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Guest102023
Materials
- Feb 11, 2010
- 1,523
Question: as stated in the header, and as a service to the Eng-tips community.
Let's examine the content, direction, moderation and decorum (or lack thereof) of recent climate related threads. I will kick this off but not participate. Knock yourselves out.
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All the worst characteristics of internet 'speech' and particularly 'social media' have appeared, and a general antagonistic tone has become the norm. Threads have all had the same pattern of devolving into conspiracy theories, personal attacks, petty politics, and general invective that should be beneath a professional engineer, and certainly do not meet the stated expectations of the Eng-Tips managers in the house rules. There has been no moderation, other than an occasional scream to 'stay on topic' (often when a member simply disagrees with a post). I'll state up front that I don't claim to be proud of every single thing I have posted. And I always forget that folks most in need of hearing sarcasm are those least likely to detect it.
Some of the posts IMO are informed by ignorance, naked economic self-interest, one-dimensional thinking, total lack of self-awareness, even conspiracy theories. The political and ideological skews correlate well with member nationality. Command of logical principles at a fundamental level is frequently lacking and whataboutery is rampant. The fallacies are too numerous to list here. The worst social media crime of all is that of accusing another of the thing one is clearly guilty of. Members who post factual, verifiable information have had all kinds of aspersions cast at them, including personal insults, up to and including comments about the member's mental health. Well being aquainted with such issues, and having become a keen student of HU factors in organizations, I am somewhat adept at identifying such issues in myself and others (and let's face it, we engineers are highly prone to one or two 'conditions'. If you need help identifying what those might be, I refer you to popular jokes and stereotypes). I have held myself back from offering sometimes needed diagnoses.
Some of the worst offenders (there are at least three) have profiles that say "I'm an Eng-Tips Forums Fellow and member of the Eng-Tips Forums Round Table, where management is advised on site operations and proposed programming enhancements." I have no words for that discovery, other than 'what the actual ****??!!' All of them are old enough to know better. (Even though the profiles are public I apologize for snooping; it feels creepy. Anyone else feel creepy about it?) Maybe I have the wrong impression, but I associate things like 'Fellow' and 'member of the Round Table' with mature, thoughtful behaviour.
Discuss, considering how you all could make this work.
...see you all après le déluge
"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"
Let's examine the content, direction, moderation and decorum (or lack thereof) of recent climate related threads. I will kick this off but not participate. Knock yourselves out.
______________________________________________________________________________
All the worst characteristics of internet 'speech' and particularly 'social media' have appeared, and a general antagonistic tone has become the norm. Threads have all had the same pattern of devolving into conspiracy theories, personal attacks, petty politics, and general invective that should be beneath a professional engineer, and certainly do not meet the stated expectations of the Eng-Tips managers in the house rules. There has been no moderation, other than an occasional scream to 'stay on topic' (often when a member simply disagrees with a post). I'll state up front that I don't claim to be proud of every single thing I have posted. And I always forget that folks most in need of hearing sarcasm are those least likely to detect it.
Some of the posts IMO are informed by ignorance, naked economic self-interest, one-dimensional thinking, total lack of self-awareness, even conspiracy theories. The political and ideological skews correlate well with member nationality. Command of logical principles at a fundamental level is frequently lacking and whataboutery is rampant. The fallacies are too numerous to list here. The worst social media crime of all is that of accusing another of the thing one is clearly guilty of. Members who post factual, verifiable information have had all kinds of aspersions cast at them, including personal insults, up to and including comments about the member's mental health. Well being aquainted with such issues, and having become a keen student of HU factors in organizations, I am somewhat adept at identifying such issues in myself and others (and let's face it, we engineers are highly prone to one or two 'conditions'. If you need help identifying what those might be, I refer you to popular jokes and stereotypes). I have held myself back from offering sometimes needed diagnoses.
Some of the worst offenders (there are at least three) have profiles that say "I'm an Eng-Tips Forums Fellow and member of the Eng-Tips Forums Round Table, where management is advised on site operations and proposed programming enhancements." I have no words for that discovery, other than 'what the actual ****??!!' All of them are old enough to know better. (Even though the profiles are public I apologize for snooping; it feels creepy. Anyone else feel creepy about it?) Maybe I have the wrong impression, but I associate things like 'Fellow' and 'member of the Round Table' with mature, thoughtful behaviour.
Discuss, considering how you all could make this work.
...see you all après le déluge
"If you don't have time to do the job right the first time, when are you going to find time to repair it?"
