Quote:
Originally Posted by jojo
I started posting in 2007. I made friends before we moved here. The forum was "lighter" - more fun and easy-going. It was incredibly helpful to a newbie. Not sure if we can ever return to the non-divisiveness of the most recent years. My hope for the new year is kinder and gentler.
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Thank you, jojo. I, too, have been around here since 2007.
I don’t know how the moderators stand it. There is a predicable, insidious toxicity that has become a part of TOTV.
There are posters who gang up on anyone who thinks differently and are blatant about it while others are more subtle. Because it is TV, the “Us vs. Them” is uneven. Even that “thank you” feature is often used as a tool of the tribal.
The last time I started a thread, it was to ask for info on the Apple Watch. I got excellent information — and I said, “Thank you.” But I also got a condescending snark which caused me to snark back. (I apologized.)
BUT THEN, another poster showed up to take a political hit. It was a thread about an Apple Watch fer gawd’s sake! Don’t those people ever think about anything else. Why are they always waiting to pounce. (rhetorical questions)
That thread was a classic example of what is good and what is bad about the current TOTV. (Yes. I know it was a tame example when compared to the hateful stuff on other internet sites.)
I have posted for all these years like some people might do crossword puzzles or knit. I have written posts to try to help someone. I have had some fun along the way. And sometimes TOTV is theater.
But for the past few years, too much of this place has devolved, turning into a microcosm of what we are seeing everywhere. A lot of people have been manipulated into turning on each other and that behavior carries over into almost everything. Ugly stuff.
Every room full of people has a feel — a tone. TOTV is a room full of people and the feel of the room has changed, especially for those of us who remember how it once was. It will never be like the early days when the “room” was small, but maybe it can get better — depending on who decides to stick around — and why.
Boomer