I confess, do not understand the psychological makeup of people who wade into online conversations just to change a subject and make some radom point. We all walk our own path. Why would you need to stomp a bit on mine?
I like reviews. Some people don’t. If someone posted a thread asking about the value of reviews, I’d probably post a thought.
But If someone posts a thread asking how to make pumpkin pie, it would never occur to me to post a response explaining why I don’t believe pumpkin pie should be eaten.
It is a serious question. I’m really asking. What compels a person to chime-in just to denounce a stranger’s; preference, question, opinion, etc
I’d understand it if my thread had asked, “Hey, what do people think about Albergue reviews?” But that’s not this. I asked a technical question (and I got a few helpful, technical answers). But ya’ll who felt compelled to evangelize your personal opinion of user-reviews, why did you feel compelled to do that?
I’m not interested in WHY you think user-reviews aren’t valuable or reliable or even if you believe reviews are detrimental to the Camino. I already have an opinion about that and I didn’t ask for yours.
What I’m interested in, is an account of the mindset that accompanies the notion, you have license to spread an opinion to people, in places, where that opinion is neither asked for, nor appreciated.
I say ‘not appreciated’ because you must have known I value user-reviews. The original post asked how to hasten the repair of a website that generates them.
What then is the thinking that goes into deciding to “explain” to a stranger that his values are off? Seriously. What were you thinking.
Wait! Deep breath! This thread is a perfect example of how things disintegrate and get nasty. When I saw the original question, I knew I wouldn't have anything to say since I didn't even know what a bot was till a few months ago. So I haven't been following it too closely, but saw the somewhat heated comments just now.
I think
@biarritzdon misunderstood the question and offered an opinion that was related but not responsive to the OP's question. As a moderator, I know that over the years, different mods have taken different approaches to "off topic" comments. I remember one who worked tirelessly to separate threads, splice posts, trying (in vain) to keep comments on point. She is no longer a moderator, having found that task too frustrating and impossible.
Most of the mods take a different approach. A forum is not an FAQ, though we have some of those, it's a human interaction. Let's face it guys, when we talk, our conversations morph naturally from one topic to the next. Maybe I'm the odd guy out here, but I frequently am in a lively discussion with others and about 15 minutes later we ask, how did we get to this topic?
I think it's great that we try to stay on topic, but I think it's impossible to expect our conversations to proceed in a linear fashion. Sometimes the mods will remove one post and create a separate thread, but if you expect to post a question and not get some opinions on things you didn't ask specifically about, you are going to be frustrated and angry. So,
@PastorCat I hope you can take those comments in that spirit.
And for the record, I will say that as the editor of the forum guide to the Camino Invierno, I have wrestled with the question Don poses. But I will refrain from explaining why I side with PastorCat on this one so as not to continue the off-topic spiral! Buen camino, Laurie
