[Ken Leung]

Maybe it's time we take a step back from the case to case basis and talk about what is appropiate in the chit chat forum. (way to go Ken, another boring message that kills threads)

On the surface, the chit chat forum seems to be whatever non-FIRST discussion people feel like having. But that's not exactly accurate because some people feel that blogs are not appropiate in this forum. So, let's look at what's been appropiate in the past:

Movies is ok.
The existence of God seems to be ok too.
Thousands replies threads for word games and posting games seems to be ok, as long as there's only one for each.
News related topics are appropiate too.

Politics threads didn't exactly go well and lots of them were locked because of the intensity and heat of the discussion.
Live chat where people should've been using IM softwares aren't allowed.
And as some people pointed out in this thread blogs shouldn't be allowed neither.


So, I guess the trend here is that as long as the thread is interesting to a lot of people, and doesn't cause discomfort to others. I believe an easier rule to use is "What's right is what produces the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people."

Another appropiate rule should be "if you are using this forum to benefit yourself at the expense of this place, then maybe you should think twice about doing it". That would stop people from taking advantage of the gallery for their own purposes of sharing pictures, or sharing online journals.


I guess I am a little troubled about the following question: If Eddie's blog are seperated into individual questions and individual threads, would people be so quick to tell him to "get his own blog"? What draw the line between what's appropiate and what isn't? I just think whatever decision is made, they should be consistent. I would be perfectly fine with opening chit chat for EVERYTHING to shutting down chit chat completely, as long as it apply to all people.

I am also a little troubled about how there is this norm around the forum, and everyone is expected to have a certain quality to their post. Everything is fine until someone act against the norm, and suddenly comments like "you shouldn't do these" are made. That in and of itself doesn't really help to get people to stay close to the norms.


And about craziness, I think you are over generalizing the word itself. Just because you use it in all the situation you talked about doesn't mean it is the appropiate description. For example, I believe Dean is really bold in the sense that he want to change the world, but I wouldn't call him crazy for wanting to make the world better. He was bold in trying to create a human transporter that balance on 2 wheels, but the developement of Segway itself has gone through the scientific method and many experiments and testing. It's not as if he went crazy one night and came up with the Segway and it works.

I believe the words you are looking for is more along the line of innovation, creativity, and the willingness to be open-minded (flexibility?), but that's just my belief.