Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler De-sensitized zone?

I agree with Jack on this one. Before reading his post, I thought it was a good idea to compartmentalize all the tinderbox posts into one area. However, his port touched upon some topics that got me thinking about the idea more deeply. Now I believe that reserving a special area for posts that are likely to explode is an invitation for the kind of volatility that's hard to contain. A designated area gives implicit permission to fly off the handle, and if someone has flown off the handle on you in that designated area, the effects of that behavior will not stay contained.

Okay, the way you guys put it I would have to agree.

Well done, Jack!

I think that we can police ourselves. We're all adults. This is a tight-knit enough community to handle things like this. It is evident from the replies to your thread.

Let's put it this way... if there was a brick and mortar store, you probably wouldn't have a room where people with disagreements could retire to and go Ed Norton on each other...

And those feelings bleed over into other areas, it's not like someone will leave behind those negative feelings in a DSZ. From my own experience, based on my strong social and political views, my sharing of knowledge in other sections of the forum gets less respect than deserved, so I've quit posting all my 3 page explanations, audio samples and the like (the older users will remember the clips and diagrams)... now I come in, I throw out the occasional Happy Birthday and that sort of thing, but it's just not worth wasting my time with an explanation of a fundamental audio principle that will be shouted down.

We always assume after each post that no, no one will post something volatile and off-topic, yet someone always does.

I have no answers, just suggestions.

Bren R.

I just want to say that there are some topics that should not be discussed on this forum. It should be kept to audio/video, except for The water cooler, and that is basically the reason this subject has come up. Just rename The Water cooler to The Wine Cellar but suggest that no posts be made about politics or religeon. No censorship, but just consideration toward others. Just an idea.

I don't think renaming the Water Cooler is necessary. Neither do I think banning discussion of politics, speaker wire, or your phiosophy on the afterlife is necessary. Just know that if you start or participate in such a topic, you are entirely responsible for your own words and your reaction to other people's words, even when provoked.

You brought up some very good points, Jack. The one thing that drew me to this forum in the beginning was an overall sense of tact. I liked that it was a place where a "newbie" could come in and ask some basic questions to get started in the audio hobby. I didn't get a sense of "my way is the only way and right way to do things," but more of a "let us know what you are looking for and we can steer you in the right direction." I don't know, to me it seems there are more hard-edged stances on topics now which leaves little room for discussion. I don't have any specific examples, but more of a general feeling.

The idea of us being proprietary about the board is a major point. This may lead to "outsiders" being shouted down on hot-button topics.

Well, I'm kinda at a loss for words here. Seems to be too many things to talk about.

There are much more good things about these boards than bad. As in all things, though, the squeaky wheel gets all the attention. There are a lot of good people here that I've enjoyed interacting with. And yes, there are some less than favorable participants that stir up all sorts of crazy action, but they generally don't stick around long.

I like the fact that we do a pretty good job of policing ourselves. Having a de-sensitized zone just begs for all sorts of ugliness.

A special section for discussing controversial political or social, etc. topics which aren't relevant to an AV board solves nothing and is inappropriate.