"I hate to do anything as dramatic as count to three but"

[Slinky Bender]

{Heist 2001}

Things have gotten way to far out of hand DRAMA WISE, and some of the biggest complainers are the biggest perpetrators. Many others may not be perpetrators, but they don't do anything constructive and just sit by while it happens, and then complain about the "quality of discussion". The threads on UG are only as interesting, civil, funny or what-have-you as the users who post. So if you are just going to sit by and not post, and blame it on some other poster(s) you are really just part of the problem. While I hear complaining about certain posters "driving so-and-so off the board", it works just as well the other way around: good posts by good posters drown out the "noise" from the bad posters.

There is both an ignore funstion (so if someone bothers you, PUT THEM ON YOUR IGNORE LIST AND YOY WILL NEBER HAVER TO SEE THIER POSTS AND WON'T HAVE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THEM) and a "Report Post" system (see the little triangular icon at the bottom left corner of every post?). Those 2 things in and of themselves are all anyone needs to make UG the experience they waant it to be, rather than complaining about why it isn't what they want.

Well, ""I hate to do anything as dramatic as" demand "loyalty oathes", but I'm at the end of my fucking rope.

So: if you want to show you are on board, post "I will not contribute to any drama, in my posts or replying to posts of others, on UG or off UG/backchannel. I will not "stir the pot", incite others to gang up on posters, providers, etc. I will do my best to ELIMIATE drama, rather than create it."

I understand if many of you will find this obnoxious. Sorry. But if you want this place to be better, stop complaining and start doing. There's nothing I or any of the moderators can do if the only "contributions" are either people making offensive posts or others complaining about it. It is every member's choice whether to ignore trolls or feed them, whether to contribute information, opinions, or other valuable posts, or to sit back, write nothing, and complain about what others write.

It's up to you. Staff, me and the mods don't write the stuff (well, 99% of it anyway), we just try to control it. You decide which way we are going to go. But if you elect to sit back and do nothing, or "take your ball and go home", don't be surprised at the results.

{NB: post replies here}