appropriate language on a forum

[t walgamuth]

I found this on the Studebaker drivers forum and it struck home with me.




What we quickly learned is that a keyboard and computer screen make us brave, maybe braver than we've ever been. And we learned we could say anything - literally anything.



That is exactly when The World Wide Web stopped feeling like a huge family room and started feeling like a little court room. Every post is a trial. Every word will be argued, debated, juried and judged. Every photo will be inspected thoroughly for signs of... anything that anyone can find wrong. Every flaw will be pointed out, every comparison will be made, every right will be invoked, every meme will be created, every unicorn will be interrogated. There is no end to it; this great, big, stupid argument we call the internet.





It's like, somewhere along the line, we decided that our opinions were more important than the things that brought us to them.





There's plenty of space here for differences and disagreements, but I will not save room at the table for aggression or harassment.





If you wouldn't say it to my face, then don't say it. Go find somewhere else to pretend to be brave.