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[Brista]

The reason the Lounge is such a good forum is because all the undesireables, the derelicts, idiots, flamelogs, and most importantly, the idiots have been driven off.

Quite

Nico and the others do a huge service by improving the overall quality of the posts

The Lounge has an intellectual acerbity that none of the other sites do - if you're guessing or you haven't thought out your post properly expect trouble

What my personal experience has been is:

1) Think out carefully my post. Proof-read it a couple of times
2) Find out I didn't do a good enough job as the post gets shredded by sharper minds
3) I then rethink my post based on what whoever took it to pieces had to say plus the ideas I originally liked
4) If I still think I have a point of some merit I come back and post again, taking up the argument

The effect on me is that I post better (more carefully, better thought-out), I'm forced to re-evaluate fondly held beliefs in the light of intelligent criticism (and quite often change them) and I learn more

There is a strong "garbage in, garbage out" aspect here

If you post what is basically a "look at me" post you get a "stfu loser" flame

If you post a well thought-out, clearly expressed and interesting point of view you still get disagreement, criticism and even flaming but it is almost invariably well thought-out and generally leads on to good discussion

I particularly like the Lounge for being a place where posters change their minds. An often repeated truism elsewhere on the internet is that no one ever backs down in an internet argument. That is very much not the case here but you have to really give it your best if you want that to happen

So there you have it - if you want good feedback, simply post better. Even if you get flamed - and there is no one here who doesn't get flamed once in a while - you at least get a well-written flame ;)

I think that the efforts of Nico and the others are the heart of this place, a vital part of what makes these Forums good places to post a considered point of view

A big thank you from me, folks :)