I can turn the other cheek at some point you run out and get tired of it.

You may have noticed I generally do not respond to any Anonymous posts lately which has kept me from commenting on some good stories, etc.

Hopefully we are back on an even keel with just normal disagreement over who has created the most watts feeding in, whose is bigger, better etc.

Cheers.

TomW

[Brian]

I agree Tom. I'm sure you remember me as another Tom as well :-). After all the hub-bub here I decided to just ignore it as well. As others have said, it's not easy at times but it helps keep things under control. In my opinion you're doing a good job looking out for the best interests of the board. I look forward to the abolishment of the anonymous hero posts!! Have a good one, Brian.

[Andrew]

Is it me or does it seem like theres a lot of new people on the board?

especially a lot of anonymous heros.

-Andrew

[troy]

Dear TomW,

I am absolutely positively 100% with you on this one.  And I have studiously aimed my nuclear powered ingnore gun on the foolish posts.  Seems to be helping.

Good luck and keep having fun!

troy

[Larsanderss]

I seem to know to few words in english to say what i want...... I agree with You and am trying to ignore (not to be ignorant ??) stupidities and such. Like a lot of other people (i think) i want it all to go on in the nice and funny way without the flaming things. Thanks a lot to all who keep this going.

And at the end i must tell the world that my hot air solar experiment made a new record of 56ºC (probably a lot of ºF, who knows ??) in the air being blowed into my washing machine room in the basement the other day. Just need to increase the size of the collector an the fan to have it going as something more than a experiment. This is one my wife actually likes.

Good evening

Lars A

[hvirtane]

I think that everybody, who posts here is looking for

some kind of attention.

Otherwise they wouldn't post at all?

What is off limits depends on the opinions

of different people.

While I'm thinking that some kind play,

who makes more watts of magnets

doesn't make much harm...

I think that for developing new things

limiting everything to that kind of game...

will not kick much new out.

I agree that it is not an easy task

to admin this kind of board.

One way to put things easy and simple

would be to limit the discussion on the things,

which have already been done and working.

But for visionary people that doesn't make much sense.

Many good ideas have remained very theoretical

for long times, before somebody had the resources

and the interest to prove them.

I think that visionary people,

who are not doing much in practice are

for these discussions important, too.

American culture is a very competitive

and aggressive culture,

so it is the case in my country, too.

Everybody can see, that too much competition

is doing too much harm. It leads into violence easily.

Concerning discussions it leads into flame wars easily.

Often 'the winners' are suffering most.

I've got to know so many kinds of people

that I'm tolerating quite a lot of rude behaviour, too.

My English language ability is limited, so

I can tolerate a lot in English. I just don't care,

if people get stupid by their speaking.

There are many kinds of language cultures, too.

For example in India their English is often very

polite even if their real behavior is very rude.

I just wanted to say that this kind of things need

many kinds of people to be done.

Hannu Virtanen

hvirtane@cc.jyu.fi

[John]

I totally disagree with your first statement. What I see here is that most posts are:

1.)Asking for information,

and,

2.)Freely giving information out of a sincere desire to provide acurate information to anyone who wants it.

So why do I post messages here? It certanly is not because I want attention, but rather it is to share information that I have accumulated through my life time. While I can not speak for others, I believe that many other posters feel the same way.

I'm not trying to start an argument, I just don't like being lumped into the category of "everybody".

Let's keep the knowledge flowing!

John

[hvirtane]

I agree with this that the main posts are:

-------------------------------------

1.)Asking for information,

and,

2.)Freely giving information out of a sincere desire

to provide acurate information to anyone who wants it.

-------------------------------------

But people, who post them want these messages

to be read as well?

It is mainly a question of the definition of the concepts,

if this is seeking 'attention'. My use of the English

language is of course different of that of yours.

-------

I understand, I think, quite well the idea of the original

author of this discussion. He is telling than in his

opinion some of the users had 'a wrong attitude'.

That some users in his opinion are just trying

to make themselves to be 'well-known'?

And that they know too little to speak

about the matters?

I think that concerning the cases, which I've seen

it is not really true. I've seen that there have been

many kinds of people, who post here. Some of them are

young, some of them are a little bit older.

Some of them want to know something, which

is already known, some of them want to invent

even something new. Some of them are defending

some quite crazy ideas strongly, some of them

very sceptical about almost all.

I've been quite a long time involved

in the fields of education.

Sometimes doing research, sometimes teaching.

Sometimes teaching young people,

sometimes teaching old people,

sometimes both of them at the same time.

In my philosophy classes there have been

at the same time people

75 years old and 16 years old.

Some of them priests, some of them farmers,

some of them school-teachers,

some of them school boys.

It isn't always so easy.

I've realized that different people, if we can find a way

they can cooperate can do together a very good job.

They can find really many viewpoints at the problems

to be there for solving. I've realized that there

is really many kinds of 'knowledge',

which can be valuable.

I agree that administrating a website like this is a

very difficult job. I've been administrating some

systems myself.

In my opinion these people here administrating this site

have been doing a very good job. They have found

creative solutions for problems. I agree that

'Quarantine zone' is a good idea.

My opinion is that sometimes the most valuable

ideas are coming out the mouths of people, who

are considered to be quite crazy by conservative people.

How more conservative people here can tolerate them,

I don't know, because I don't know the more conservative

people here well.

I repeat here the text I've written once already:

maybe most of the writings of Newton were about

astrology, but his science wasn't that bad.

Please don't think that everything coming

from the computers of some people,

who sometimes write something,

which isn't so good, is stupid.

- Hannu Virtanen  

 

[Gorilla Boy]

It definitely seems like there are a lot of new people!