Everyone needs to remember there are over two million people that come to this site. The message board is a "forum" and should be used as such, discussing things that relate to us in a variety of ways. Not just skinning but almost any topic that people want to discuss. Most of the visitors here never post on the board but surely thousands of them read this stuff. For many it must be intimidating to see the drama that's become so common, and for many it's probably either amusing or just plain dissapointing.
It seems like things get very personal here rather quickly. Accusations, pre-concieved notions about someone's intentions and confrontation have become a standard way of responding. I think there's an obvious problem that has to do with perspective. It's easy to loose one's perspective and take things too personally. The result is always a painful exchange that's so predictable I'm amazed how frequently it goes that way.
Admins, especially Jafo, put in an enormous amount of time on this site. There's also a lot of other sites that we all try to stay current with. The defensiveness you sometimes see from the site staff probably has more to do with an overall perception of an attack against values we've held for years. Values like protecting artist's work from infringement, rewarding quality work, helping new people get started and grow, and maintaining an equilibrium between the casual visitors and the zealots.
If we didn't get stretched so thin by our own commitment to the members, the site and the community, maybe we could be more patient. I know we've all tried a number of different approaches included the apocryphal venting from frustration. The effort from the admins is to cool things down when they get hot, try to explain, be reasonable, etc. but at some point the sheer volume or ridiculousness of accusations and angst gets the best of us and we do the same thing we wish others weren't doing. We're all human and we all mean well. The only solution I see to this problem is for everyone to try to have perspective on what's being said and try to communicate effectively.
The easier it is for someone to be offended the more likely they will be offended. The more someone needs to be right about something, the more likely others will disagree with him. Human nature tells us we must protect ourselves from what is unfair but social conditioning confuses fairness with comfort.
I hate to see anyone leave the site. There must be a better way to resolve things.....
that being said I have to leave so I won't see any more of this until later tonight.
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