The Ugliest Trend Yet

[colin340]

the really sick thing is that he used the word son like he or she is an older person like a mentor or teacher or may be a veteran - the following is not colin340 but this guy Silencenomore

(No son, destablizing the American economy by attempting to descreate our money supply with Dean Kamen's subversive messages is not fun. Its treason. :mad)

[Jaine Perotti]

KokoEd, I think you brought up a very good topic. I also think that many of the people here have made excellent responses and there has been alot of good thought surrounding this issue.

I was one of the people who was involved in the thread that took place last night/morning, which I believe is what prompted the creation of this one. If you read my posts, you will see that OVER AND OVER again I tried to hammer home the message that being constructive and respectful is the BEST and ONLY way to bring forth your problems to this community, and at the same time expect a good response which may produce a solution to the problem.

I think people occasionally lose sight of the fact that these forums exist SOLELY to enhance the ability of FIRSTers to communicate with each other.
Why is it that we want to communicate with each other?

We communicate so that we can collectively strengthen each other, in order to collectively strengthen FIRST. This means that we help each other solve the problems which prevent us from doing our job - namely, to inspire and reach as many people as we can to promote the goals of FIRST.

Notice that I emphasized the words "solve the problems." When people forget that this is our true aim, they also forget that ChiefDelphi is not the place to post hateful, emotionally driven libel. Communicating hateful messages has never helped anyone to right grievances. While I believe it is perfectly acceptable to be privately disappointed, it is never ok to use this as an excuse to VENT your anger in this community. Simply put, ChiefDelphi does not exist to listen to people whine about things which they can not change (such as events that have taken place in the PAST). We do, however, exist so that we can impact the future and come up with constructive solutions to REAL problems.

Also notice how I emphasized the word "real". People need to realize that it is impossible to come up with a solution to the problem if the facts surrounding it are merely speculative, or don't exist at all. Last night, a personal attack against several teams was disguised as a complaint about the lack of "good" scouting. Teams were accused of bribery and theft, and were told that they "did not deserve" to win.

There were two main problems that made this post impossible to respond to with a constructive solution. First of all, there was NO evidence that any teams participated in "bribery", "theft", or "glory-stealing". Secondly, the post was a personal gripe about a past event. It is impossible for any of us here on CD to go back in time to change the outcome of an event. This issue was inappropriate to bring up because 1) it was based on speculation, and 2) we could not have offered any means of correcting it.

So, ChiefDelphi, we have a problem. It seems that the majority of us feel that there are too many posts of the non-constructive type. Therefore, I ask you this question (which many of you offered potential solutions to in this thread):

How do we make ChiefDelphi a more constructive place?

-- Jaine

[bbguy5]

It really is a sad day in FIRST when we have to have these conversations.

I read that other post and was appauled.

Mentioning bribes and teams not getting picked because of certain factors. I'll say this: Remember it takes good defense to make a strong offense.

As for being affiliated with a team when registering, then that would kind of stink. I have no affiliation other then being a former member of 111 and being a volunteer at the MWR and WR, or until next year when i rejoin the team.

Can't we delete these posts instead of allowing them to remain to be seen on such a great resource that CD is.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by bbguy5

Can't we delete these posts instead of allowing them to remain to be seen on such a great resource that CD is.

I think they should remain up for the time being (though closed) solely because some of the context for this thread would disappear. The discussion in question is absolutely sickening, but it is a case in point of what is absolutely unacceptable. I was not on the forums when SNM was, but evidently these are re-occuring events, and people need to be able to look at what's happening.

On that note, could someone PM me about what SilenceNoMore was? from what I understand it was a poster, but it sounds pretty severe.

[Jak DiGriz]

I am reading about censoring negative posts and in one post in this forum I saw one who said biased posts were not appreciated.

Is the purpose for these forums to only talk about positive things? I'm not a big fan of censorship myself, but I'm also not familiar with ChiefDelphi's mission statement. Please fill me in.

-JD

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Nuttyman54

On that note, could someone PM me about what SilenceNoMore was? from what I understand it was a poster, but it sounds pretty severe.

It's really not worth discussing. In fact, as in other situations, these posters crave attention and little else. When they no longer receive our attention, they go away.

[David Brinza]

Posts that question the interpretation or rationale for the rules are certainly fair game for CD. The "powers that be" at FIRST often analyze and accept the criticisms and subsequently change the rules. This constructive criticism helps FIRST improve at many levels.

Posts that attack the integrity of individuals or teams are "out-of-bounds" as far as GP is concerned. Even if the person writing the post believes there is substantial evidence to support their view, this is something that should be handled discretely.

As a member of the team that was a target of the post that claimed that bribery was involved in the alliance selection process in the SoCal regional, I can tell you that reading that post was a painful experience. I'm glad that the post was closed, because it would have stayed at the top of the recent activity list for some time to come. I appreciate the supportive replies from Bill Gold, EricH and several others who recognized this case of "sour grapes" for what it was - bunk. I sent a PM to Cory thanking him for closing the post and provided a response to be aired at a later date.

CD should remain an open forum where positive and negative attributes are freely discussed in the FIRST community. The FIRST community is sophisticated enough to filter the garbage and focus on improving the FIRST experience for everyone. The CD moderators should do as was done in the case of last night's thread: close it down until cooler heads can prevail.

[the_short1]

Indeed it is ugly, I myself have been victimized once, but luckily a mod deleted his post right away.

Random people that go to a venue, or a field crew etc, might register without having any affiliation with a team, so its kind of hard to enforce. Its too easy to register for a forum without a real email due to numerous free services like mailinator.com, and limiting one account per IP does not work, because many students access CD from school.... so what else can be done?

I would like to promote free speech, as that is what my country (Canada) strives for, and if you have something to say, you do have the right to say it (even if its not positive), although IMO i think you should try to post criticism in a nicer/more contructive way. Therefore i dont mind if you have something bad to say, you have the right to post something negative, but you better do it with your REAL account, instead of being a coward and hidding your true self!

[Koko Ed]

In light of last weekends drama this thread seems so ironic now.