Psamathe wrote:I think the thing to remember is that it is alright to disagree with somebody.
That's it - in a nutshell. I agree that it is perfectly OK to have disagreements (if you can work your way around the negatives in this sentence!).
When it descends into vitriolic personal abuse, that's another matter. This is, I like to believe, a thing unknown or almost unknown on this forum (it may have happened in the past, but I'm unaware of any cases). Hope I'm right.
Forgive me for going a bit 'personal' here. I was on the receiving end of just that, i.e. abuse, on two other cycling forums, but that was many years ago and has long since been put to rest. As far as I know, there is little 'crossover' of membership between those forums and this forum. Enough said. No chips still on shoulders, I like to think.
What has not been 'put to rest' as far as I personally am concerned (and this is a topic I don't like talking about, not too often), is that I've been under medication for clinical depression for several years now. About two weeks ago I decided to abruptly stop my current medication. I'll be seeing the doctor next month - if he tells me to resume, I'll resume - but I hope there will be room for negotiation - or perhaps a changed approach.
So what triggered it? Well - another dose of vitriol, that's what. In a forum - well more of a blog with comments that is - nothing to do with cycling, but one I've been contributing to for about a year now. Evidently some individual decided he didn't like my style of posting
(well - I'm sure there are many on here who don't like my posting style, either, but they don't resort to throwing brickbats at me) Whatever, this person saw fit to lay into me to the third degree. Nothing was moderated. I complained to the site admin, he sympathised but still did nothing. At this point I was feeling very 'down' - so down in fact that I decide, why bother to take the AD's if I still end up like this? So I stopped.
Best is to walk away, everyone will say. Of course, that's exactly what I've done. Bit like the YACF/Cyclechat experience, all over again. But it doesn't do much for my morale.
Sorry to ramble on a bit. I'll get over things. But to sum up - being able to 'block' posts from another user isn't really the answer. Once you've seen the unpleasant stuff, the damage is done.