Hands up who actually really honestly doesn't like the controversial threads on here

[hunkermunker]

[shortest thread in MN history]

Did I say I didn't like controversial threads?

only if you actually learn something - not "my opinion is just as valid as yours - on any subject"

People should learn to separate fact from opinion; if they want to have a serious debate only though.

well said ponka

i like them.

i don't like when people can't string a proper sentence together so just say 'fuck off' or whatever though.

and i don't like it when someone charges in after 200+ posts without reading any of what's been said then just starts it all off again, going round and round and round...yawn.

I love em.........when ive had a few wines..........as long as the other poster doesnt know where i live [shoitbag emotion]

imho i think there is a beeeeg difference between controversial and baiting.

and a huge difference between baiting people that for eg. agree with the invasion of Iraq (a political perspective) and baiting people over how they have chosen to for eg feed their babies.

Very different.

I think that people are a lot more aggressive on here than they would ever dare to be in real life. I happen to have met one MN'etter for instance who caused HAVOC on here for weeks (not the Judge)and I would never have imagined her as a 17 year old very shy person who suffered from depression. There are people who are genuinely opinionated which is great fun to read and there are others who seem to be just spoiling for a fight. I worry about some of the frailer users of MN who take things very much to heart. Some people on here are obviously very lonely and if this was your only outlet, the pointed attacks would really hurt and we've all seen that happen. I don't get involved in the rucks anymore unless I see someone getting really picked on and I think its out of order.

I like discussion. Sadly some people see discussion and

a) get flouncy because they can't distinguish discussion from confrontation and argument (in the worst sense of the word)

b) get stuck right in there being deliberately confrontational and personal to cause a row.

I'm not hugely convinced that reasoned argument can be safely held here (for above reasons) which is a shame as I'm sure that I'm not the only intelligent one here [preen] and also... it's difficult to see when people are saying something ironically (and there are people who wouldn't get irony if it bit them) or are deadly earnest.

That said.... the same works in RL conversation anyway.

As to you hinker......... starting yet another controversial thread..... get a life!

I've just come onto MN for the first time in a few days and I think it's very very sad that some people have wasted a lovely long weekend having virtual fights and bitchfests with people they don't even know.

What do these people tell their dps/dhs/dc etc they are doing? "Sorry, I know it's a glorious day but I can't come to the beach -I'm having an on-line fight with someone in a chat room."

What a waste.

Totally agree with marsy, but disagree taht one can't have a polite and sensible deiscussion here, there are a couple of WOHM/SAHM ones knocking around just now that are very civilised so far.... and have been going a while.

But it often does get aq bit hairy and nasty sadly, mainly becuase we aren't physically sitting together i reckon. If you were in a pub/over a dinner table, you would be seeing people's body language and seeing that some people are ebing humerous etc.

and there is a to and fro with a converstation that is lost on here

ie Marsy, you are talking bolloux

Well said piglit!

You disagree with me???????????????????????? Be off with you!

I don't like bickering

I will debate happily, but not bicker and I work very hard at not being judgemental- tis my mission in life

Cant name names on the clique threads, so cruel

I have been here long enough to work out which thread titles are controversial and give them a wide berth, not because I hate controversy but, as Piglit says, there are far better things to do than sit at the pc on a glorious (actually not all that glorious, it has been pretty cold most of the w/e!) Bank Holiday weekend.

I do find controversial threads useful in one respect though: they help me to remember who I like the sound of and who I would run a hundred miles to avoid meeting.

Me too. I can't be doing with the arguing and get very bored by it. Tends to be just about who can hold out the longest and who's go the most mates, not who has an interesting idea to put forward. I also find people can be bitchy and rude beyond belief, then just say "but this is MN - that's what we do - go elsewhere if you don't like it" which is a bit like bullying if you ask me. I doubt they would behave the same in RL.

DG cold there?Blimey lovely here

You are on the other side of the world from me though aren't you!?!?!?!

Ooops sorry, I thought that post was from MrsJohnWhatever. PC - freezing today at times in south Wales! Where did you escape to?

Agree with MrsJScake there about things deteriorating quickly because of the (obvious) lack of non verbal cues. I think it's something that women are generally pretty good at (picking up on the mood of things by observing body language), and as we only have a few lines of text and the emoticon thigmys things tend to spiral out of control quickly. I'm sure if these chats happened in RL then most of this crossness wouldn't happen.

I also think it is all to easy for a newbie (as I found out to my own cost) can fall into a great big row by saying something too strongly or innapropriately as they are unfamiliar to general MN etiquette (or the histories behind the regular posters).

If often wondrered if MN towers could step in with a wise calming word....but maybe that is heading into the hideous world of pre moderation.

erm, we stayed hom dg!

Bizarre!!!!!!!!

Must just be our garden LOL

i love a good debate, absolutely adore it when people who have bothered to read more research than i have (not that hard...) come on with links and lay it all out for me. the women on here are so bloody clever and inspiring, i think.

with regards to controversial topics, i had to avoid BF/FF threads for a while because i knew i was too sensitive to be rational about it, so i have rather a lot of sympathy for people who take things more to heart than is ever intended. i've not got much sympathy, though, for people who take an oppositional position just to teach some perceived clique a lesson and then take offence to being queried about their stance. it's very boring.

as much as you might all think that hunker's weaning thread was a bunfight, it really wasn't. there was/is a lot of good stuff there that's worth reading. take a look.

and piglit and everyone else who's said 'it's a lovely weekend etc' - did you ever stop to consider that some of us might be at work?

oops, ment to add a

meant... exhausted from staying up half the night working/chatting to CAM.