I've thought about your complaints about Hubski. Politeness can be an obstacle to meaningful discussion, but, on balance, I think rudeness is probably a worse one. Oddly enough, I like your tone -- I think. Part of the problem with discussion sites in general is the same problem I have noticed in email. The tone is very much up to the emotional state of the reader. Things that ought not to be heated arguments easily get that way because one of the parties is just especially paranoid that day. Not that some things aren't worth heated arguments. I have thought too, as white alluded to below, that maybe the casual muter is not worth worrying about anyway. Though it is hard not to. We're probably hardwired that way.
A lot of this has sprung up because of the conversation about auto-ignoring anyone who has been on the site less than X days. The muting is the worst part of it, but it's all a part of a bigger issue. Also a big part of the disconnect is, again, people who have been here longer don't get treated the same way. You're a lot less likely to get muted for an opinion if you're here for a while. The idealism that is Hubski assumes people are going to consider people based upon their behavior, but that isn't really what happens. Your comment about my tone. I tend towards blunt observations. I don't insult people, ad hominems are not something I have a tendency to do, and I certainly don't treat people like they're less. But if I have an opinion, I'm going to tell you what that opinion is. If I think your thought process is flawed, I'm going to point that out as well. If I think you're approaching something in a way that can be improved, I'll say something to that effect. It isn't an attack, it's simply my opinion. This is exactly what I did to one person who muted me. I pointed out that racism is a challenge to work through, and not an excuse for failing. When racism is the most important thing in your life, all challenges become racism, and it stops being your fault you failed (I myself am an older minority). I not only got muted for that opinion, I got locked out of the entire conversation for it. That shouldn't happen, and Hubski is less for it.
Exactly! There are some privileged members of the old guard, in part because of the way the site is constructed. If you want your posts to be seen, it pays to cultivate the favor of people with huge followings. Some of the elders are very decent people. Some of them are narrow-minded egotists. Why should this be any different from the rest of world? Maybe it should -- but it isn't. I still think you overreached a little in your rhetoric, but you did hit a nerve. You have, it appears, the same view of racism that I have. I find that very refreshing. It both amuses me and disgusts me that, by some people's standards, I'm probably a racist. In other words, I don't think "that offends me!" - constitutes a knockdown argument. If a person dislikes your genetics, they're a racist. If they don't want to surrender to your culture -- that is quite another matter. I think we share common minority status -- we're skeptics.