I must be missing something...
I know that I made a comment out of frustration with events in the real world that spilled on to the board here. I also know that it generated some pretty raw responses. I knew I was going to get some people riled, but I was tired of people ignoring reality and history to praise someone who clearly was not worthy. (I do NOT want to engage anyone here on this discussion, I have a great deal of evidence to support my arguments, no body is going to pay attention to that evidence, and people will take deep offence, so do not try to respond on this issue please.)
But, I have not seen people insulting each other to the extent that is being discussed here.
When it is a becoming a joke across the net, in virtually every message forum out there, that anyone that invokes Hitler images or calls someone a Nazi has lost the debate, the posts I have seen here have been remarkably civil.
People still need to acknowledge my point on the COTI issues thread. No matter how much people are bothered, IF YOU BAN ENOUGH PEOPLE, OR MODERATE POSTS ENOUGH to prevent the flame wars, over the top insults and all, you either end up with a board so restricted, no one wants to bother posting, or you shut down the board.
I am sorry, but in 40 years people being connected by computer, be it message boards, blogs, email, live chats, or what have you, NOBODY HAS EVER SOLVED THIS ISSUE, but many have given up and shut down the communications channels.
I will admit, I can get very irritated when people don't see my points, and it seems like they miss them because they just don't want to acknowledge a different point of view. I made a very strong effort to stop before the insults start. I have to allow each of you to decide for yourselves how successful I am. The point is though that these things generate the levels of passion and frustration that cause people to start the insults, and THERE IS NO KNOWN WAY TO STOP THAT, without such heavy handed measures that the cure is ALMOST as BAD as the disease.
This is the overriding point. YOU WILL NOT STOP PEOPLE FROM HURLING THE INSULTS. So, you learn to live with them. Maybe you learn that the worst offenders are simply people you will no longer pay attention to, or at least, heavily discount what they have to say, but the only way to STOP them is to go away. The world would be a much more pleasant place if people did not get so worked up, or held themselves to only letting their passions flair without crossing the lines. I don’t know, however that I want to live in a world where discussions are sterile enough for that to happen, and I certainly would not find any topics that could be discussed in that manor hear interesting enough to keep posting myself.
I guess I will follow the discussion, but in these two or three posts, I have pretty must said every thing I have to say, so I likely won’t post any thing else. I just don’t see a solution that does more harm than good, I just do not see a problem of the magnitude that I have seen on other boards.
(I am on a local board for my CHURCH. There are maybe 20 folks that post regularly, and hundred or so that follow the board. One of the members is talking about his efforts to set up a community event. An other member questions every effort he makes. He is looking at the wrong locations, she just knows that the answers he gets from the city on insurance and rates for facilities are wrong, and on every other issue, he is wrong, and she is right. He says Okay, you get the information and a reliable source that I can talk to. Her response is invariable, that’s not my job, your information is wrong, and you can’t do your job. After three months of this, and people taking sides in the argument, the only solution is people ignore her comments. Such out of place comments can not be stopped, on a board of people that see each other face to face, and such insults are out side what we believe is not honorable with in our faith. If comments on that forum cannot be stopped then some discussions on topics that are germane to the REASON we come to this board in the first place, that get a little heated just don’t seem to me to be much of a problem)
Anyway, I hope I have not insulted anyone here, and these are just my opinions, but they are also my experiences over a number of years, and literally hundreds if not thousands of threads, across hundreds of forums. These have ranged from my religion, to political boards, to game boards, to general chat boards, arts and crafts, and many other topics.
Thanks for listening
Jim Roker
If folks think that it should be banned as a topic, I have to give that some real consideration. 
