Divisive topics unrelated to travel

[RooFlyer]

Or insist it only occurs in some corner where it does not dilute or completely overrun other topics?

Called 'Playground' juddles . Its where I see a food thread, a vaping thread, happy birthdays, NBN , Lies, Birds, and so on. Why, someone even started a thread on Greta Thunburg's speech . Wonder how that went.

Its all good clean fun, folks. Don't take it too seriously and don't forget to say cheers when having a drink with your keyboard 'opponent' at the next AFF gathering. There was some-one who I used to go flat-out hammer-and-tongs against on many threads, but we had a friendly correspondence in PMs. Unfortunately no longer here, although i strongly encouraged them to persevere.

 

[OATEK]

My take on this off-topic thread is that people have widely divergent views on many topics, but there are some areas of discussion that touch them most. Because the most sensitive topics for an individual may vary greatly from person to person, it is very hard for the Mods to create hard and fast rules that will please every one. I know there are a couple of epithets that tend to get under my guard from time to time, but despite this I can't remember feeling the need to report someone. I might comment back, provide an opposing view, but have never wished to shut anyone or any topic down.

As someone who has had several recent surgeries, one involving the big C, I do avoid certain threads, like the general medical issues thread, because for me it just keeps in the forebrain things I want to shuffle back in to the archive. But I beleive many people on here feel supported and encouraged by the interactions on that thread, which is often discussing matters totally unrelated to AFFing. And it is my observation that some of the people who contribute freely to these sorts of threads are also those who from time to time raise the ire of some AFFers on other threads.

This is the nub of it for me. A community of people like us on AFF are likely to lose more than they gain by shutting down people and creating safe spaces given that we are mostly adults who might be expected to have learnt coping mechanisms for dealing with disagreements.

 

[Max Samuels]

This is the nub of it for me. A community of people like us on AFF are likely to lose more than they gain by shutting down people and creating safe spaces given that we are mostly adults who might be expected to have learnt coping mechanisms for dealing with disagreements.

So well put.
1000000000000000000000000000000% agree.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I have hitherto refrained from contributing to this thread because I have participated in the divisive threads in question and, accordingly, I felt I may have been one of the people whose behaviour was under scrutiny. However I would like to make the observation that It is possible to discuss politics respectfully; it is also possibe to discuss travel disrespectfully. Any thread can become divisive, or provoke uncivil discourse, no matter the topic. Even threads directly and unambiguously related to travel. One such thread is at risk of degenerating even as I type this post. In my view it is the conduct which is the problem, not the topic, and we rely on the mods to monitor this conduct. Of course this is a grey area and means we ask the mods to do a more difficult job, but the best outcomes are rarely achieved through the application of inflexible, black and white rules. Real people exercisding good judgement on a case by case basis is much better. So thank you, mods, for your hard work and in anticipation of more hard work to come.

 

[get me outta here]

My suggestion originally was divisive topics, politics/ climate change, sex and matters arising. I see those as diverse, and have been over the years.
All sorts of other topics such as medical matters etc are very interesting and supportive, not divisive, but whatever that’s cool.

 

[Max Samuels]

My suggestion originally was divisive topics, politics/ climate change, sex and matters arising. I see those as diverse, and have been over the years.
All sorts of other topics such as medical matters etc are very interesting and supportive, not divisive, but whatever that’s cool.

So the old wisdom appears to be relevant in 2019 too!

Topics to avoid in any social situation:

Sex
Politics
Religion

 

[ajd]

Climate change absolutely *is* a travel related subject, and in particular an air travel related one, which is the specific focus of this forum. It's certainly a political and divisive subject, and it's not directly connected with the usual discussions that happen on this forum, but I think it's very important to be able to talk, respectfully and constructively, about the environmental impact of aviation and how we can be responsible FFs.

I realise the discussions on climate change in this forum historically haven't been amazingly constructive, and I also realise that there's a lot of FFs who feel rather called out when this topic comes up, but I think there's many interesting discussions to be had about how we can mitigate our aviation-related emissions and also exciting new stuff like electric aircraft that will be very interesting for FFs to watch over the next few years.

That said - I otherwise totally agree about the need to keep this forum friendly and useful. I find this forum does occasionally have issues with civility in discourse more generally, whether it be about politics or whether it be about far more mundane stuff like airline ticketing screwups and such. The mods do a good job but occasionally we still do push things a bit too far. Some of the politics threads have definitely gotten very toxic in the past. If we're going to allow debates on controversial topics, being respectful and constructive is key, and I would be quite happy to see the problematic threads reined in by our community when needed.

 

[jakeseven7]

If I don’t particularly like a thread, or the direction that it’s going in, then I leave it alone and don’t bother going back. Pretty easy really.

Yes but if its a thread where the topic is relevant and interesting and it keeps getting pulled into recessions, ski trip prices and flights via Nadi for example and its allowed to keep doing this all over the forum it gets pretty frustrating

 

[QF WP]

I don’t think I’ve detected a single troll here.

