Cont..

I don't ever remember any of OTB's posts to her being pinged for abuse which usually means Foxy didn't flag them. I've had a few of mine flagged and deleted which were far tamer than what was being dished out by OTB but then the right tend to be sensitive souls when it comes to this kind of thing.

Here is one of the many little gems from the lad implying Suseonline and Foxy were white male hating lesbians;

“Suseonline, Your post and Fox's say a lot about your and her biases. Neither of you is particularly enamoured with 'Whites'(sic), especially 'White' men. You are not so keen on seniors which is expected for social rule-breakers who for example, want to trash the Marriage Act because it represents a cultural tradition and morality you despise. You yourself are the forum's expert on gays and posted often on anal sex, even where no-one else had mentioned it(?!). Strangely though it is only recently that you have started to refer to lesbians. Odd that is, but hey, whatever comes out in the wash. Your propensities, like Fox's, are your own affair and freedom of speech is the single most distinguishing feature and most important, that separates democratic, tolerant Australia from many other nations in the UN.”

So mate I'm going to challenge any notion that this was a case of “Not coping well with an environment where dissenting voices would be shut down by the moderator or shouted down by force of numbers.”

So I'm going to call it for what it was, a hounding of the specific type of people OTB has issues with, women who disagree with him. However if you have evidence to put a contrary view i'm happy to entertain it.

Hi there ROBERT...

Thank you for your timely response, and I've carefully noted your comments herein. While it's true this is an adult Site, and be that as it may, often the argument(s) would degenerate into a slinging match with accusations, and mild invective going to 'n fro and sometime it can have a pretty deleterious effect on some folk. People who's only wish it is, to quietly argue their position without getting into a wholesale 'stink'.

You also mentioned inter alia '...the other two played hard ball when it suited...' I wouldn't agree with that so much, no doubt POIROT could 'blue-on' with the best of 'em but not SUSEONLINE, a gentler soul in my humble opinion ?

I not sure ROBERT, I have this sense that some of the attrition could be attributed entirely to the confrontational style of a few and that's driven some really good folk out of OLO altogether ? I'm afraid to say I've been somewhat confrontational myself, for that I must apologise.

STEELEREDUX had mentioned herein, that a really good bloke by the epithet of 'BELLY', was so exhausted and annoyed by these constant attacks that had been unrelentingly levelled at him, he decided to 'pull the pin' and leave OLO but not before lodging a complaint with Mr Graham YOUNG, our founder and chief moderator.

It wasn't as though BELLY was a gentle wilting flower, in fact he was a very pragmatic, ex-Council employee, who tended to wear his heart on his sleeve. It's just that he got so very tired of this confrontational style of debating and character assassination from one of the regular contributors, he simply left !

We cannot afford to lose people of this calibre, who bring much colour and diversity to the Site, it is therefore incumbent upon us all, to try to be more respectful to other contributors, in our debating styles, in order we try and slow this erosion of contributors, for the sake of OLO.

Hi O Sung Wu,

Yes, OLO has been much the poorer without the contributions from the three that you mentioned. I certainly miss Foxy (I confess that I think I was in love with her) and Suze - alright, and Poirot too.

Actually there have been quite a few contributors from years past who don't get involved any more, at least not under the same Noms de Plume. What ever happened to Pericles, as an obvious example ? I really enjoyed his perceptive comments, his wit and his deep wisdom.

Maybe people just get exhausted trying to make the same points over and over, and having to put up with the same ad hominems and banalities over and over. Maybe we need to try to make a point of inventively saying what we want to say but without any personal attacks or cheap slurs or easy shots, of which I think I've been guilty at least once. [Yeah, right.]

Nobody can hurt us on OLO: it's cyberspace, not a front bar. If we have a point to make, we should make it fully but with forbearance and some courtesy. It doesn't hurt. [Yeah, he should talk.]

Please come back, Foxy and Suze. And Poirot too. We need some sugar and spice, not just snails and puppy dog's tails. No offense, guys.

Joe

SteeleRedux, in regard to Foxy I didn't include her in the not coping with contrary views group. I didn't see the interactions with OTB to be as one sided as you did perhaps (but mostly have switched off to that for a long time so don't have a recent sense of how that was playing out).

R0bert

Well, I'm pretty sure I made at least one comment to Foxy and a couple to Suseonline in the months before they left that may have crossed the line from 'opinionated' to 'flame'.

Many will know I can be opinionated, yet at the same time I've tried to also convey that I don't mean any harm or offense to anyone when putting forward said opinions.

Some people have slightly thicker skins than others, so I've tried to have a little more discretion; also after it became apparent that the girls may have been feeling pushed into a corner with their leftist views and some of the blokes being a little hard on them and especially Foxy's health, I altered my behavior accordingly.

I saw the writing on the wall that they might leave and I didn't want to be in any way responsible as this was their place first.
I felt like they thought they were being outnumbered and outgunned by the 'rabid right' to quote Alan B.

I've got to say that even though I did not always agree with them I most certainly do think that we're worse off for their leaving.
We need the lefties (god forbid) because we need balanced points of views within our arguments and discussions.
I hope they're doing ok, wherever they are.

A good thread, o sung wu. I haven't spent much time on OLO in recent years, so I'm not sure what precipitated the decision of Foxy, et al to stop posting, but I can certainly agree that the presence of some obviously disturbed people can't have helped.

Here's a suggestion for everyone: if you don't like the way someone is behaving, call them out on it. Identify them as the grubby little trolls they are and if they won't change, simply don't respond.

They don't contribute to discussion, they poison it with their attention-seeking, childish behaviour.

Send them to the time-out corner.