Quote:
Originally Posted by iceman
From the private comments I've had made to me, it's because a few very opinionated people, such as Craig, post in such a way and comment in such a way that it makes it very intimidating for people to contribute - so they don't.
I've seen it time and time again.
It's like if people don't have a certain level of 'research' or 'knowledge' in what they post or what their opinions are, then you get Craig or sometimes 1 or 2 others, jump down their throat with big words that make the OP feel very small, or berated and it does not foster an environment where people would want to post.
For the majority of people on IceInSpace, they don't fall into the 'scientist' category and they sometimes have questions or opinions that they want to state or ask, but don't.
It's only a very few that want to have the 'rigorous debate'.
Sometimes it's not even the content itself, it's just the way it's delivered.
That's my opinion from what I've seen and from comments made to me by people who refuse to post in the science forum.
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(I'll take this comment as a non-moderator adminstrator comment .. as it is publically directed at me)..
Mike;
The issue is clearly then the attempt to mix these different levels of discourse into the same forum. I can see three solutions only ..
i) either it is expected that us 'problem people' will just nicely 'fade' away or
ii) the conversations need to be split into categories where clearer, different rules apply
or;
iii) you bulldoze the Forum altogether.
In my view, a participant's contributions towards achieving a wider and deeper understanding of Science across this community results in a site viewed more widely by the broader science-astrophysics community across the web. You should also be aware that various participants here (including myself), have initiated threads in the Science Forum at IIS, which have directly resulted in duplicate discussions being propagated across many other Science sites on the web. The people who complain the loudest here, do not make such contributions.
What is the cost, what is the benefit and what is IIS trying to achieve with its Science Forum ?
I attempted to make suggestions which might have led to a more harmonious forum months ago and you decided to make no changes. If nothing happens, you can simply expect more of the same.
What's ever going to give ?
Cheers