A Question to Ponder or Ignore at Your Leisure
 

How can a reputable forum such as ToTV, which publishes posting guidelines...using such terms as civility and respect...allow the political forum to continue on as it currently is.

I wish that everyone's real name had to be displayed. It is my opinion that being anonymous brings out the bully in too many people who probably haven't had their dreams come true and are currently terribly unhappy.

Grace Gantner

It certainly was a lot more civil when it wasn't working as "Guest". Removing names and letting people be totally anonymous is a huge mistake in my opinion.

Anonymity guarantees people to express their real opinions. Does it really matter if we know who they really are, I certainly don't care.

If an opinion must be expressed anonymously, to me it's not worth hearing.

If a classic book were to have an unknown author, you wouldn't read it ?

Are we not sharing ideas, not personalities ?

I think that the presidential election clearly demonstrates why anonymity is needed for people to be able to express their opinions. Many Trump supporters were afraid to speak out because they were afraid of being persecuted or even physically attacked. If we didn't have secret elections, I don't believe Trump would have been elected.

You're right in one respect...I apologize for the "lame comparison" remark. I should have just said that I think the comparison was apples and oranges.

But the exchange of meaningful ideas in the political forum is extremely rare. It sounds as though you think any words expressed in any manner constitute an idea. I couldn't disagree more.

Some people might consider that an elitist point of view. I do not.
Even the most desperate individual begging for consideration has a point of view that is valid albeit disputed or disparaged by others.

Obviously, an anonymous forum has value if you want to know what people really think. If you don't, then you don't have to read it.

I agree--I go there for the laughs.

Is this thread an example of the kind of tort and retort on the political forum?

Unfortunately it's digressed in that direction...and I'm sorry for that.

But this thread cannot compare in any way to the nature of the political forum...I won't even try here to describe any specifics as to why.

Simple solution. Dont go there. I feel the EXACT same way about Synagogues, Mosques, Lane Bryant, Chico's, Avon Parties, Liver Pie, KKK rallies, Water Parks, Kindergarten "Graduations"...and so many other things. I find it so easy to just not go, and just not care.

Sadly, some of us do like to discuss politics. But this political forum is nothing but bickering and insulting. I find it difficult to believe that anyone with even an iota of intelligence truly believes some of the comments that have been made in the political forum and, if they do believe the bigoted, mysoginistic, hyperbolic hated they've spewed, they deserve to be outed.

At the very least, give each "guest" a number so that we can tell which guest has said what. Probably the best way is have members sign in with a new identity with no options to send private messages.

Heh. So I guess you haven't experienced or read about the long-standing technical issues. Much easier to avoid that long list of places you mentioned than to avoid the political forum on ToTV.

Anonymous or not
 

bbbbbb

Hi, a lot of books especially fiction are written by authors with Pen Names not real names.

Mark Twain was Samuel Clemens.

It seems that the Political Forum does get a bit raunchy, best to just glance at it and move on.

A huge pro study was done years ago about large Homeowners groups, yes we have one here, the results???

1. 30 percent of the folks are very nice and real congenial to live around.
2. 30 percent have never accomplished anything in life and want to give it their last fling, dominate someone or find fault only.
3. 30 percent did something productive in life and cannot give it up to be the boss at home.

bbbbbb :wave: :wave: :wave:

I am familiar. I am also familiar with the fact that any username can be seen on mobile devices.

There is an old saying - "Your opinion of me is none of my business". The fact is, on the internet...I dont care. Even more so...in life for the most part I dont care.

I never hardly ever ask "How are you?" to a stranger. Fact is, I dont care. Worst case scenario someone tells me. Friends and family, that is another story.

I have learned in The Villages (and to steal from the Clemens quote)...

30% of the people want to tell you how to live your life
30% of the people are better than you, and cant wait to tell you.
30% of the people are lost, dont know their own name or where they were going to (or from)
30% of the rest are complaining about the others
.00001% of the people matter even a little bit in the grand scheme of my life

Yes, the numbers overlap as some of the people fall into multiple criteria.

I haven't tried it today, but the last time I hit the 'Hide Classifieds' button, it got rid of classifieds but all the 'guest' posts suddenly appeared and I'm not even subscribed to that forum.

Since that forum can only be aggravation for the moderators, to keep it around must be because of financial reasons. I suspect it increases the website traffic count, which in turn increases the amount one can charge advertisers. This is just a guess, I don't have any proof.

I also agree with those who think making comments while hiding the screen names does nothing for exchanging ideas. To exchange ideas will only occur if the posters names are attached. However, that would probably decrease usage, which would decrease traffic count.