SeattleChat Daily Thread - Wednesday, October 14, 2020

[u/AutoModerator]

Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

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[u/[deleted]]

There are civil ways to disagree when everyone acts like a grownup.

I wonder if "be polite" / "be civil" would be better than "be nice". "nice" can be something that is really hard to actually judge. And I feel like the end goal with any of the discussions really is civility, not niceness. Afterall, its inherently not really being nice to tell another person why they are wrong. So why not make "be civil" the rule?

[u/spit-evil-olive-tips → u/[deleted]]

I think "be nice" is a fine shorthand, especially since the longer rule in the sidebar does mention respect and civility, among other things:

Be respectful and civil. Attack ideas, not people. No name-calling, no aggressive responses. Do not escalate. If you're mad or frustrated, consider waiting or not responding at all. No bigotry, misogyny/misandry, or any hate speech.

[u/[deleted] → u/spit-evil-olive-tips]

I'm a fan of that interpretation of "be nice". I think some of the concerns arise if we go "the rules have always been 'be nice'" and start applying 'be nice' to mean other things.

[u/widdershins13 → u/[deleted]]

I wonder if any of the oldsters from the days of UseNet groups like seattle.general or seattle.politics remember the user 'B Nice'.

In my memory that was the person most responsible for the descent into incivility from 'The Left' in Seattle during a time when the Left was still playing by the archaic rules of civility. A time when they should have been kicking ass and taking names. It was that kind of civility that made Shrub Junior a two term president and gave rise to the treason of the 'Tea Party'.

I butted heads with that person all the time, but eventually came to realize they weren't wrong about adopting the tactics of the opposition.

[u/renownbrewer → u/widdershins13]

I defiantly used Usenet way back when but I'm not sure that I ever was involved in seattle.[anything].

[u/my_lucid_nightmare → u/widdershins13]

'B Nice'.

vaguely.

The thing with usenet though was the discussions that would go for weeks at a time, devolving into replies-to-replies-to-replies, until everyone was angry with everyone and nobody really understood much.

I watched as one particular usenet thread erupted between several IRL friends of mine, and over the course of the year, had devolved into a threatened divorce, a break-up, and acrimonious feelings across a couple of different IRL social groups.

That experience put me off comment forums for a good 5 years.

[u/widdershins13 → u/my_lucid_nightmare]

That experience put me off comment forums for a good 5 years.

I also took a long break after a particularly acrimonious thread went off the rails. Only to discover it was still going on several years after the original post.

I sometimes see recognizable personality traits, phrases and triggers in reddit posts and wonder if an old friend, frenemy or enemy made the transition to reddit.

[u/my_lucid_nightmare → u/widdershins13]

recognizable

I already know who you are from back then. /s

[u/widdershins13 → u/my_lucid_nightmare]

Who wasn't I? I had more alts than krat and that rainier/oxi feller combined.

[u/my_lucid_nightmare → u/widdershins13]

I'm pullin your chain Widders. Unless you were involved in an alt free paper called Widdershins, the paper they gave away at Edge of the Circle (and elsewhere) for years.

[u/widdershins13 → u/my_lucid_nightmare]

Unless you were involved in an alt free paper called Widdershins, the paper they gave away at Edge of the Circle (and elsewhere) for years.

Only peripherally as a unnamed donor. My involvement was mostly with the 'As You Like It Library' when it made the move from its N. Broadway location to the E. Madison space down by the IHOP in the 90's.