Hi all,
Yet again I will be “guilty” of a long post. Because this is a topic I care about yet is complex. Please click “ignore” if you do not like long posts
Non-travel topics are a hard one for AFF. It would seem simple to keep the forum restricted to only content that directly relates to travel, but I think that would be detrimental to another different side of AFF – that it is clearly a place where many of us choose to spend a lot of our “free” time. And as much as I love all aspects of the whole travel game, travel is not the only thing in my life – and let’s be honest – sometimes a few days or weeks go past with no new thread of particular new interest. I mean that for the avid followers, who are already aware of most of the details that get raised by new members.
The other thing is that IMHO, AFF has a following that is almost unique in that it involves and brings together people from all walks of life, of much experience. Not just in travel but in every other thing I can think of. That is amazing, and so it lends itself to having a sort of “side forum” where we can discuss and debate and learn about all sorts of things. I love that, and it is the reason that I personally have settled into AFF being my number one online focus. And as others have said, even the biggest rifts or battles in this forum are extremely civilized, when compared to much of online forums (and even society in general).
But, this being a complex matter, there is also a down side to the ability to discuss everything. Invariably you will find very strong points of disagreement with other members. Two members may agree on everything from “best airline” to the like or dislike of tattoos, but suddenly someone talks about climate change and equally suddenly you can find a rift that is hard to prevent damaging your opinion on the other person. This is, of course, true of every day life, but I think it gets accentuated here as these are online chats, with few words and no real ability to work through these glitches. I hope we can each better ourselves and learn through this tolerance, which I think is an amazing trait in any human being.
Any online forum relies on new members. A forum needs to appeal to them, and it must seem to be a forum that is welcoming, and not full of Climate Change debate – as people would come here for travel knowledge. I know that I have been guilty of being short with some potential new members – ie those coming for a one-off rant. But in general this is an overwhelmingly supportive site for new members – people bend over backwards to help.
I am not sure how others use the site – I keep tabs on some areas of particular interest to me, but mainly I just jump on in the evening and see what everyone is talking about in that moment, and leap in. But what the site appears to a new person I do not know – but I suspect if people come here seeking specific info it is fairly easy to be found. So if that is the case all the non-travel stuff should not affect this.
Yet another aspect is our moderators. I think they do a perfect job, balancing free speech yet not letting things get out of hand.
The change I would suggest is that we develop a clear practice of separating non-travel debate from the main travel areas – ie when something starts to go “off track”, a new thread gets created in the playground for continuance of that debate, or the posts not related directly to the thread are removed as soon as they are identified.
Many years ago when I was a computer nerd my forum of choice was whirlpool. That was a long time ago, but I recall that they had a specific ban on some debates. As I recall it was the “IvP” rule – ie Israel vs Palestine. Essentially the concept was that this was a topic where everyone had their own ideas, no one was going to benefit from debate, and thus it became an absolutely banned topic. Any post that tried to bring it up was removed. I think that could perhaps be valid here. And obviously the Climate Change debate is the current equivalent.
Should we ban Climate Change debate from the forum? Or insist it only occurs in some corner where it does not dilute or completely overrun other topics? I think we can and we should. There will be aviation or travel issues where climate change may be relevant, but I do not think it is particularly hard to identify posts that are not specific to the thread. Maybe I am wrong
I use the example of Climate Change as this is a definite area where people have very strong emotions attached. There are other things (such as gay marriage, etc) that may also be prudent to outlaw. But many controversial issues are best dealt with simply by keeping debate calm and decent – which is a task that our mods already do very well, in conjunction with the very high standards of the members themselves.
Anyways, at the end of the day I want this forum to keep being the amazing thing it is. I do not want to lose any members, even those I strongly disagree with on some points. And I want it to continue to be a premium space for us all to share and enjoy our experiences and knowledge.
even continue reading – a thread that has you wanting to lash (back) out. The answer might surprise you, but for many people it's a lot harder than it sounds to just forgive, forget, move on etc...
