Oh man! Is it ironic that since that thread was created all the conversation has moved there? Thankfully it's now been closed, so let me draw your attention to this
http://www.musicbanter.com/announcem...-american.html

C'mon guys, show the forum some love! Let's get out the acoustic guitars and sing kumbeye-ah. Time to get some peace and understanding back, and give some kudos to those who are trying to make this a better place...

I sometimes get the feeling that some of the members here, when they read a post, just try their best to find something offensive in that post or some angle from which they can approach its contents so that it becomes offensive and they can get angry. In other words, a lot of members here will start trolling, generate drama and escalate hostility over things I personally think of as rather trivial.

I'm not a naturally passionate or spontaneous sort of person and it takes a while for me to get mad and maybe I'm the one acting strange, but .. If you want a quiet environment and someone's talking loud, it doesn't really help to start screaming back. Likewise, if you want a friendlier environment and someone comes along with an opinion you don't like, acting angry and hostile is obviously not going to help towards that goal.

We can't control people's thoughts on the forum so there are going to be differing opinions. And, except in the most extreme cases, it's not really the opinions themselves which generate the problems, but the way we communicate them.

I still can't believe an actual thread was made to single out/target this sopsych, whoever he/she is and make an actual space for members to criticise/attack them! (As annoying as they may be... this is getting a bit ridiculous).

I think everyone just needs to calm down and enjoy the forum. Like tore said, people take offense way too easily and some members seem to almost find any excuse to reply to a post with hostility and defense.

Can everyone put their differences aside and move on and be happy? :( And understand that while attacking people personally can be hurtful, a little bit of debate within discussion is perfectly normal and healthy! I don't really know what the solution is to achieve this, but it seems to have been discussed to a point of no return, so let's just all chill.

Not sure if you meant this as a joke or not, but just to be clear, I created that thread to remove a derail from this one. The purpose wasn't to target him, it was to allow him to continue discussing what he wanted to discuss while preventing this thread from continuing to be derailed. If we left the derail in this thread, people would complain about the mods not doing anything (and in fact I personally had received that exact complaint). If we started deleting posts, people would complain about that. I chose an option that I thought was more of a compromise, but I guess that turns out to be horribly outrageous to people too.

That's fair enough Janszoon, I understand the position you were put in and why you moved the thread. It was not really attack at the mods for moving the discussion to a new thread, but rather, the fact that the original discussion had gotten to that point, where a whole new thread had to be created to continue the drama due to various members posts and discussion turns. I just think it's sad that people feed off and create so much drama and constantly respond to posts with such hostility and defense (which ultimately ended up targeting a member of the forum and another pointless, closed thread).

Once again, it was a derail, not "a whole new thread". It was simply moving a group of posts from this thread rather than deleting them. It was an attempt to remove drama from this thread, but here we are discussing said drama anyway. So fuck it. I give up.

Honestly they could have banned the person not just removed part of the thread.

If it isn't possible for moderators to remove lounge posts from the "New Posts," then I agree the idea couldn't be implemented even if desired.

However, I view Loathsome Pete's idea of focusing attention on the music section not as treating members like sheep, but as one method of directing the spotlight onto positive music discussion and away from the lounge threads that usually seem to inspire more of the personal attacks that occur among members.

As I've seen in this thread, personal attacks (such as on sopsych) create a negative atmosphere that may make people feel less likely to want to participate in the community. The response to sopsych certainly wouldn't encourage *him* to post more about music, but I hope he continues. I admire his passion and knowledge about '80s pop rock.

In my view, our member sopsych simply agreed with the original moderator's opinion that MB is in trouble due to the nasty drama:

^ How do we attract members who like to discuss music deeply and who don't bash people for their views?

I recommend that we...

* don't attack members by calling them trolls;
* don't tell members to leave the site when they dislike some of the dynamics here;
* don't misrepresent members such as sopsych by saying they contribute nothing, when they do;
* don't encourage mods to ban someone;
* don't make threads that appear to target one individual (as in this case sopsych) as if he were the only one here to complain about the forum.

* DO disagree with people's viewpoints when you disagree with them;
* DO stand up politely for your fellow members;
* DO encourage people to share their opinions about topics, even if you disagree with their opinion;
* DO report personal insults and attacks;
* DO enjoy music discussion with members and appreciate their contributions.


I feel that sopsych did not derail the thread from the initial topic. In fact, he was staying on topic by pointing out, like moderator Duga did, that the negative atmosphere (meanness, nastiness, jumping on posters with personal attacks) creates a less welcoming environment such that not as many people may want to share deeply and openly about music here.

I feel the way this thread evolved is ironically a perfect example of the negative climate that sopsych has wanted to change and that duga originally pointed out was a problem here.

On a positive note, people are sharing their strong opinions very openly, and no one died. :)

This is hilarious. Thank you. You are a brilliant satirist.