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I’m not sure I am comfortable with the latest SSM post. It starts as a poll, and it essentially is a badly flawed argument we’ve discussed already. Anyone agree with shutting it down gently by redirecting comments to the existing thread about SSM? I split this out as a new thread, since it is about a different user and topic. I deleted the poll, which was pointless. I will send them a message letting him know why I did that. I will also let him know we are considering merging his idea back into the old thread or adjusting it to focus the conversation.
I have a clear idea of what I see is the problem with his thread. It is a lengthy argument about what the Church should or should not have done, and why. Or also decide in absolute terms whether it was right or wrong to support the Church’s position. We aren’t here to define the one correct viewpoint. We are working on dealing with our relationship with the Church organization from many individual situations.
This new thread is setting up for an intellectual debate with winners and losers.
I suffer from a completely odd reaction to this topic. It isn’t that I am uncomfortable with either side of the argument. I think it runs in hopeless, endless circles, and all the passionate debate goes nowhere in the end. This topic just makes me shut down… It’s the only topic that does that to me. I am completely apathetic about discussing it.
I *DO* think it is valuable for other people to run through it. I also think for diversity sake, we should let JCL promote the opposite view somehow.
Just how to do it without turning it into a debate with a winner and loser?
bleh … so JCL chopped out a couple sentences, posted it again anyway, and then pasted in the rest in response as soon as the first person replied.
I think we should let it go for now, for diversity’s sake.
I am not sure I totally like his approach. It seems more like a post that plants a flag in the ground, marking where the one truth is, anticipating attackers to mobilize against them.
I almost screamed when I saw what he did – mostly because we had asked him politely as the admins to give us a day or two to talk about it and decide how to handle it. I posted a comment redirecting everyone to the existing discussion, “since it has 118 comments and much of this is covered there.” I want to see his reaction. This site is based on mutual respect, and if he won’t respect our requests, I don’t want him here. I also think this is one topic that MUST be confined to the existing thread. I don’t want to have to re-type my feelings on multiple threads.
I think we should be doing that with many posts – redirecting them to existing threads if they are the same topic and question. Is there any way to add some kind of “topic” or “label” feature, so it is easier to do that – and for readers to find them?
MS Word, doc analysis tool JCL’s original article:
2254 words
13268 characters with spaces
196 lines
JCL’s “revised” post + his first reply using the same original text:
1790 words
10489 characters
161 lines
Decrease:
20.59% fewer words
20.95% fewer characters
17.86% fewer lines
So it really wasn’t much of a change. Not like the 50%+ I was hoping for. His point is hopelessly muddled. I am not sure exactly what his central argument is … except that the Church can never change.
I think you might have come across a little too rough Ray. It is partly my fault. I made edit suggestions to him, but didn’t specifically say he had to re-submit it for approval. I was thinking that, but I did not say it. I don’t think we can yank it down again at this point though.
It’s not the end of the world.
I haven’t seen JCL around since the incidenet where he didn’t like our holding his topic for moderation. He may have taken too much offense. I feel bad a little, but we can’t control how people will react. I still wasn’t clear at the end what exactly his radical new direction was going to be. He did not respond to my last request to focus his topic. It’s too bad, because I was really looking forward to the diversity in the direction he seemed to be going.
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