Because I have been guilty of these too:

[shirenomad]

(From aurora77)

I have a proposition for you all.

Make Febuary the month to bring civility back to your LiveJournal.

This is a three-step process.

1) OWN your words. This is three subparts: a) REREAD your comment/entry before posting and make sure that this is really you and not an emotionally twisted version who is posting. b) DON'T DODGE attacks that are made against your statements with "I didn't mean to ..." or "You're not understanding me" or by running away. Just reply to the comment and address it directly with justification or even a "you make interesting point, I never did think of it from that angle, thanks." Mean what you say and accept the consequences. c) As a counterpoint, JUSTIFY your points. Give your reasons for your response instead of the textual equivalent of a playground "so there!".

2) FORGIVE the large offenses, FORGET the small ones. We're all friends here, we can all take a light ribbing from each other. An overzealous comment, an unintended dig are just part of human interaction. Taking everything as a major personal affront is draining and frankly antisocial.

3) Discuss THE ISSUES NOT THE PEOPLE. Only politicians get away with personal attacks and even then, they look really stupid. If another poster has an opinion on an issue that differs from yours, don't attack him, instead, discuss why you have a different opinion and why you have that opinion. People in any group are entitled to differing opinions on everything, but no progress is made with pouting and name-calling. Just because a situation is obvious to you doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to explain it a little to someone else. Remember, the point of discussion and debate is to EDUCATE the other side, not to ATTACK them.

I haven't yet decided if this should be a one-shot post or something that, throughout the month, I'll try to remind everyone of. Regardless, I'm hoping that with a few rules and a little common sense, we can get back to enjoying this forum. It's a one-month experiment. I'm not asking that you permanently change who you are, just to try out this new way of approaching comments and entries that, in my opinion, is a little more socially friendly. Just give it a month.

Comments

[zarchery.livejournal.com]

2) FORGIVE the large offenses, FORGET the small ones. We're all friends here, we can all take a light ribbing from each other. An overzealous comment, an unintended dig are just part of human interaction. Taking everything as a major personal affront is draining and frankly antisocial.

We're friends here? News to me.