To Post or Not To Post, That Is the Question

[Salty Dog]

Fellow C-Brats,

Please excuse the length of this post. I'll try to keep it as brief as possible and not ramble, but please read it in its entirety.

To Post or Not To Post, That Is the Question. Americans enjoy many freedoms, the freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to bear arms and the freedom to gather being a few. No doubt these four freedoms are exercised in this forum and often talked about. There is also another freedom we posess but sometimes fail to exercise: the freedom of silence. Silence can be a very powerful tool and can speak louder than words at times. Take, for instance, and event that occurred a couple of Super Bowls ago (oops, am I allowed to say those two words? Don't tell the NFL office, please). A to remain unnamed female performer mysteriously had a "wardrobe malfunction" during the half-time performance. Americans were enraged that it could happen on live national television. We talked about it, wrote about it and generally kept it in the presses for months on end. What did that gain us? Anything? I don't believe it gained us anything other than free publicity for the individual. And in show biz, bad press is better than no press. On the other hand, had we not made a big deal about it, ignored it and left it go, would we still remember that event today? Maybe, maybe not. The point is, all the attention it garnered has embedded that in our minds.

Now, we as members of C-Brats, control the life of a thread. Maybe it's a great thread and should get lots of responses, maybe it's a controversial one that should get some responses but go away. Whatever side we're on, we control the life cycle of that thread. If we agree with it, we post and keep it alive. If we disagree with it, we post out disagreement and keep it alive too. The question becomes, at what point does our disagreement become futile and it would be better to become silent and let it die? Only we as posting people can figure that out. I implore you to ask yourself two questions before you respond to a post, especially if it's in the "heat of the moment":

1. Will my post really make a difference, or am I just furthering something that I don't agree with.

2. Am I in the right state of mind to be creating a valuable post that will benefit the membership as a whole.

If you determine you should post, then post. If you're still caught up in the "heat of the moment", then write down your thoughts, but don't submit them. Rather let them sit and sleep on it, come back to it the next day and read your post before you submit it. Sometimes a cooling off period is needed in order to be sure we're all acting like adults. Remember, many crimes are committed in the "heat of the moment" and people live to regret them (although they're usually in jail, hopefully that doesn't happen here).

So, in closing, I apologize for the long post. I intended this post to be more of a commentary/editorial, not a respond to post. If you feel the need to respond, great. If not, that's fine too. You control the thread, just like you control all the other threads. You can keep the thread alive and active and growing with positive knowledge, or you can let it die on the vine by not responding. Just remember, it's our right to post and it's also our right to remain silent. Sometimes silence is far more powerful than words.

To Post or Not To Post, That Is the Question.

Jack

[C-Otter]

Salty Dog.

(Sometimes Silence Is Far More Powerfull Than Words.) Thats what 99% of the members did.
Now if we could get 99% of the Talking Heads on TV to do the same it would be a better country. Jack on C-Otter

[Redƒox]

Very true. Thanx and I'd like to express my admiration to the managers here. Their sort of put in a position to act-out things that might be contrary to what they normally might have done -- like having the luxury of silence. and letting it go.

Mike and Bill, you handled this perfectly. keep up the good work. ya didn't exactly put anyone in jail ya know ...

[gljjr]

Salty Dog,

You have stated in your very eloquent way what I have been thinking for the last week or so and have actually tried to explain myself on other BBS's in the past. I have been posting on BBS's since about 1988 long before the internet became popular. And I have been a moderator on many of them and today I help moderate the Gamefishin.Com site.

What you decsribe above is so very much the way I react when posting. If I am posting due to anger the post will not get sent for AT LEAST 24 hours. I found out a long time ago that many times what makes us angry with a post is simply that we lose much of the emotion that the poster was feeling while we read the post. Often times when we go back and reread the post that made us mad we realize that we may have taken it the wrong way. The other thing we need to remember is that this is a PRIVATE place open to the public. Free speech doesn't exist on a BBS. It is only at the grace of the owners of that BBS that you may post. They have the right and responsibility to keep things in line.

Also, I would like to take a moment to thank Mike and Bill for their excellent control of this board. They have made a place for us to feel welcome and make friends. I for one would like to offer up a toast to their great contribution to the internet!

[C-Hawk]

[Pat Anderson]

Geez Louise! Thinking? Positive value? Too complicated for me! Ready, fire, aim, I say! What would B~C and I do! However, I do agree with sleeping on it before you say something you KNOW will piss somebody off!

[Sea Wolf]

Yup! 24 hrs or a good sleep keeps your arse out of the ringer from time to time! Wish I woud'a "figgered" that out before 55 or so.

While I definitely agree with most of all that's been said on this thread, there are times when the intrusion or problem by it's own very nature requires more than passive resistance, turning the other cheek, or hoping that ignoring the situation or person will make it go away.

In fact, most military, criminal, financial, and personal safety issues won't allow that response mode. The Internet often can because of the relative safety of the isolation of the persons, and that the damage is pretty much limited to the damage of unmitigated "free Speech".

When it becomes evident that someone will not stop their destructive activity even though they've been ignored, or that it becomes impossible to keep all the ranks from being drawn into negative and divergent discourse, it's time for those with the fortitude to do so to step up and tell the SOB to get lost and recommend to the admistrators of justice to cut the cord. Thanks, All! Joe.