On being rude ...

[techhelpbb]

The problem here is that ChiefDelphi is a valuable place for some information and sometimes people know more about ChiefDelphi than they know about FIRST's own forums.

However with sheer traffic alone there comes risk. I have some Internet forums and whenever you run a forum you have to cut a careful path between: mild intolerance (not legal protected class intolerance), bad timing, misunderstood context, confusion and actual malicious intent.

There have been a number of times over my 20 or so years with FIRST when I think a very small number of posters on ChiefDelphi had malicious intent. They didn't just want to shut down the idea - they wanted to shut a person down and sometimes were not very subtle about it.

I applaud the effort to try to stop rudeness but a good test for malicious intent is whether the goal is to massively humiliate and then isolate (as in discourage any future contribution to either ChiefDelphi or FIRST). If something becomes clearly about those 2 outcomes it's gone too far. It is not a crime to be wrong, misunderstood, or out of context. We would all prefer it not happen but ineffective communication is actually a core part of the human experience. Like any part of the human experience you can work on the behavior in a positive way or you can hurt someone with it.

Oh and by the way - if you are reaching out to someone's team suggesting they shut up or be removed from FIRST. You're probably going way too far. I can forgive that because I am an adult - to a point.