"Since Steve and I often agree with some of the conservatism expressed by Joe and Paul, would the thread be better with us gone? "
You've got to be kidding.
So basically, if he answers anything other than "Oh no- I love to have you around." you've kind of set him up to violate the thread rules.
Geez
At PFP, which of course is an echo chamber, any time a conservative spies a liberal on the thread they attack. Interestingly some of those echo chamber folks come over here, and they post ridiculous needling articles at the liberals. That isn't "enjoyable" or "interesting". Because we liberals can read all that kind of stuff on the political blogs- and read it without someone posting it TO us as a "gotcha". And of course some of them also become Miss Manners over hear, even though over there they'd never dream of calling a conservative on rudeness. It's annoying. And it's meant to be annoying. John and I (for example) disagree all the time- but we have fundamental beliefs in common, and we basically respect each other. It's obviously impossible to be respectful of other folks when you think their POV is totally stupid, and that comes out on the thread. I think it would be a much nicer thread if we didn't have the drive bys from the PFP crew. But Dale, unlike some other moderators, lets these folks be here.
Really happy threads have people who don't disagree too much. That much is obvious. All you need to do is to look at the unmoderated threads to see where "free" posting gets you- all the way to nuclear strike insult ville. And if you have a dinner party and want it to be successful, you never invite people who are partisans, and who cannot STFU about politics- or people are just rude, and then your party is ruined. Here the nastiness has to be veiled- but it's all around. You probably just don't see it on both sides because you have sympathies with certain factions, and that's fine. But it's pretty much all over the place- kept from going thermonuclear by Dale's rules. |
