Controversial Topics

[Drtooth]

To others, I have not found a more member-friendly website forum out there than this. Moderation on Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Wizard magazine...you will get suspended for questioning moderation and banned if you bring it up again. They delete posts and threads as quickly as they are posted. That's just not so here! Also, if you have to start a thread that says something similar to "...this will probably be deleted," then it probably will be. Why bother posting it? I would think that folks would know what works well 'round here and what doesn't.

I'm just gonna jump out of the conversation for the minute and agree right there. I've been on extremes on BOTH sides when it came to message board moderation. Boards where you so much as cough out of turn run by hack fans and snobs you get an non-deletable warning. Boards where certain members did nothing but tear down anyone with any opinion (doesn't matter how educated it was) and NEVER EVER were penalized because they were friends of the board owners. No matter how 10 year old spoiled Eric Cartman bullyish they were.

And as Sonic the Hedgehog would say, "It's your board! No one has the right to be touchy if you don't want them to." Basically, you have the right to close anything down. It's your board. You kick people out of your house if they break stuff, right?

But to get back to the point at hand, we live in annoyingly polarizing times that unfortunately didn't end with Bush's term. I guess too many of people like me were hoping to see old school "I disagree" politics, and we still got the "If you agree with them, yer a commie traitor pinko coward" stuff. And I can't even blame the politicians for that. It's ALL the media.

And I'd love to be the bigger man and say, "It's both sides," it is mostly the right. And ONLY because the right is more marketable. I mean, if you were a big business, who would you rather side with? Someone who will make sure you have lower taxes, of course. Plus the whole Noise makes News thing that's polluted everyone's matter of thinking. Sure, there are insufferable people on the left... Rachel Wazzwename and Keith Whositzface (anyone else is below the radar and I can't name them)... but personally they get outnumbered by Glen Beck's multiple personalities alone. It's JUST where the money is. I remember a LOT of radio hosts that switched to the right for the money, and when people starred hating Bush for like his last year, they pretended to switch to Libertarian. I SO wish there were more people like Ben Stein or McCain's Daughter who would calmly argue their point across without bullying or name calling or emasculating anyone into believing what they believe. But hey! That doesn't sell books and ratings, and the gold industry DOESN'T want to get behind that, now do they?

All and all, I just think it's horrifying that the only reliable news source is comedians. Mocking the truth is STILL bringing the truth to light. NO one wants to relive those horrible Neo-Huac days of Freedom Fries and black and whiteness. And that's exactly what everyone's STILL doing. it disgusts me to the core, and it doesn't matter which side you're on. And ANY network that talks smack about Sesame Street is a heartless monster. Do they wanna take down Santa Claus too?

 

[matleo]

I just want to jump in here and say how much I love the irony here that a tread about wanting to see more controversial topics has in itself become a controversial topic. Delicious!

--Matt

 

[ryhoyarbie]

Do they wanna take down Santa Claus too?

Philadelphia Eagles fans did one time at a game by throwing snow balls at Santa Claus.

 

[Drtooth]

Philadelphia Eagles fans did one time at a game by throwing snow balls at Santa Claus.

Anything that wants to kill childhood or take anything childish down a peg to further some cockamamie or dangerous logic, it doesn't matter which side its on, will get no fandom from me. While I would love to say how much these people remind me of bullies I knew, basically they can say anything about anyone, but when someone says something about them, they try to KILL them... I just don't wanna go further on it (I think what Marvel did was cowardly, by the way...especially considering what they did with Captain America pre-WW2).

Jim Henson was a person who believed that Television was a powerful medium, and he managed to use his pulpit for good. Look at Fraggle Rock. But I feel these mammoth corporations that tell us what to think (mainly because they can A/ Make money off of it and B/ help elect politicians that give them tax cuts and favors) are absolutely evil, and Jim himself would have disapproved. Especially when they attack something he had a hand in creating for being satirical... could you imagine how they'd react to Dinosaurs (which slyly managed to talk about the truth of war and politics that bitingly)?

What people need to realize is these people make money off them. P.T. Barnum and all that. Look at former vice presidential candidate Yzma from Emperor's New Groove. She makes a LOT more money ranting about politics than she would have if she actually had to fix any of it.

