Originally Posted by Lex

Seconded.

Anyone who posts an opinion should be prepared for that opinion to be challenged or seconded. There is no freedom from the thoughts of others on a board where you voluntarily share your opinions.

Here is the problem: with the volume of postings on the board, there is no way for any moderating team to effectively, efficiently and equitably police the board for "nastiness." And what IS nastiness anyway? Just because you say something nicely does not mean you are being nice or saying something nice. People confuse disagreement with dislike and agreement with support. Those words are not synonymous.

Those who can have and enjoy a good debate/argument (with an occasional insult) should not be relegated to not posting or carefully editing their postings because some people like to enjoy a unidirectional freedom of speech. Some of the most thught-provoking threads have been our heated debated about religion, orientation, discrimination, etc. That rich discourse can only happen when people feel free to speak openly. And that freedom to speak cannot be couched in feeling "protected" from dissenting opinions.

Forgive me, but I was raised to NOT dumb-down my conversation and debate.

People need to take responsibility for their own enjoyment of the board (disengage, take a break, use the ignore feature, learn to accept disagreement and dissenting opinion),as they need to; it would go a long way towards helping the board. The moderator actions (e.g., jumping in when people feel victimized) serve only to enable people's learned helplessness, not empower them to participate in conversation, discussion, and debate.

Do children ever learn to solve disagreements if mommy and daddy are always run to for intervention? All the actions have done is teach people to run to you when there is a perceived problem.

And I totally disagree with the assertion that I have to respect everyone unilaterally. That is complete nonsense. Respect is earned, not freely given. There are plenty of people here and in real life who have not earned my respect (or who have lost it).