Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Have we Forgotten?



It seems to be the time in which a heated discussion can not take place in an Internet forum. I am talking about magic here. And I am not only talking about the Magic Cafe. But it seems to happen more often there than anywhere else.

To all those soft magicians out there: Believe it or not, even a heated discussion, even a flame war can end well. Often, very often threads disappear or get closed. Why? Because the discussion got a little personal, maybe someone got offended. But why close the thread? Why delete it?

Among grown people a dispute is a common thing. And we have learnt how to resolve such a heated issue. By listening to our opposing partner and, after reevaluating the own opinion, by comparing new arguments with ones own thoughts, possibly formulating a new concept or defending the own opinion, we respond.

Sometimes the opposing partner is a person who is just a moron or an asshole, which still leaves us with the option of ignoring that person. Have we forgotten that age old way of handling a dispute?

No we have not, yet the administrators of such forums feel, that a deletion or closing of a thread is better then letting others get the impression that the members of the forum actually have an opinion.

6 comments:

Andrew Musgrave said...

I read on Dead Magicians Society that you wrote the Vernon routine is flawed? I couldn't find it. What happened? How did it play out?

Zeno said...

http://weeklymagicfailure.blogspot.com/2009/10/some-little-thought.html

Andrew Musgrave said...

Ha! Ok, I'm just confused, then.

When I saw this post about disagreements, I thought it had something to do with what DeadMagiciansSociety guy was talking about, but that thread was generally civil.

Never mind. As you know, I'm not a very smart guy.

darkstar said...

I was just using Roland's statement as a humble example. Really my point was simply that his opinion is just that, and though I'm a Vernon zealout, I thought his case was valid, and the last thing on my mind was to go off with the somewhat normal "you must suck cause Vernon is the man no matter what".

You just see that kindof aura a lot onlne. That was truly my mind set and point of that article. I've openly dissed Harris ROUTINES and in the end became a personal "well aren't you god.....what are your crudentials". A fan fare of cheerleaders if you will.

I'm pretty void at run on sentances.

darkstar said...

For what it's worth also. Some of the best forums are closed to the general public. Of course they all need rules, but for the most part candy asses usually aren't around those places. Many forums don't understand debate.

We should realize too a large part of cafe is about marketing. Most privates aren't.

Marc Mayhem said...

the folks over at Magictalk.com have committed themselves to NOT censoring and playing the Brookenheimer of the Cafe routine. SO far they are living up to it.