For the past few months, the badminton community was in harmony. Everybody was PC with everybody else. Kwun was even promoting a rival site on BC/CF. Then suddenly all hell broke loose. In one thread, Adelina76, Matt and Brett are having a spitting match. In another thread, Zero is duelling with Winex West Can, and in a third thread, yours truly was crossing sword with Trapped(-Never). It seems like we are on the verge of the first Cyber World War. What is happening? Is it the heat of the summer that is heating up our temper? But then it is winter in Kiwiland. Is it because Kwun is in HK, so while the big cat is away, the mice got a little out of control? Or is it just human nature that we can only pretend to be nice for a limited while before we revert back to our barbaric selves?
It probably has more to do with the creation of a forum specifically for non-badminton banter. Previously, moderation was sufficient to keep topics related to badminton. While there are many differences in the game they are rarely so severe that they lead to anything more than discussion and disagreement. Now we have a place to air our views on much wider issues. Naturally it was not long before conflict arose. I believe that a significant amount of the total arguments ever initiated by humans involved religious, geographical and gender differences. We have recently seen threads on these topics. I think that these discussions should continue as on the whole they promote inclusion and understanding rather exclusion and ignorance. People should bear in mind, however, that humour and passion are uneasy bedfellows. It is difficult enough to know when people are joking IRL so careful when making jokes about sensitive issues on the forums *holds up hand to acknowledge own hypocrisy*. Finally, there is enough opportunity to discharge negative emotions and opinions outside this forum. There is no excuse for personal attacks or lack of respect for peoples individual differences or right to an opinion, no matter how much they differ from our own.
Yes, that's what make this forum so great, the degree of freedom to discuss about topics slighhtly outside of badminton. I think kwun and moderators are very generous in this regard. However, one should honor the use of the chit chat forum by discusssing things objectively so all people visiting this forum may understand each other better. Of course the borderline between objectivity and personal attack is often a grey area but i think the more one stay outside the grey area the more credible his or her argument will be. Akft, i don't think this forum is in a chaos as you might think. Debates such of those you referred to have been around since day 1 but you just weren't there to witness them. It is part of the liveliness of any forum.
AKFT, Didn't think I was in a heated discussion with Zero All I wanted to know was where did he get his facts from based on what he posted regarding Yonex warranty and SP racquets. For example, "I wrote to Yonex and was told that there was no warranty on SP racquets due to its quality, manufacturing process, etc." would be more of a factual statement than not. (Whether you wrote Yonex or not is beside the point that was made - another issue altogether). I just can't understand how 1 + 1 = 3. As an example, in that thread, |R|S matter of factly, stated that "No...INA players do not use SP racquets" in response to Mastercountry's post and he then backed up that statement with "...I have been offered JP/CN/CP racquets by a shop in Indonesia...". Using the same fact as |R|S, I could say that Canadian National players do not use CD racquets because we have SP, TW, US versions available for sale in some stores locally?? Hmmm...that would be a little bit far fetched, don't you think
AKFT, What?! I was saying not to get me involved, i was hardly part of the arguement!! Geez, i was asking them to cool down and just put eachother on the ignore list, and you say i was part of the 'spitting match'?! I suggest you re-read what i have put in that thread please and refrase what you just said. Matt
Sorry Matt, I was just trying to dramatize things a bit. In actuallity, you were mainly caught in the cross fire of this very intense intellectual discussion.
Oh no!! Another arguement with Matt and AKFT!!.... ...j/k I was never in a fight with WWC, we were just chatting with eachother like gentlemens... I was just trying to share my knowledge with other members of the forum. I would be more than happy if someone can correct me if I am wrong. There are plenty more facts that I learned from my friend (who he wishes to be anonymous... ) because he wrote to Yonex before, but I will not mention them since I do not wish to have a discussion again because my fingers are tired from all this typing....hehe...