We need to know where money goes and where it comes from.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I get that I'm on Muppet Central. I also know this is the GENERAL SECTION, a place to talk about anything general that doesn't pertain to anything Henson related. Hence why people can talk about anything in the general section of any website that doesn't relate to what the website is about.

Exactly why I mentioned that threads in a General Section that are topical to why we're here are the kinds of thread we should expect to see in General Discussion.

For example, why post something that is horrible when we can post something positive with a happy ending. I know happy endings aren't real life--dealing with horrible things is. But, we get happy endings with Muppets, with the works of Jim Henson (give or take, some of the Storyteller stories weren't always happy endings), and a place like MC is our chance to finally get away from all that negativity we see every time we turn on the news, or get a radio broadcast that tells us about something horrible going on in the world or in our neighborhoods.

Again, why would you want to deal with it in real life and then go online to deal with it again? We can't run from our troublesome world, but we can certainly hide from it for a little while.

To address another concern, I understand that not everyone has the ability to leave the house; but, for more adult themed postings there are websites out there that allow that kind of thing whether news stories or fiction.

Let's keep MC fun and clean. Let's have a place where we can come for happiness and just good, friendly, positive posting. There's no need to have controversy in a place like this.

And that's not just me speaking as a moderator--none of what I've posted here has been (well, maybe a li'l bit); but, it is me speaking/typing as a fan. This was the first message board I ever signed on to way back in the Delphi Days and is currently the only one I still visit the most and frequently. I know as a fan what I expect of this forum, I know as a moderator what I expect of the membership--and even I will need to be kicked into gear from time to time and may slip up and post something that shouldn't be here, too. We forum-goers do that.

So, we just need to watch out for each other, be on each other's sides, and help each other along.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

For example, why post something that is horrible when we can post something positive with a happy ending.

If you want a happy ending, watch a Disney cartoon! I understand where you're coming from and I've seen topics get out of hand where people just insult each other. Believe me, I don't want to see that either, which is why I like nice friendly sites like this that do not tolerate that kind of behavior.

However, I really want to see some interesting topics in the general section rather than fluffy sugar coated topics that I could care less about. Yes people can go to other websites and talk about whatever, but I would like to see some topics here at this website that are interesting, topics relating to the question if college is worth it, the hearings today of the members of the Goldman Sachs company, etc.

You also might get more members to join here or get members that haven't been here for quite some time back to participate in those discussions.

You're one of the moderators here. If people get out of line in a thread, just close the thread or warn the people who are arguing with each other that their behavior does not comply with the code of conduct at the website and more than likely those people will back off.

Anyway, that's my two cents on this.

 

[RedPiggy]

Jim Henson was a person who believed that Television was a powerful medium, and he managed to use his pulpit for good. Look at Fraggle Rock. But I feel these mammoth corporations that tell us what to think (mainly because they can A/ Make money off of it and B/ help elect politicians that give them tax cuts and favors) are absolutely evil, and Jim himself would have disapproved. Especially when they attack something he had a hand in creating for being satirical... could you imagine how they'd react to Dinosaurs (which slyly managed to talk about the truth of war and politics that bitingly)?

Let's face it ... Wesayso really IS in charge of everything. Maybe Richfield became immortal from swimming in all his cash at the finale.

 

[Super Scooter]

What is the point of the General Discussion forum? This is a place for Muppet discussions, after all. I vote General Discussion be removed all together, then we won't have to worry about "controversial topics."

 

[D'Snowth]

What is the point of the General Discussion forum? This is a place for Muppet discussions, after all. I vote General Discussion be removed all together, then we won't have to worry about "controversial topics."

It's kind of an unwritten rule... all forums have to have a General Discussion board (or an "Open Forum" as some call them).

Sometimes though, I think it would make more sense to combine the General Discussion board and the Friends and Family board into one, since they're essentially the same thing.

 

[Drtooth]

Let's face it ... Wesayso really IS in charge of everything. Maybe Richfield became immortal from swimming in all his cash at the finale.

There is TOO much that the show said that had to be said somehow. They mentioned that weapons manufacturers sell deadly weapons to BOTH sides (Wesayso) and that political parties are owned by the same people to give the illusion of choice (again, Wesayso)... they even stabbed Scientology LONG before South Park did it. And since it flew under the radar everyone looked the other way. Could you imagine a Dinosaurs episode that openly mocked how people get news now?