I value the free exchange of ideas between people with widely differing viewpoints. I also understand the fear that the free exchange of ideas can be stiffled by people who are nasty and even abusive toward other posters, even people with relatively thick skins, or overwhelmed by people posting the same thing over and over with only at most minor variations in expression. I have seen both of these problems occurring fairly frequently on this site, and I am glad to see that there are mechanisms in place to deal with both types of attacks. These mechanisms seem to work fairly well from what I have seen so far. They do however, have one presumably unintended consequence.
They scare me. I am reluctant to post comments or write diaries, especially ones that require a lot of thought and work.
I do not want to spend hours or days researching and writing a piece, only to have it disappear because I have inadvertently stepped over some line. I am relatively new. I am trying to learn the rules. I am trying to comply with the rules. I will get the hang of things here because I think that the free exchange of ideas here works well enough and is valuable enough that I am determined to be a contributing member, and not merely a lurker, although I lurked for quite a while before I made that decision.
So I have some idea of what to do, and how to do it, and I may never need to be censored. I am pretty good at communicating in person with people who do not always agree with me. But I am not an expert at this. I am not a professional journalist. I am not even an amateur journalist if there is such a thing. And I have strong views on a lot of subjects. I especially have strong views about subjects that I want to research and write about. So, I wish there were training wheels to help new members learn the ropes, and I suspect that in fact there may be training wheels to help new members. Each time a new member first comments, it seems like someone responds, welcoming them and telling them where to find guidelines for how things are done here. But now that I am ready to get started, I cannot find them.
So maybe, if this is a common problem, there needs to be a big button or something that is always conspicuous, that shows where to find the guidelines about appropriate conduct in this forum, and other particularly helpful sections for newcomers. It is easy to forget once you are comfortable someplace, what it felt like when you were new. And of course, some of you felt right away like you had come home, and had no concern or trepidation. Others were more concerned or fearful than I am, or less determined, and lurked forever or left or just slowly found their way step by step.
But I have never heard of someone leaving a group because it was too easy to find the information they needed. So even if it turns out that not that many people have a problem figuring out how to join in, does anyone know of a good reason to not make the rules and guidelines easier to find? Does anyone think that I have a good idea, but that there is a better way to do it? Where do I find what I am looking for?