IndianRingNeck.com

My husband helped me stumble onto this post about online communities. Thought I'd share this quote. I think it is really pertinent for all online communities. I've been sharing it in a couple of online communities I'm a part of... I'm not sharing it with this forum specifically for any particular reason I think overall, we are a reasonably empathetic mob.

"The priority for participating on this forum is not the quality of the content. I ultimately don't care how smart or funny or observant you are. Those are plusses, but they're never prerequisites. The priority is on how you treat each other. I expect spats, arguments, occasional insults, and even inevitable grudges. We've all done that. But in the end, I expect you to act like a group of friends who care about each other, no matter how dumb some of us might be, no matter what political opinions some of us hold, no matter what games some of us like or dislike. This community is small enough, intimate enough, that I feel it's a reasonable expectation." (Tom Chick)

source: http://blog.codinghorror.com/what-if-we ... e-empathy/

Ellie.

man, i hope politics never come up on this forum.

You'd be surprised at how quickly you can start disliking someone who is otherwise a likeable person when things like religion and politics come into play.

In my experience this bird forum has been pretty solid. I've seen very little negative interaction here. I suppose that's because the type of forum it is. It only draws people of a certain mindset. If you're in to your bird(s) enough to go to a forum to share experience or seek knowledge then you're already the type of person who is easy to get along with.