It's Our Responsibility

[TexasDomer]

All,

We're all frustrated about the Sugar Bowl. About recruiting. About defense.

We all have high expectations for Notre Dame and for Coach Weis.

Either by attending the university or by being a fan, we all believe Notre Dame to be a special place and are proud to consider ourselves fans of the university and her teams.

This forum has been running for a few years without much need for censorship on the part of the forum administrators. That's because folks were able, by and large, to self-censor themselves and react rationally to other posters.

Both of these (self-censorship, rational responses) have been missing the last few weeks, in response to both the USC and LSU losses.

If this forum isn't where we want it to be in terms of content and tone, it is OUR job to make it the forum we want it to be. Not the admin. Not the moderators.

May I recommend an approach here? Consider these potential rules of engagement:

a. HOLD YOUR FIRE. If you read a post that really gets under the skin, take a deep breath and think about your response. Often, trolls and flame artists go away (or change their tune) when their posts are responded to with reason and restraint.

b. NEW YORK TIMES RULE. Don't write anything that would embarrass you if it showed up on the front page of the newspaper, or linked to from another site (imagine a UM forum linking to how ND fans are turning on themselves after the Sugar Bowl).

c. DON'T FEED THE TROLLS/DEPRIVE FLAMES OF OXYGEN. Perhaps the hardest thing to do, but most of the time ignoring a troublesome member gets the point across. If they post in the middle of a thread, and you only respond to people with whom you can carry on a decent conversation, they will get the message sooner or later.

d. GET CLARITY BEFORE MAKING JUDGMENT. If someone's motives APPEAR to be less-than-positive, don't assume the worst. Seek clarification. (e.g., Hey, Jigg, I noticed you have OSU as a favorite team on bigtentalk. Why is that?, vs. "Jigg's a poser!")

e. WE ARE ND. The Notre Dame Family is real. We know that all families have squabbles, but that doesn't mean that we should ever treat each other with lack of respect.

If you are dissatisfied about the forum, think about what YOU can do to raise the level of discussion. Ignore negative threads. Start positive ones. Model the behaviors you want to see here.

GO IRISH!

[IrishSanDiego]

very well said

[Nardo!]

Please a time like this is no time to be rational and act like adults.

[TexasDomer]

Exactly.

[kjones]

I think if people stopped complaining about complaining and stopped arguing about people arguing, we might actually return to some form of normalcy. Right now i feel more people are bitching about all the bitching than anything else.

Reps to you Tex.