I will try one more time to explain why I decided the way I did.
It's not a secret that I was never a fan of subdividing off-topic discussions into separate forum categories. But I agreed to it and considered it an experiment worth taking.
Then, within only a few days, discussions emerged involving mass shooting, gun control, people killing each other, cheating, "bad" taste humor, and even one on illegal immigrants (which I took the liberty to delete when it was still fresh).
It's not unheard of that, once in a while, a topic like one of those above may come up in another thread. Even at MobileRead. But considering that the conservatory was merely a month old and with the high occurance of those "heavy" topics, it didn't take a genius to understand why long-standing forum members began sending us concerned messages.
Now, before you say again, "Show me an example", let me
quote a passage where Don, a member of our team and also proponent of the conservatory, noted an emerging trend that has caused me so much headache these days.
Dr. Drib:
Quote:
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I’m not going to mention names here, but even in the Conservatory there is sometimes a recurring thematic verbal assault upon one member or another. I realize passions run high, but were some of us raised this way, to be intolerant of other’s views? Generally writing, why does this happen?
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To which Harry, also member of our team, replied:
Quote:
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I think that one of the problems, Don, is that in a forum such as this one has to rely solely on the words. In a face-to-face discussion, you have all sorts of non-verbal cues as to the person's approach - aggressive, friendly, etc. You don't have any of that in this medium, and it's very easy to misinterpret a friendly comment as an aggressive attack. I'm sure that virtually all the "heated discussions" we have here would be perfectly amicable chats if conducted face to face.
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Harry explained it perfectly well. I don't believe that MobileRead is the right place to proactively encourage members to engage in "heated" discussions where members are likely to verbally assault each other. We want to be known as a friendly community compatible for members of all ages and cultures - even if that means that some topics are better suited than others.
The problem with the conservatory was that it was still very young and yet it carried more "heated" discussions involving aggressive attitudes than any other place at MobileRead. To someone who has only recently joined us, invariably it must have given a wrong impression of what MobileRead is all about.
The Lounge, with its diverse set of topics, both happy and serious, is the right place for off-topic discussions. When you begin a new off-topic discussion, feel free to add a note in your thread saying that you would appreciate the discussion to stay on-topic. If you think someone is intentionally disregarding your request, contact a moderator.
