Web Forums

Web forums are, for me, what looks like a good idea, hiding a very bad idea. The impulse to reach out to others who share your interests is, naturally, strong for many of us. And the Internet appears to provide a miraculous way of doing that across all boundaries of geography and other limitations. So far, so great.

But there are catches. Forums are for the expression of opinions, of course, but those who share interests are hardly likely to share the same opinions. So there will be disputes. Email is famously lacking in the cues that sustain us through conversations-over-a-beer with friends whose opinions differ from our own; email often brings out the worst in people. When you add to that the anonymity of hiding behind handles and often-to-some-extent-created personas, the risks grow greater.

Certainly I am susceptible to those difficulties, and forums do not always bring out my best. I'd say that many men, in particular, fare poorly in that regard, because of a competitive and combative streak (which I share); and of their nature many forums that interest me will be male-dominated (do men like this format better than women?). They will also frequently descend to pissing contests.

So almost always at some point in time, a given forum stops being fun for me. A spirited debate, sometimes one I've started, can get nastier and nastier, until I wonder, how did we get here? (knowing full well that I own my part of the mess).

Then it's time to get out.

I hope blogging will not be like that -- although I know that bloggers burn out, too. But mine is a modest blog with a small readership, unlikely to generate any demands I can't handle (indeed, unlikely to generate any demands at all, except for self-imposed ones).