2)

What constitutes offensive behaviour to one, may not be so to others.
I remain disgusted at what I saw as two totally racist posts.

Not so it seems..It didn't offend most of you did it?
I handed them to those who were being vilified;-if they seek no further action, then OK. Either they chose not to, OR they did not find such rubbish offensive.

It is a matter of PERSONAL opinion what constitutes 'bad' behaviour online.

Posts that are considered to be defamatory or GROSSLY offensive....., or quite frankly;-posts that the website owner finds offensive WILL be deleted. They have been.

This is a mature and strong debating site, not a kindergarten.
One man's meat may well be another man's poison. It is a personal decision as to which is which.

And it is a personal choice to cope with that, or go and find a kindergarten.

I have some problems with the concept of defamation. I think it can be a tool for suppressing radical thought.

Having said that I am in a bind as I would suppress fascist material precisely because it is intended to lead to genocidal action.

I suspect, but don't know without more research, that defamation around among the landed gentry where a name - Lord such and such - had a real monetary value and defamation undermined that value. Or maybe that is just me going off on a tangent.

I do remember when a mainstream media outlet defamed me (in my opinion). I took no action. Fair enough I thought. If they want to say that that's fine. I pointed out their error and because they were clearly wrong they published a correction. End of story. If they had been right? Truth seems good enough for me.

I think a lot of abuse on these sites is harmless. It is a substitute for thought and allows people to blow off steam without blowing other people away.

I must admit however it can be wearing when what you actually want is something approaching an intelligent discussion about important events. But among the dross there are some wonderful diamonds.

Thank you for writing this, Daphne, I’m so glad someone has. Early in my posting here, I was pursued by another poster within OLO. There were a few of us he went after, but it seems I was his “favourite”. I snapped back once and he went away. I haven’t seen him again, or posts that resemble his.

What I have seen, though, is a degree of stridency, aggression and “playing of the man” that is offensive and counterproductive. I’ve also seen that many seem to rejoice in the disagreement for its own sake. I’m afraid I don’t know what “flaming” and “trolling” are.

Sometimes I can’t tell if the stridency and aggression are intended to offend. Just because intentions are not transparent. Unfortunately, some people just speak like that. I understand robustness, and I appreciate passion. None of these means that courtesy needs to be jettisoned.

The other problem is that the behaviour is distracting, and takes everyone’s eyes off the topic. Posters can then get their antlers in a tangle, and the thread descends into a fight.

Some posters (not sure how many) are actually willing to seek common ground, or even change their mind, but very few. So few that I have noticed very little productivity from most discussions. A simple example: If A says three things and B disagrees with the last one, B is likely to launch into the last one. It’s a shame because an opportunity to recognise that agreement has been reached on points one and two is lost.

Many of us simply contradict and repeat, and then escalate with attitude rather than content. So, I think some are here for the joy of disagreement.

Pity, and a waste of a lot of smarts. The other thing I’ve been impressed by on OLO is the astonishing level of knowledge that exists here, as well as rigour in debate. We could do some good, if we wanted to.

Pax,