Moving the Discovery Forums closer to the light

[Sassafras]

After reading Joe's excellent post on racism, I was reminded of how the Discovery Forums have struggled over the years to create a supportive community of Freelancer enthusiasts, while also being plagued with individuals whose behavior ranges from openly disregarding the forum rules to those intelligent folks who sit on the borderline and use the '€œfree speech'€ environment to express their disrespectful, angry, and downright hateful thoughts and ideas. The reasons for such individuals to behave in such a way are many and varied and you will find them everywhere.

The first step in any meaningful change is to first define what you want to change into. The direction you want to go. While the forum rules define the behavior we don't want to see, nowhere does it say what we do want.

I think a small set of goals or ideals (no more than four) should be created that clearly defines the function of the Discovery Forums and the ideal environment we want to experience here. Goals would take the focus away from trying to maintain behavior that doesn't break the rules to a loftier ideal of creating a positive environment that is enjoyable, meaningful, and fun for everyone. These goals would also serve as a learning tool to those individuals who struggle with inappropriate forum behavior. The goals would give them the direction they need to move toward in order to be a participating member of the community. Instead of '€œdon't break the rules'€, we can say '€œstrive for these ideals'€.

In this way, members and moderators can clearly measure whether any behavior supports the forum goals or not. And then to take the appropriate action to preserve the ideals we have put forth.

Sass