Are you a good Newsvine citizen?

I agree. It's hard to restrain yourself sometimes from making rude or disrespectful comments if you're enraged by a particular comment or article, but we really should make an effort to keep the conversation civil because this definitely is a great place to get smarter.

I personally think #1 is the most important. I've run across this many times recently. People have a tendency to assume that their opponents are trolls, or completely idiotic, or even lying. I've been accused of purposefully trying to mislead someone here, just because he interpreted my comment wrong.

It's also pretty common for people to assume that because someone doesn't agree with a particular policy, that he also disagrees with all other policies on the same side. I.e., if I argue that one traditionally "liberal" policy is bad, then people assume I'm a conservative, and vice versa. That's especially troubling to me, because I have both liberal and conservative positions. I hate it when people accuse me of being a right-winger or a left-winger after talking about one issue.

Debates here would be a whole lot more civil if people would just start with the assumption that the person they're talking to is honest, and not make any other assumptions about that person's beliefs. We should also assume that the person we're disagreeing with is misinformed, rather than a complete idiot. Our job here is to inform each other, not to throw insults at anyone who disagrees.

Lately, I (and I'm sure most of you) have noticed that some debate on Newsvine has gone from general civility to, well, craziness.

Lately, I have noticed that some debate on Newsvine has gone from craziness to, well, general civility.

I think both sentences could be true, especially since we used the word some. Which truth may depend upon the kind of articles you regularly read/write, the tags you follow, the friends and authors you like, etc. Please notice I use the word may.

Debates, by defination happen when there are opposing points of view, whether face to face, over the phone or in a forum.

While there is no rating for "good behavior," the general population of the vine know where you are coming from - especially with some of the more well known contributors - such as Dom. I know by now who will contribute a insightful comment or a funny one or a bigoted one. I know by now who will comment on what topic and from what point of view.. yes, you know who I am talking about. :-)

The peanut gallery will always be there. The bigots will always be there, we just have to make sure that we don't become members of these - er groups.

satires that incite attacks rather than useful commentary.

satire: the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

actually it was a 2-part series.

The 2nd part explains and advocate against the usage of serious-extreme-sensational-headlines.

All White People Look Alike (an article about extreme sensational headlines, and how to say no to articles that incite 300comments of ranting)

I assume you're familiar with The Onion. I'm so sorry if you thought my waging of the War on Stupidorists was designed to incite riots, because I wrote it specifically to explain the crazyness of it all, and that if someone else decided to engage in such behavior, they would understand that satire might come back to bite them in the ass.

As far as being a good Newsvine citizen...

Dude I'm going 7000 miles that way (Middle-East) in 10 days and becoming the first Newsvine field correspondent in my downtime. Any questions?

KING KONG AIN'T GOT @!$%# ON ME!

okay you're obviously flipping out because you're leaving in only 1 1/2 week.

Yep.

I think part of the problem is that there has been an influx of new users who have encountered some of the "bad eggs" who, while being a very small minority here, are still on a lot of our watclists (yeah, I admit it) as guilty pleasures. These "noobies" see all the traffic generated by the rousers of rabble and the level of participation in these threads by more prominent 'viners and assume that this is par for the course here. They then act accordingly.

What I'm trying to say is that Newsvine must be self-policing, particularly by those of us who have been around awhile and should know better.

Eh-hem. Crazy comment fights? Really Dom? I have no idea what you're talking about!

I do agree. Civility is key. When I myself comment, I remain civil as long as possible. I absolutely call people on the carpet over things that tick me off - patronizing comments, rude behavior, or bigotry. But I try to do it in a way that is composed and doesn't incite more rudeness. This doesn't always work. If it doesn't, I will fight back.

I also have little or no patience for people who simply skim a comment before replying. I often take several hours to reply to a post - just to think things out and compose my response in the more concise, understandable manor. I suggest that others do the same. Don't worry - the Vine will still be here. It's often better to take a little time - especially if you're agrevated - and compose yourself. You will come up with a better response - and you more than likely won't violate even the spirit of the CoH.

I think one of the biggest problems facing us Viners is, as Dom points out, sensationalist headlines and articles. Many of these articles are simply attempts at boosting the author's earnings and getting more comments (as well as starting flame wars). I am boycotting those articles which are blatent trolling attempts - and I suggest other Viners do the same.

Dom, I wouldn't agree 100% with your first suggestion (I always keep in view the possibility that whoever is writing is not being honest). But even though I might doubt his sincerity, I can give him the benefit of the doubt, and answer in an honest manner.

Apart from that little detail, I thoroughly enjoyed this article and the comments.

Thank you, thank you for writing this. It's something that I've been thinking/commenting for awhile now but you've managed to put it into a nice article. Cheers.

While I see little nudges at those of opposing viewpoints acceptable and sometimes a way to create a little friendly rivalry, outright attack on the person (be that name-calling, degrading remarks, or behavior that does nothing but insult the other) is simply unacceptable. From what I've seen, it's also more of an individual problem rather than any one group (for instance, I don't think all the conservatives here on the Vine are trolls, though I'm sure someone would be happy to debate me on that).

Oh, and more important than all of this:

Get smarter, dammit!

Totally the revamped Newsvine slogan. Appeals to a new generation. Or something.

It's quite obvious that if you state your opinion on Newsvine you're going to be labled as an idiot and get backlashed by someone. It's the truth, you can't state your opinion without 2 seconds later someone trying to prove that you're wrong and that they're right. This reminds me of an argument I was reading earlier this month. Someone just gave up and said

"great, you win at the internet"

I laughed. Click X at the top of my browser and refused to go to newsvine for a couple of days because I just got tired of reading the comments and backlash on articles.

I guess the main issue is if we all are alike. Are we? Sure, we can look at our selves and be clear about who we are (yeah right! As of when did the human being become expert in self criticism..let me lift my seat cheek and schmack my self towards laughter at that one..See!)

What I am trying to say is that I believe that I have encountered the perfect civic mannered conversation when I stumble upon it some lucky day, somewhere, I hope? Well! The main thing should be that we do not get so dismayed or furiously mad that we wish to contract a hit-man on each other just because we do have divided beliefs. Ain't it so? What could happen if we totally would let go of our inherently gained postures and capacity of wit-holding our selves from numerous "vendettas"? I guess that the only thing for me to be doing soon is to resolve this whole matter by looking for an old and Wise friend who's words might just as well be the reason we all would return to embracing each other, Neo-con with Liberals and vice-versa...

Just remember..Always look on the bright side of life...