An appeal for moderation

[Guest]

Hi,

As one who has often taken up the mantle of 'grammar nazi' in the past, this may get me accused of hypocrisy.  On the other hand, if what I am about to say came from a poster noted for sloppy posting, then it would have no weight.  So, perhaps, the only ones who can make this point would all be hypocrits.

A forum must have standards or devolve into primordial ooze.  Anyone with more than a passing experience with Internet, especially web, especially game, fora holds that as a self evident truth.  Not nearly as self evident is that if the standards are set arbitrarily high, the result is invariably stagnation and decay as the existing posters drift off and new ones are scared away before they can become regulars.

Thus, the standards must be set with some care.  Too low, and the noise overcomes the signal.  Too high, and there is no signal left.  Either way, the death knell of that forum has been struck.  Those with something worthwhile to say but without a Churchillian command of the language (and there are many such) should be welcome to post and not overly intimidated.  I fear that, in an effort to maintain high standards (a worthy goal) we at the Lounge have (or perhaps just are about to) crossed the line into stagnation.

So, if it is not too late, let me suggest that we show more moderation in the sense "to lessen the intensity or extremeness of" our grammarian criticisms and less moderation in the sense "to preside over" the means of expression of others.

Let us set the standard of acceptable communication at acceptable communication.  Instead of searching for a perfect medium, perhaps devoid of message, we could settle for a medium sufficiently clear that the message is conveyed.  Not an abadonment of standards, but a repositioning of them away from the snobbish self-congratulatory levels we seem to be approching.

--Pete
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Pete,you wrote exactly what I thought about this forum;this is not easy to express one's thought in english when you're not english speaking as I am;I make english mistakes,I know.Still,I try to make as less mistakes as possible and I try to choose the right words,this is not easy at all,trust me.
As for the general feeling about off topic forums:in my opinion,they are a bit too serious,and there seems to be taboo topics (correct me if I am wrong for that matter) in the off topic.I have often noticed people who were banned without noticeable reasons (maybe because of these taboo topics?);I haven't understood why some were banned according to what I read,and I don't understand what are the limits beyond which one can be banned,really.This might explain why members or just guests could be reluctant to make threads or posts answers.And might explain why you notice that the off topic forum is dying.
I have sometimes been reluctant to make threads or post answers for fear of being banned (because of members who were banned for no noticeable reasons)
Last thing:an off topic forum will stay alive if you allow any topic ,which,I fear,is not the case in the LL off topic forum.I may be wrong though.And again,correct me if my guess is wrong.