This site is like your favorite magazine. There are topics that will crop up time and time again. It’s cyclic because the editors understand that they have new readers coming in all the time so have to keep the readership going. There will be new articles and something of interest to the long term reader. There are a lot of new members that do not contribute but will read what is written. It is contact, you don’t have to participate to benefit. We cannot judge how the unheard benefit but it is a point of contact in their lives. Some will reach a point where it has no more use for their needs and move on and more move in. In any publication there are things that could offend and there are choices. If you can see it might offend you could stop reading that article. You could make your opinions known but in a forum it doesn’t finish at the end of the article. It continues in a debate and that’s where things can get heated. Where do the moderators step in? Where does free speech end? It is a minefield.
I sat on the margins for a while after joining and then started to participate. If there was advice I could give based on my life experience then I would offer it. I have also learned a few things too. I enjoy the light hearted posts and the general feel of the site. This is the first C.D. site I have joined.
As for what has happened recently, well I’m afraid this is something that can happen with any site. Such is the diversity of the subscribers it is, sadly, an inevitability due to human nature. Where does free speech start and stop, what is offensive to one is agreement to another. I made my opinion known and, I hope, in an inoffensive way and left the debate. I was aware that the post was pulled and the author has made an apology and gave her reasons. It was mentioned earlier here that we didn’t know what was behind it all and we now know. The resultant actions of people leaving the site is very sad. This was only one post among so many more positive posts. Just one among hundreds.
Just think of what this site is about and what it does for our community. Has its purpose and integrity been compromised ? It may have been wounded a little but still has a purpose. These spats are part of life and if we learn from it we can move on and enjoy the benefits.
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