[Maru]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..I tried putting someone on ignore once just to see what it looked like to have someone on ignore and yeah, it would stop the flow of the thread and topic if the person that was on ignore was someone who was hugely participating and active in that thread so it's not an ideal either, we all have our own self ignore button..our own decision and ability to be able to ignore what isn't relevant and what we think is personal while carrying on with the topic and using the report button if we feel it's appropriate..(sorry Niamh, more work..)...

..in thinking about this a bit I think maybe Cherie's right to some extent in that a lot in SD isn't really that much different to how it has always been in the time I've known it.../different faces but same old story in that there will always be fundamental clashes, it's just part of life and differing personalities etc...and I think it's showing honesty about that as well and accepting any part played..ten people or so might have posted something similar but only one post often being 'picked out' and so often also being responded to with hostility, whatever the topic and whatever the thread...also some posts 'invite' that picking out with 'some people in this thread/some people here' type comments...I mean when two tribes want to go to war as it were and pointedly pick out posts because it's a specific tribe then realistically the ignore button is the last thing that is going to be used because those are the posts that have become all relevant in specifically wanting to see them..and the opposing opinions are fine/they're what help to induce thought..it's just accepting and part of the personal stuff and accepting any infractions/bans etc that might incur there and being too absorbed in whether others got infracted or not...just accepting responsibility really and that any 'fault' was all our own....


...anyways, I think what has been the case though is that this year has been a particularly negative year for news stories and a highly volatile political time as well..the threads have felt samey because the news has largely been samey so opinions to it all will obviously be samey as well...Brexit/USA elections and immigration playing a large part in media reporting with both...so we really haven't has a lot to branch out of and stretch ourselves really...(and also maybe why things do seem as though they're carried from one thread to another because threads can feel 'extensions of other threads etc../the topics so similar and covering the same ground..)...all just a really negative media moved the chyear and uncertain time for us all in so many ways...and I think also, well I'll only speak for myself..whatever is going on in a thread and however side-tracked it may be getting with personal stuff etc...I'll still join it if I want to comment on a topic but the times I don't are more me and maybe I'm in a 'can't be bothered today' vibe, so more my own perspective on a specific day.../that's really all that changes for me...

Lovely post, Ammi. I think worth reading a few times over as lots to read here. Sadly not all will have this mindset, which is why the tools are there to help.

Politics has pushed a lot of things overboard. Though I sometimes think maybe politics has not changed so much, but that we have changed... since political conditions are often in conjunction with such changes. Actually what hasn't changed?... maybe time to start a new thread...

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

I think the answer is to have a BULLSHOT section, where any old posts - full of lies, misrepresentation, false facts, misinformation, propaganda and good old 100% political propaganda can be submitted and left in situ for posterity.

The rules should be simple;

No matter how preposterous the claims in such posts may be, NO ONE is allowed to challenge them.

No matter how easily disproved by GENUINE facts the False Facts in such posts may be, GENUINE FACTS will be disallowed.

Where any genuine facts may evade the vetting procedures which are in place, and actually find their way onto the threads, they will be ignored and the JURY of readers instructed to disregard the said genuine facts.

This should help alleviate the perceived problems a little.

Of course a new dictionary will have to be compiled complete with new definitions of commonly used words.

For instance:

A 'determiner' such as the word 'SOME' - which currently means 'an unspecified number' or 'partial number' when used as a pronoun - shall, when used in a sentence of facts by SOME members (no pun intended) be re- classified as meaning 'ALL' for the purposes of MISREPRESENTATION and creating unwarranted argument by other members, as in:

"Some immigrants are criminals"
"Some Muslims are extremists"
"Some Benefit Claimants are fraudsters"

Oh, nearly overlooked this:

Where genuinely true facts are used in an argument to support opinion, such facts should be disregarded if they do not hail from a Liberal Left leaning newspaper. It should not matter that these facts are mirrored in a hundred other media articles, should STILL be dismissed and not be counted for the purposes of lending hard evidence to substantiate a viewpoint.

"What was that?" "Sorry?" "We already have a section like that?" "It' called what?" "Oh, Serious Debates & News". "Oh. Ok then... Only trying to help".

I have a solution... sadly, it involves Nutella and Gummibears and we've run out.