I saw this discussion brought up on a different thread and I though I’d get some more opinions on the matter.
The Beehaw community guidelines describe a place that’s meant to be safe, friendly and encourages people to discuss their ideas in good faith. For the most part I feel like this community lives up to that; users of this instance are generally thoughtful with their responses. However, I don’t feel like that level of quality extends to the users who post from other instances. Responses from those users are more likely to pendantic, overly argumentative, and unhelpful.
Now I may just be an elitist fuck so I’d like to hear your opinions on this. Does Beehaw benefit from federation? Do the community guidelines even matter if they don’t apply to many of the people who engage with this instance? Am I just looking for a reason to complain?
EDIT: This post isn’t a request for Beehaw to defederate btw. I just wanted to discuss the negatives of federation and what we can do to alleviate them :)
I think the main issue is the tone with which an idea is presented, not always the idea itself. I’m open to many viewpoints; in fact, that’s how I learn and understand best. I don’t only want to listen to people who already think like I do.
Some things can’t be compromised on, though. In my opinion, US conservatives have become blatantly bigoted, sexist, and fascist. In the past, one could give them the benefit of the doubt, but they’re not even trying to hide it anymore. I don’t care how they “present” their ideas. When someone tries to explain why tacitly supporting bigotry is okay, it doesn’t matter how eloquently they make their point. They are actively opposed to tolerance, and therefore don’t deserve it.
I think the tone statement is true. There were probably were some ways for me to improve my phrasing.
I go assuming the benefit of the doubt for most if not all posts since they are text only. We can derive a lot of things from body language and actual tone in real life.
Yeah, we can. I came across a study on the role of nonverbal cues in communication. We rely on them much more than you’d expect. It’s not surprising that misunderstandings happen so often when we’ve only got text to go on.