: GEP - Viewing Profile

OffCenter, on 18 May 2013 - 10:25 AM, said:

Put your reading glasses on Jim. What we NOW call "the internet" existed in the 70s, it had other names back then.

OffCenter, on 18 May 2013 - 10:10 AM, said:

We started calling it "the internet" in the 80s. The infrastructure existed long before that, including things like bulletin boards, as Stephen mentioned. You are referring to the commercialized form of the internet, which came into existence in the 90s.

Just want to add one more note .... if someone has seriously offended you on the forum, if you feel the need to do something about it, by far the best thing to do is tell that person directly that they have offended you. You can use the PM (private message) function if you don't want to do it publicly. Written words on the internet have their limits, sometimes it's just a misunderstanding. Sometimes a poster just needs some education about what is offensive to other groups of people.

But what really doesn't work is to generalize the problem as a forum-wide problem. I know this from working in a community studio with about 100 potters. If there is a behavior problem, you cannot just tell the entire population "somebody is causing a problem" because everyone will think "it must be somebody else." You can only correct the problem by directly telling the problem-causer what they are doing wrong.

Mea

OffCenter, on 18 May 2013 - 08:53 AM, said:

For the record everyone, what we now call "the internet" has existed since the early 1970s.

OffCenter, on 17 May 2013 - 06:26 PM, said:

Jim, this is an internet forum. Everyone has the right to come here and do just that. These are your own personal rules for judging someone's credibility, and you are welcome to use them. But everyone else has the right to use their own standards. I like that some here use their real names and photos, but I have no problem with anyone who wants to remain completely anonymous. Heck, there might be natural-treasure-type potters here using a pseudonym. We don't know. Again, this is the internet, it comes with the territory.



Stephen, I agree with others that compared to interent forums in general, this one has a overflow of respectfulness and intelligence and purpose. That doesn't mean it never goes sideways. As a moderator, I believe in allowing people to express themselves honestly. Though I cringe when words like "stupid" and "ugly" are used, just because it is unpleasant, doesn't mean it should be stopped. Everyone else has the right to respond to anything they don't like, either by posting, using the plus/minus buttons, the report button, there are lots of ways to be heard. If you are reading walls of posts in a short time frame, the hostility might seem condensed. But if you stick around long enough to get a long-term view, you'll see how sparse it is. To me it seems that those who are seriously internet-socialization-deficient don't stay very long, because there are too many rational minds here, and they don't get the attention they need. I will note that, although extremely rare, moderators and administrators have dealt with people behind the scenes when there is a serious problem. Go free speech! But yes there is a limit here.

Mea