Wow - this really exploded into something substantial.
1) My observation/guilty admission: I think we're way more alike than we want to admit. I think the board has a culture of tolerance and diversity, but over the years, there is a definite critical mass that drives what is "kinky", what types of posts are appreciated, and the like. Honestly I think it's less about the big posters as individuals than it is about the collective agreement you see here.
I first noticed this among the moderators... I don't know if this is giving away secrets about the back room, but many of the discussions in the staff-only forums are marked by tremendous amounts of agreement. Every once in a while there are outliers and of course there's always one or two people who rub each other the wrong way, but I rarely see people really hashing things out in a deep way anymore. This same thing is mostly true in the rest of the site. In fact, I really think it is the exceptions that prove the rule. Remember the cousins thread in sexuality? Perfect example of the inertia that had to be overcome before the thread took off, and how long did that take?
2) I totally agree that there are just too many forums here. Conversations are fragmented and people don't respond to things that are in scary areas. Like Charlatan, I browse through the new post button, but not everyone does. Ever notice how politically minded threads live much better lives (with more posters) when they're put in GD?
3) C:A - I guess I just don't get what the hullabaloo is on this. I'm confused as to why it is TFP people not at TFP. And why do people think that things that happen over there don't affect relationships here (or at least why was there surprise about this). I can't see how it could really hurt anything, but it is kind of a strange relationship between the two spaces. I say keep the porn here. It's part of the human experience. If there's really an issue with NSFW stuff, can we create a cookied option in the user cp that allows NSFW content to be hidden (sort of like you can do with avatars)?
4) Evolution is a great catchword, but do we really agree on anything about what it means? We throw it around so much, but it only seems to vaguely indicate tolerance (which we're mediocre at past a certain point) and diversity (which we actually don't have a lot of).
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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam
Last edited by ubertuber; 02-03-2007 at 09:28 PM..
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