I can't help but notice...

[Projectile Vomit]

I can't help but notice that conversations on the forum have been far more civil over the past couple weeks, and that the volume of new posts has fallen off considerably.

I also notice that SVRN has stopped posting, and guess that his absence contributes to both of the above effects. Was he banned?

[Haai]

I believe he vowed never to post again.

[LePatron7]

Lol. I'm sure he accounted for a great deal of the new posts and also hostility.

[van]

he had a post a few days ago,,  and it was great to see it's content was simply informative. 

[sabertooth]

I was sure that he would of chimed in on the Russel Brand thread,

I kind of worry about the guy, it is difficult for anyone to handle the kind of knowledge he seems to be after.
Its easy for me to relate to him , often having similar bouts of despondency and dissolution with what one discovers in the conquest of Truth.
 

[cherimoya_kid]

I was sure that he would of chimed in on the Russel Brand thread,

I kind of worry about the guy, it is difficult for anyone to handle the kind of knowledge he seems to be after.
Its easy for me to relate to him , often having similar bouts of despondency and dissolution with what one discovers in the conquest of Truth.
 

It can be very difficult to process all that at once, especially for the people who more strongly believed the "modern technological societies are superior in every way" lie that we were all taught in school.

[goodsamaritan]

I think if we displayed our ages in our public info box under our gender, we would all get a better idea of how we converse with one another.  Have more patience and understanding when the youth cry out.

svrn is very young in his 20s and had a hard life overcoming his illnesses and realizing truths.  I too was once very angry with what I learned but I was in my late 30s when this happened to me.

svrn will calm down and mature eventually... who knows, he may be the next Health Ranger... Mike Adams one day.

[paper_clips43]

Does entering your birthday in forum profile display your age under your avatar?

[Projectile Vomit]

I think that using internet forums to discuss sensitive topics makes doing so very challenging. We lose a lot of information about people we're 'conversing' with because we can't see them in front of us and read their body language.

The veil of anonymity that the internet provides also seems to make some people invest less effort in being cordial and ethical in their methods of communication. I suspect many of us communicate very differently with people when we're in their physical presence than we do when typing on a forum to people we'll likely never meet in person and who lack any means of holding us accountable for things we say.

[cherimoya_kid]

I think that using internet forums to discuss sensitive topics makes doing so very challenging. We lose a lot of information about people we're 'conversing' with because we can't see them in front of us and read their body language.

The veil of anonymity that the internet provides also seems to make some people invest less effort in being cordial and ethical in their methods of communication. I suspect many of us communicate very differently with people when we're in their physical presence than we do when typing on a forum to people we'll likely never meet in person and who lack any means of holding us accountable for things we say.

Yes to all of that.  In addition, it's much easier to quickly identify a total idiot in real life, and also much easier to then avoid conversing with them on the subjects that they are being idiots about.  You can literally leave the room or change the subject, etc.. On a forum, it's harder to do that.

[sabertooth]

There are many ways to look at what goes on in these forums.

Many people that come through can be seen as lost souls wandering in the wilderness.

Others can be seen pioneers on the new frontier.

Internet forums can be a lot like the wild wild west. In the Old West people who put on badges of authority were often the biggest crooks in the territory, and the figures that take on the Law, (people like Billy the Kid and his regulators} are often just as justified in their apparent lawlessness and ignorance, as the bastards who called themselves the Law.

I take the view that this is a new frontier requiring new methods of understanding, communication, and seeing past the BS .  Even though there will be the flagrantly false posters in our midst, we still can function as a free and open source of information for people to discuss.

Personally part of the fun of forums is learning from all the idiots, I often am made aware of my own follies by seeing contradictions in others.

We all can learn as much from each others ignorance as from each others wisdom.