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BTW, I'm still figuring out the site so I'm sure I'll make mistakes posting ,,so give me heck if necessary!! I still don't quite know how to change my profile pic or edit a post though when I loose my train of thought ???
Welcome back! Looks like you did just fine
Personally, I'm glad to see these changes occurring. I left this community a few years ago because of the very reasons discussed.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
- How do we create a positive, welcoming environment here?
- What do we want peoples' initial impressions of our community to be?
- What words do we want people to use to describe our community?
- What words do we not want people to use to describe our community?
I'd like to suggest the idea of a posted Mission Statement. Or a "Constitution". A Code that serves as a guideline for behavior. A Pledge maybe. Many of us are veterans and understand those things. Nothing long, or elaborate, but something that says this is who we are, and this is how we behave. It's setting a quality control standard. Anything that falls below that standard gets eliminated. Personally I think strict adherence to the rules needs to be enforced until some precedence has been set. Just like the "Broken Windows" policy, or like raising kids. Principles set when they're young are easier to enforce in the long term.
The battle we are fighting in this forum is the same one we are fighting nationally. There are three groups of people out there. Those devoted Pro-Gun, those devoted Anti-Gun, and those that haven't really spent much time considering either, and are in the middle.
We're likely not going to sway those people in the Anti-Gun community. What we need to focus on are influencing those that are in the undecided/middle. Additionally we need to keep those currently Pro-Gun from not wanting to be associated with a certain type of image. The "Black Helicopter Brigade" as Joe Biden labeled them/us.
Insulting people who disagree with us does not make us look very attractive. Calling people stupid, or idiots does not make us look like reasonable, informed people that others should be listening too. Who wants to be part of a group of people who are angry, and negative, and name calling? And who can only accept the world as their very own narrow view of things? I don't want to be a part of that.
We need to present our argument in an educational, informative, and welcoming way.
I like the idea of having a voting system in place. I don't know if it's like or dislike. I do agree that having "dislike" creates a negative feel to it.
Is there a way to do it like Reddit where people vote a topic up or down? Or "report" or "flag" when something is posted that should be addressed immediately?
It's all going to come down to the population of the members. If there are more of us that want it vs those that want it they way it's become.
Would it be possible to immediately suspend everyone's membership and require that people read and agree to the Pledge before reactivating the membership? It would also be something that new members would be required to do in order to start a membership.
I bet that might weed out some of the bad apples right there. They are not going to want to agree to those things.
Just my two cents.
Fantastic post!
Almost $40 a month is kind of expensive, I'm on disability. What advantage does the Supporting Vendor get you, or are those for someone with a license to sell weapons?
This is strictly for people engaging in commercial activity, everything between home-based holster makers to national chains.
A site with many people is going to have those you agree with and would love to share a beer, get a sandwich with etc. You'll also have those that are a little strong. You just need to let those you feel are to strong/pushy/insulting be who they are, as long as they are not blatantly offensive, leave 'em alone/ignore them. (I don't mean use the ignore feature unless that's your thing) If we got too thin skinned around here we'll kill what I love about the place. Be the bigger person and let it go. Converse with and enjoy those that you like. The bad apples will drift away.
As I've read things for the past 4+ years I've seen very few who need to be gone, and for the most part, those people end up posting very little or not at all now.
This site is a living thing with ebbs and flows, go with it, stay around and we'll all benefit!
Damn! is that prophetic or what?
This is absolutely true, and what I've written is as far as I think we need to go with the 'play nice' rules. Still trying to find a balance