Forum and Discussion Boards Are Roads Paved with Good Intentions

Forums and Discussions Boards are roads paved with good intentions, except someone ALWAYS has to CRAP on someone else's PARADE.

Let me explain. I belong to several forums / discussions boards, some for business, learning about the latest and greatest improvements on the world wide web, having a web site that I built and maintain, or for pleasure (some male film stars who will remain unnamed). Mostly I go and read, come to think of it, in over approximately 5 years, I have only replied once.

Why, do you ask, do I not participate, as longs as I am there?

- Am I shy? yes
- Am I curious? yes
- Do I have an opinion (most definitely) once I've heard all the arguments
- I am also severely handicapped in thinking up a cool screen name. A lot of screen names are quite quirky, which always leaves me thinking "wow, how did they come up with something like that". The best I can come up with is lfoltyn (first initial, last name) - brilliant! I know.

Here is the problem I find with forums and discussion boards:

- Everybody gets to hide behind their screen name.
- And because everyone gets to hide behind their screen name, people say things they would not normally said to a person's face.
- Thus giving way to the "cranky pants ranter", who seems to live with a dark cloud that follows them no matter where they go, and they usually go to forums and discussion boards.

Here's your typical discussion, and how they ALWAYS, ALWAYS turn out:

Suzieq: I really like daisies, I think they are beautiful.
Quiggly: OMG, I thought I was the only one that like daisies, don't you think they bring freshness and sunshine to brighten up any old room!
Franz: I just picked daisies the other day and put them in my living room, it made me so happy.
Darkcloud: You people are idiots, anyone who likes daisies has no taste whatsoever! You suck.
Suzieq: It's not fair for you to come here and rant, just because you don't like daisies, go crawl under a rock.
Quiggly: Darkcloud - you need a reality check.
Darkcloud: You people wouldn't know a daisy from a pansy!. You suck.

And on and on . . . Etc. Etc. . . .

Notice how the scenario always plays out, someone says something nice, a couple other people agree, mr. darkcloud comes in with some crappy comment, people take it personally, and start to rant on mr. darkcloud over, and over again, taking personal pot shots at each other, until there are at least 2 pages of personal rants totally off the subject to begin with.

Do I want to get involved where someone can rain on my parade? No. Do people rain on my parade in person? No. Do I live in my own "happy little world" in real life? Yes. And that is where I prefer to stay, away from the "No Face To A Made Up Screen Name Cranky Pants Mr. Dark Cloud's of the World!"

In my world, there is always fresh sun-shiny daisy's for EVERYONE!