| Posted: 14 September 2013 at 9:39am | IP Logged | 2
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There are a great number of threads that discuss John's commissions, his new work, and his thoughts on the comic book industry in general and in specific with regard to his role in it. This is nothing different from the Magnus board or the old Net 52 board. Every week people ask John various art and story questions, they ask about past work and they querry him on his art collection as well as collecting figurines, models and the like. Again, nothing different from past iterations of the forum. Are there other off-topic threads here? Sure. That's nothing new either, Greg. You've been around long enough to know that.
Perhaps you have your rose-colored glasses on where the old boards are concerned. There was a ton of disagreement on a number of different topics across the board. Religion has always been fodder for discussion. Politics as well. Both often get heated and both have had threads locked due to the personal attacks they sometimes devolve into. I remember discussions about race, religion, Bush, African American quarterbacks, casting choices, commissions for charity, being politically correct and a host of other issues that had nothing to do with comic books taking the stage front and center for a time. The membership as a whole has never been bright eyed and bushy tailed with always a positive comment to say and rarely a negative one. I'd aruge that's not the membership of any board on any site on the whole of the internet. And you know what? That's just fine with me. Personally, I don't choose to surround myself with likeminded people in my everyday life so my internet life naturally reflects that attitude. I have quite a diverse group of friends and collegues with opinions that range from the very liberal to the extremely conservative and that's not just on politics and religion but on a number of different issues. Our conversations can get heated, but I appreciate learning where they come from as I hope they do me.
At the end of the day, it's all about choice. Again, you've been around long enough to probably roll your eyes at what I'm about to say, Greg, but it deserves repeating: You choose what threads to open and what threads to stay away from. You make the choice to be offended. That's on you. I don't buy new comics and I don't like the direction that Marvel and DC have been going in for quite some time, so I choose not to participate in the New Comics thread. Oh I may occassionally chime in with a question, but 99% of the time I only scan it to moderate it. I don't get offended when people say that they really enjoy what's being done with Spider-Man or think that the latest Bendis! comic is the bees knees. I just shrug and choose not to comment. That's my choice. You have that available to you as well. All the time. At every turn with regard to any thread on the board. You don't like the discussion about religion because you're not interested in hearing a heated debate on the subject? Don't open those threads. You don't want to discuss politics, don't open those threads. If you want more positive interactions, start a thread on a topic instead of lurking only to come out of that mode to place judgements on people you haven't interacted with in years.
To the point you made about being likeminded to post here, all I have to say is bullshit. Sorry if that offends you, but whatever. I've disagreed with JB on a number of different subjects and he with me. Tim O'Neill disagrees with both JB and I with regard to Star Trek. I disagree with a number of members of long standing on a variety of different subjects. In addition to the aforementioned subjects, we've had heated disagreements regarding Shakespeare, public vs private schools, guns, Greenpeace, furs, the harvesting of animals for food, climate change. You name it, we've discussed it with a wide variety of opinions. Contrary to popular belief, people aren't banned for a dissenting opinion or if they don't somehow conform to some misguided notion there's a group think at work on the board. If, like you, they get offended by simply reading a differing opinion, I couldn't change that in person so I'm not going to temper my responses to do it on the internet. You may disagree with me, but I try very hard not to let my own opinions devolve into personal attacks. Debate the issue not the person whose opinion is different from my own. That's not to say that I haven't, but it's rare when it does happen.
One final word on the mods and JB. We have tons of discussions all the time about nearly every aspect of the board. You don't see it because that's the role of a moderator. The recent lock downs of the threads about Syria and Fox News, for example, were the direct result of a collective discussion and not just a single moderator acting of his own accord. Could we do a better job as mods to tamp down emotions that sometimes get out of control? Sure and we work hard to do just that. We're human. We make mistakes. That said? We all have our own opinions. We're not automatons. We're not simply button pushers with no thoughts of our own. We've all disagreed with each other and with members in threads on the board, but we're a pretty unified bunch where the actual work of the board is concerned.
Long winded, sorry, but those are my thoughts on the topic at hand.
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