Forum Upheavals Are Just Par for The Course

MineralMan

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Sun Jun-20-10 01:14 PM
Original message

Forum Upheavals Are Just Par for The Course

Edited on Sun Jun-20-10 01:19 PM by MineralMan

I've been frequenting discussion forums on all sorts of topics since back in the GEnie and Compuserve days. Forums on boats. Forums on software. Forums on fishing. Forums on politics Forums on...well you name it. I gravitate towards large forums with large memberships. They're more active, and more fun.

There's something that every one of those forums, and pretty much every organization in human history, have in common: Discord.

Any time a large group of people comes together to discuss things or to share common interests, minor differences are bound to occur. In almost every such situation, from church denominations to service clubs, hobby groups, and discussion forums, there are always people who have differences with those who form the leadership and the general beliefs of the larger group. They grow dissatisfied with the group, which they feel no longer represents their viewpoint. Sometimes, they even become disruptive and get tossed from the group.

So, what happens next? Very often, the dissatisfied or banned go and form a new group, taking like-minded, disgruntled people from the original group with them. Martin Luther did it, and protestant denominations have been doing it ever since. These splinter groups form, complain about the original group, grow, and then end up with new splinter groups forming from within the original splinter group.

On discussion forums, the splintering occurs, too. A general automotive discussion group will end up splintering over brand loyalties and other issues. A fishing group will splinter when some people think their favorite fishing specialty is being ignored.

Typically the splintering occurs when one person or a small group becomes disruptive in seeking changes in the group. Eventually, they get banned from the original group and go off to form their own group. The new group generally has even narrower viewpoints than the original group and ends up banning people who don't agree with their viewpoint, forming more and more, ever smaller splinter groups.

In religion, which predates the Internet by centuries, the splintering takes place over doctrinal issues, mainly. Today, starting from Martin Luther's original break from the Roman Catholic Church, Protestantism has hundreds, if not thousands, of denominations, all smaller than the original, with some so small that they consist of a dozen people meeting in someone's home. All over minor doctrinal issues.

The other thing that splintering produces is a focus on the wrongs that were done by the previous organization. All too often, that is the main point of discussion in the new group. This is especially true of Internet discussion forums. The splinter group almost always has a public or private area where the topic is always the original forum and how horrible it is. This happens in almost every type of forum, from fishing or automobiles to religion or politics. The focus is on the differences, not on the similarities.

All the Protestant denominations share far more in their doctrine than they disagree about. But, they are convinced that the differences are what is important, and spend great amounts of time condemning the original denomination for its "unholy" doctrine. The original reason for the religion and the common goals are diminished.

Same thing with Internet forums. The more things change, the more they remain the same. It wouldn't matter, I guess, but with all of these organizations, the splintering tends to destroy cooperation toward common goals. It sets up animosities, which grow, and defeats the entire purpose of organizing in the first place. It's a pity. I've seen it happen in almost every large discussion forum and organization I've belonged to, on a very wide range of topics. I think it's a shame.

Me? I stick with the original, large group. There, at least, there are numbers, even if there isn't consensus. Consensus is rare to the point of nonexistence on almost any topical forum. And that's not a bad thing, necessarily. So, I stick to the large group for my discussions, and always have. If I were a Christian, which I'm not, I wouldn't be going to church in someone's house. I'd find a nice large denomination that was trying to work toward the important goals of the religion.

So, here I am.