A New Rule concerning PM's- Poll

[RGold]

I believe that if there is a rule that private messages are not to be posted to the forum, then those messages should not be posted without the permission of the moderator.

It does bother me when a new member within a few days of joining threatens multiple lawsuits to those that disagree with him. There is a forum to counter those arguments. Of course, I can understand if someone feels they are continuously being attacked unfairly, they have every right to advise the offender that legal action could result. However, to threaten lawsuits every time someone says something you do not like to hear stifles the free exchange of ideas and amounts to bullying in my opinion. The real issue here is not what rules should be enforced regarding private messages because that is easy to address.

Bullying on this board is the real issue. Count me in as the one of the many members that will not normally post anything of consequence on this board. I was on other boards in the past and did not "play" well with others. However, I have noticed in the last year many instances of what amounts to bullying, and felt like I wanted to say my piece.

Bullying can be threatening lawsuits or physical harm, making fun of someone's collection, the law school they attended or the hourly fees they charge, or talking about them on on a radio show. We are all equal here and each of us should be judged by the strength of our posts and our dealings with each other. Humor and a sharp tongue is different than ridicule and intimidation.

One of the smartest people I have ever known, is a Harvard Law grad. I have never seen him use that as an argument here. There are members that have exceptional collections worth huge amounts of money that do not bully others by using that in their posts. How much a person makes should not be used here. Making fun of someone's lifestyle choices is bullying. I also made the choice several years ago to scale back my business and investments because of the trade off making less money afforded me.

There is another type of bullying that goes on here. Whether you feel strongly about raw cards vs graded cards, low grade cards vs high grade cards or PSA vs SGC, continually posting about it at every turn is bullying. Bill Mastro, Doug Allen, Dave Forman, Bill Goodwin, J.P. Cohen and others are all open game to be discussed. Are we all so ignorant that we need to be browbeaten continuously to understand your positions? I know the response is don't read it, and I agree. You can start a thread every day with your vendettas as is your right and I can ignore those. Interjecting and hijacking unrelated posts is bullying.

I am not suggesting a myriad of rules or that the moderator uses a heavy hand in censoring posts. I am just suggesting that we all display common decency and that we do not condone bullying here or in real life no matter how "popular" the member may be.

[glchen]

Originally Posted by RGold

I believe that if there is a rule that private messages are not to be posted to the forum, then those messages should not be posted without the permission of the moderator.

It does bother me when a new member within a few days of joining threatens multiple lawsuits to those that disagree with him. There is a forum to counter those arguments. Of course, I can understand if someone feels they are continuously being attacked unfairly, they have every right to advise the offender that legal action could result. However, to threaten lawsuits every time someone says something you do not like to hear stifles the free exchange of ideas and amounts to bullying in my opinion. The real issue here is not what rules should be enforced regarding private messages because that is easy to address.

Bullying on this board is the real issue. Count me in as the one of the many members that will not normally post anything of consequence on this board. I was on other boards in the past and did not "play" well with others. However, I have noticed in the last year many instances of what amounts to bullying, and felt like I wanted to say my piece.

Bullying can be threatening lawsuits or physical harm, making fun of someone's collection, the law school they attended or the hourly fees they charge, or talking about them on on a radio show. We are all equal here and each of us should be judged by the strength of our posts and our dealings with each other. Humor and a sharp tongue is different than ridicule and intimidation.

One of the smartest people I have ever known, is a Harvard Law grad. I have never seen him use that as an argument here. There are members that have exceptional collections worth huge amounts of money that do not bully others by using that in their posts. How much a person makes should not be used here. Making fun of someone's lifestyle choices is bullying. I also made the choice several years ago to scale back my business and investments because of the trade off making less money afforded me.

There is another type of bullying that goes on here. Whether you feel strongly about raw cards vs graded cards, low grade cards vs high grade cards or PSA vs SGC, continually posting about it at every turn is bullying. Bill Mastro, Doug Allen, Dave Forman, Bill Goodwin, J.P. Cohen and others are all open game to be discussed. Are we all so ignorant that we need to be browbeaten continuously to understand your positions? I know the response is don't read it, and I agree. You can start a thread every day with your vendettas as is your right and I can ignore those. Interjecting and hijacking unrelated posts is bullying.

I am not suggesting a myriad of rules or that the moderator uses a heavy hand in censoring posts. I am just suggesting that we all display common decency and that we do not condone bullying here or in real life no matter how "popular" the member may be.

+1