CUBS06 wrote:
Terry could really let fly with some profane posts over at the Delphi forum. And yet I always appreciated his contributions to the game. Is there something about DMB that drives some of our greatest contributors over the edge (i.e. Blackbelt, Terry, etal)?
I think it may be a combination of at least four things:

1.   While some of us actually know other posters, most of us are anonymous.  Some of us "know" each other only through various electronic communication methods, which means we still really don't know each other (as anyone can attest who thinks he has gotten to know someone via email and the Internet, only to find out that he was communicating with someone's made-up persona).  Anonymity can be a fertile environment for personal attacks, extreme statements, and general boorishness. 

2.  Several different people have been credited with a version of  the famous saying "Academic politics are so bitter precisely because the stakes are so small."  A more formal and universal version from the world of political science is Sayre's Law:  "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." Most truly important issues share a common characteristic:  one way or the other, sooner or later, there needs to be a decision--even if the decision is to wait until later to make a decision.  In any group of people, usually the only way to make an actual decision is to form a majority out of people willing to compromise on some things, agree to disagree on others, split some differences, and keep the personal animosity to a minimum.  With truly important issues, most of the time the various combatants look for areas where they can agree.  When decisions have to be made by a certain time, it tends to focus the mind on reaching agreement.  But on the DMB forum, we can argue about the relative merits of A-Rod vs. Jeter until they're both old and gray, and we never have to come to an agreement or compromise in any way.  So instead of looking for areas of agreement, we can keep trying to find new areas of disagreement so that we can continue scoring debating points, which tends to magnify the bitterness of the discussion.

3.   People who regularly deal with highly contentious and important disagreements among members of a group tend to learn how to disagree without burning bridges, and how to stay calm while being disagreed with.  They learn how to separate issues from personalities.  They learn that their adversary on one issue may be their ally on the next issue.  I used to be an elected official and it was interesting how people could fight each other hammer and tongs over something huge like reinstating the death penalty or funding levels for mental health programs in the morning, and then work together to pass an amendment on drunk driving in the afternoon.  And meanwhile, there were people in my hometown church who hadn't spoken to each other for 2 years because they had disagreed over whether the new organ should be put in the front of the church or the back of the church because it was the only time they'd had a big disagreement with each other in front of an audience and therefore took everything personally.

4.  Message board conversations are more prone to misinterpretations and unintended insults due to the inability to read clues like voice inflection and facial expression.  It also doesn't allow immediate feedback that tells a person his message has been misunderstood so that he can correct a misimpression before it festers into hurt feelings.  And it doesn't help that we normally dash off these messages quickly without putting much thought into the connotations of our words.

So I think we have a tendency now and then to see arguments over issues that don't ever have to be resolved, between people who care a lot about the subject but may not have much experience dealing with disagreement, who don't know each other, will never meet face to face, and therefore can afford to be horses butts if they feel like it, communicating through an imperfect medium that increases the odds of misunderstandings.


Edited 1 time by What Cheer Wombat 12/28/10 10:43 PM.