Alright, maybe I'm poking my smelly toes in a sore, but I seem to pick up an entrenchment of sorts forming here.
Now, the poster formerly known as peter75 (TPFKAP) has apologised, in I think in a fair way. While there are some hooks to his apology, probably due to the subsequent use of caps and exclamation marks, I think he's really trying to add seriously to the content of this message board. His contribution to the Switchboard with regards to the oil-addiction thread have, imho, been though out and fairly balanced., for instance.
I don’t think TPFKAP is trying to troll, I don’t think he is trying to promote racism, and I don’t think it’s entirely fair to accuse him of such. That being said, I think this whole discussion, and the board as a whole, could benefit from posters taking a deep breath and stepping away from the keyboard for a minute.
Maybe it’s just my relative noobness with regards to this board, but I don’t think I‘ve seen such an immediate and harsh discussion erupt so quickly before.
I am wondering if this is a sort of quick reaction to the admittedly very slight influx of new posters, by older posters, in order to try and set certain boundaries immediately before things get out of hand and sexist/racist/agist/trollish, that might, in this case, be a little premature.
* Note. I am not trying to condone any kind of the previous ism’s, all I’m saying is that the nerves triggered by this particular discussion seem to me to be on edge much more than before.
* 2nd note. While I don’t intend to hide behind the comfort zone of “English is only my second language”, I might have missed nuances in this discussion that native speakers might have noticed easily. |
