One can do this AND use the foe feature. It's just a tool. If you notice that you end up in digressions that never come to any resolution and are off topic in threads then it might be better just not to see certain people. So, one doesn't fall for their trolling. Or if one has found that the conversation leads nowhere, enough times to make it seem worthwhile. I generally have gone back after a long break to see if anything is different. But during that time I am less likely to be drawn into interactions that do not lead anywhere and create more noise to signal in the forum. If using foe would do something else for you, or something you think is detrimental to the community, well obviously don't use it. But it is not like the foe function must lead to a worse community. It depends on how it is used and in relation to what patterns.phyllo wrote:It's not just about ignoring people who you don't want to talk to (for whatever reason)."Friends and Foes"
Part of it is about what a forum is for, what the participants get out of it. Building something useful, interesting, stimulating, informative ...
I mean, irl we don't engage every person. We choose some conversation partners. I have found interesting conversation partners with views very different from mine. There is only so much time. You probabl don't read every online news outlet. Perhaps you do read ones from other political perspectives, but some you likely avoid. Because they are written poorly. Because they write illogically. Because they do no research. Whatever.
Why should online life be different from face to face life or other media. We all choose for a variety of reasons, but we are selective. Now one can create an echo chamber. Or one can weed out people where the conversations are fruitless. And where they are a distraction. And focus on dialogue with people you disagree with but where there is some kind of progress.
It might for you. For me it is like, I don't want to hang out with that guy or get coffee with him again. IRL it might be because he tells people private stuff about me. Or it might be because he harranges me about religion or politics and doesn't listen.'Friend and Foe' doesn't do that. It puts you and other people in boxes.
We put people in boxes in our private lives. And not just people, but books, movies. We don't randomly pick movies to watch or books from the library or read 300 page books by people who after ten pages have shown themselves to be illiterate or confused. Maybe we try again in a few years. But we all, everyone one of us, avoid some people and spend more time with some.
Even choosing ILP rather than other forums puts those other forums in a box. This forum has some fairly idiosyncratic posting patterns. Even if we post here AND other places, every post here is a not posting somewhere else.
We don't study electrical engineering or we don't study literary critism or agriculture.
We all make choices. I agree that it is important to be challenged, but some interaction are not challenging or no longer are. And stopping them, I think, can make the community have better discussions, where the goals of most of the people are more readily achieved.
. In other words, I have to adapt to him while he runs around doing things as he always has. Where is his "moderation and negotiation"?