You must have been looking away at the wrong time then , although the incidence of them has lessened over time.

Yet another aspect is our moderators. I think they do a perfect job, balancing free speech yet not letting things get out of hand.

The moderators appear to do an excellent job of moderating

Why thank you . We try and use the tools available to us wisely . We don't always get it perfectly right , but like democracy, the majority of times we need to please the majority rather than the minority.

There will always be topics (and posts) that are devisive to some, yet not others. That's the function of the "report" option....or the "block member"function. There are some that I wish I could have used tha option, alas, we are required to have access to everything...

 

[mrsterryn]

I have to say I have reported individual comments that appeared to be plain old nasty . It does seem to be fairly rare

When I first started , finally posting, one of my first posts I was basically called an idiot for the question , perhaps I was.
I requested a deletion of the thread and it happened. It was good to have that facility .

 

[esseeeayeenn]

I have to say I have reported individual comments that appeared to be plain old nasty . It does seem to be fairly rare

When I first started , finally posting, one of my first posts I was basically called an idiot for the question , perhaps I was.
I requested a deletion of the thread and it happened. It was good to have that facility .

That sounds awful and should never happen.
It also demonstrates that incivility can happen on any topic.

 

[Max Samuels]

That sounds awful and should never happen.
It also demonstrates that incivility can happen on any topic.

I have found the harshest and meanest and most "personal" attacks come from the more established members, which was surprising at first.

But then, human nature I suppose. People that have been involved with something longer than others, think by default that their opinion/knowledge is somehow "better" and worth more. And you can see that everywhere in life.

Purely from a sociological point of view, forum like this are fascinating because they do, in fact, mirror real life!

With a forum like this, for example, whether you have posted 10 or 10,000 times, whether you have flows 10 or 1000 times, at the end of the day, 99% of stuff written is just an opinion. Sure, if someone has flown the world's top 10 airlines in F more than 10 times each, then that person's opinion is certainly going to be more "informed", but still an opinion, none the less.

Take QF F, for example. I don't like it. I don't like the layout. I don't like the decor. I don't like the colour scheme (it is too clinical for me - I feel like I am going in for surgery). In my opinion, I will never rate it higher than EK or CX or JL. But that is just my opinion. My boss, who routinely flies EK/QF F to LHR, often has QF one leg, EK another (esp when was via DXB). He HATED EK - he hated the "gaudiness" of the gold and fake wood and all of that. It was like we were speaking different languages! But there you are - an opinion no less, neither right or wrong.

 

[Max Samuels]

If you ignore someone, does that mean their posts become invisible to you? Do they cease to exist? How does it work?

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Purely from a sociological point of view, forum like this are fascinating because they do, in fact, mirror real life!

If I were nasty, or concerned about declining standards of English, I would point out that this should be "fora" though "forums" is probably also an acceptable plural these days. But as I am a nice person I shall let it go.

 

[support]

If you ignore someone, does that mean their posts become invisible to you? Do they cease to exist? How does it work?

You no longer see their posts in a thread.

Quotes also disappear, but you see the content posted by the person quoting them.



At the very bottom of a thread, a button will appear if a thread is missing some content, allowing you to see it.

 

[Max Samuels]

You no longer see their posts in a thread.

Quotes also disappear, but you see the content posted by the person quoting them.

View attachment 191306

At the very bottom of a thread, a button will appear if a thread is missing some content, allowing you to see it.

View attachment 191307

Did you ignore me to demonstrate? Or ignoring me for real??

 

[support]

Did you ignore me to demonstrate? Or ignoring me for real??

It was a demonstration, as you asked how it worked... and it is easiest to just show you.

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/account/ignored

Also worth noting. Staff cannot be ignored.

 

[Max Samuels]

Actually we should never ignore someone because we don't like his or her point of view.
That is probably the main reason the world is in such a bizarre state at the moment; people in echo chambers, only listening to what makes them feel good and align to a specific world view.

My sister has a friend, sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo to the left, that one day she came into the house and I was wearing a Trump Hotels and Resort t-shirt (from before he was president which I got on holiday in NYC years ago) and she promptly turned around and left!!

Which is good because she was boring anyway.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

Actually we should never ignore someone because we don't like his or her point of view.
That is probably the main reason the world is in such a bizarre state at the moment; people in echo chambers, only listening to what makes them feel good and align to a specific world view.

My sister has a friend, sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo to the left, that one day she came into the house and I was wearing a Trump Hotels and Resort t-shirt (from before he was president which I got on holiday in NYC years ago) and she promptly turned around and left!!

Which is good because she was boring anyway.

I might not ignore someone wearing a Trump t-shirt.
But I'd definitely judge them for it.

 

[support]

Actually we should never ignore someone because we don't like his or her point of view.

If a member never sees eye to eye with another member, the simplest solution is to ignore their content. It is the preferred solution to constant issues.

[mod hat]

Stay on topic.​

[/mod hat]