to think that the average debating ability of Mumsnetters has dropped considerably over the past year?

[colditz]

I was browsing through some old threads earlier, and the general standard of debate has dropped. People here used to be able to follow a thread and give a pertinent response, backed up with careful research. Lately the response is likely to be completely unrelated to the original point, and passive-aggressive to boot.

Maybe.

Maybe not.

In other words we're thick?

Is this going to be a moldie thread?

Oh fook off {wink]

Bah, message boards - change it is the nature of the beast.

I don't know why people bother with passive-aggressive personally. I prefer to go straight for aggressive-aggressive.

Random "-" there, not sure where that came from...

Well there must have been an influx after the Daily Mail saga; bound to lower the tone

lol morloth at aggresive-aggressive

colditz, you speak for yerself...

oh, and fuck off

Well I shan't stay where I'm not welcome and I don't see what's so great about impertinence

Well, I was just thinking about things that are going off in my life lately, I suppose. I would't frigging dare namechange recently, because of all the trolling.

I don't think it's so much that people are thick, just less interested in people and their opinions and what they could learn, and more interested in trumpeting their beliefs across the WWW and defending them with "And if you think different, you're sick" (ie smacking thread)

I'm gonna be completely reckless and say I see a grain of truth in your op. I wasn't invited to the land of mold but I have been around long enough to remember a time when sometimes some threads did not to inevitably degenerate into a bun fight. Also a time when 50% of the threads were not from people in troubled relationships. I feel a leetel bit nostalgic and I'm not even a proper oldie! Quite understand and accept that I'm going to get flamed for this.

I think that the debating ability of the general MN user is still alive and kicking.

I have read many a debate on MN and can honestly say, that posters 4 years ago were as likely to use unfounded sweeping generalisations as they are now.

However, I do agree that the passive aggressive approach does appear to be more apparent of late.

I think it's great to be part of a forum that has any debate on it, unlike some forums who would shut anything down the second it became a bit spicy.

No it hasn't. So there.

I don't see any difference.

yes I probably do speak for myself. I've read some threads from bfore I had 2 children (had one non verbal toddler) and I think to myself "My, who is that eloquent young snippet?!" and LO! It's me.

Has that happened to us all, I wonder? Have our brains and patience been caught up in a sea of why questions and demands for drinks?

I think there is less musing than there used to be.

And I think people are less willing to acknowledge shades of grey.

And yes, more extreme issues...

Are you a bit depressed perhaps?

Isn't it just that the tired old topics that got people trawling through research papers on t'internet have been done to death?

I think I'm probably still a foetus as far as oldiness goes - joined last year - but I have noticed a bit of degeneration lately. The passive-aggressive, the sudden taking of offence etc...

But people are as likely to post something random with 'haven't read the whole thread but' as they were when I joined.

Dunno really. Is this an inevitable entropy?

What's passive aggressive? I've always wondered.

I'm always embarrassed when an old thread gets bumped if I'm warbling away on it.