The tenets of this group have not changed. It's right there in the top line - "...a respectful, supportive and polite tone in all posts."
I never expected that everyone would agree with everyone else in every post. The world would truly be a much more boring place if that were the case. But excessive umbrage and accusations and generally going toe-to-toe in recent threads which should have been innocuous makes me a bit concerned. Hopefully, this was just an early example of the February crankiness that pops up on this list when folks have not gotten out to ride enough. There are a few things in those escalating threads which catch my attention. One is a statement which described a post as hastily made. There's not a thing so time-dependent on this group that anyone needs to shoehorn an immediate response between the business of the day. If someone insults you, let it stand. The previous conversational contributions made to this group present enough of a body of evidence as to whether any insult is valid or ludicrous. We all have a sense of the personalities behind the comments, especially if we've been involved in this list for any length of time. The need to respond immediately does not exist here. There are better venues for that. If you find yourself hammering out (or tapping out) (or dictating to a transcription bot) a quick response, maybe you don't need to post it. Because words are tough. We see it play out time and time again. All we get are the words. No body language or tone. No micro musculature movement on the face to defuse or contextualize the words. An innocuous post taken the wrong way. Something triggers someone and suddenly the conversation is in a death spiral towards "So's yer old man!" I think we're better than that. Because we're human, that isn't always the case. So, let's give one another the opportunity to be wrong, hold an opinion we don't agree with, miss the point entirely or explore an idea clumsily. If you are the smartest person in the room, let the rest of us catch up occasionally. Pretend it's a group ride where no one gets dropped. There were also a few things in the threads which heartened me. Group members stepped in to diffuse the situation, putting themselves in the line of fire to let everyone sit back down and enjoy the music. Thank you. That said, what now? Will we continue to get teased by the popular social venues into being the first responder? Having an answer rather than considering a thoughtful response? Will this group become a value-added buy/sell/trade sheet? Will we continue to find commonality or seek to contrast only our differences? Will Timmy hang on to the cracking tree branch over the chasm while Lassie finds the ranger? Wait. Sorry. Ignore that last line. My point, as always, is that the quality of this group is up to us. Let's move forward with a commitment to that idea. Thanks to everyone for their ongoing contributions to this group. - Jim Jim Edgar / rbw group admin -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
