What of last time? And the time before that? This is hardly a recent development.

I do it all the time. I am an Existentialist, and I usually play Devil's advocate whenever I argue religion. This means I am usually in the minority regardless of what the majority happens to think on the matter. The trick is to not sound judgmental or supercilious.

And that illustrates what I mean about many forum posts going directly for personal attacks on the poster rather than actually arguing the issue at hand. ;)
Exactly.

I don't think that the hands off moderation applies. When the forum was being spammed, it was dealt with. If the rep system is being abused why haven't they done anything about it? Why haven't they even posted in any of the threads we've had on downreping to address that, yes, the system is in fact being abused? Perhaps it's because the system is not being abused at all. I don't know, just throwing it out there. Maybe the rep system is working exactly as it's supposed to.

Was I supposed to addressed what you wrote? In that case, yes actually, the internet does want me to express an opinion on everything everywhere. The coffee told me and the coffee is never wrong.

Eh? Maybe, but I am also about as fiscally conservative and pro-decentralization as they come, and I still manage to be good friends with stout socialists and have meaningful debates with them about politics.

My point is that it isn't that difficult to express an opinion without garnering the ire of the forum community. Honest mistakes may result in down-repping, but if the mistake really was honest, and not a true reflection of character, then it will eventually work itself out. In my experience, the person in question just needs to respond in a mature manner and move on, and the situation will blow over eventually.

Everyone has their own idea of good"character" and a "mature manner", just so yo know. And you need to consider that this forum is home to people from many different cultures, religions etc. It is impossible to express an opinion without pissing people off because we humans are so different from each other especially if your opinion is not popular in this world. You think if we don't do any personal attacking, alter our words to be polite to everyone, people won't get offended and down rep? Not true because someone out there will be offended because not everyone in this world shares your belief on what if offensive and what is not. There could be someone out there who is offended by your words for simply accepting the existence of dinosaurs. And if one has to alter their words to a point, he or she thinks people won't get offended from reading them, then he or she isn't truly expressing his or her thoughts. Then he or she is being very two faced. I personally think people should speak their mind and not just say what people want to hear(outside of work or life threatening situations). In my eyes, what you claim is no different than you claiming you found the fountain of youth or the holy grail. I can only believe you, if we are all cyborg clones, no different from each other.

Krypsyn has been extremely polite in many of these debates, even when I have been less polite than I otherwise in retrospect would have wished. Langur: You could do worse than to watch how he communicates a minority (on this forum) opinion without resorting to name calling, denigrating others, etc. He's the proof that you don't always have to offend.

Yes, people may take offense at some crazy stuff, (like the dinosaur thing), that's fine, if you know that you did your best to politely communicate then you did your part.

The problem here is a lot of people don't want to make that effort, and that is also their choice, but others will react, and a lot more will react negatively to offensively presented information, whereas if the information was presented politely, even while disagreeing, no one would even notice the few fringe folks getting bent out of shape over nothing.

The problem is people are too different from some people. And everyone expecting people to be just like them. Everyone wants and expects it their way like they are a customer at Burger King. Where there are people too different from some people, there will always be words that offend. Watch, the movie, Borat. A very funny movie but also a very educational movie.

Well I have to agree with Krypsyn again. I've posted plenty of things that many people probably disagree with but I can't remember ever getting downrepped. I'm sure there are a lot of artist types here who could downrep me for my views on copyright if they wanted to. Sometimes I believe what I'm typing, sometimes it might be stupid or wrong, and sometimes I might just be seeing if an argument can hold up to different viewpoints in this diverse group. What I don't do though (95% of the time) is personally attack everyone that might disagree with me, which I'm betting is why I don't get downrepped. That accomplishes nothing.

There's a difference between offending someone because you present an opinion they don't like and offending people with name-calling.

If I search for and read all your posts, I bet all of them contain extremely popular views written in a way considered polite by most cultures in this world. Your posts and Disney movies, probably have much in common. It is the nail that sticks out, that gets hammered.

I agree that sometimes you have to blunt in order to get your point across, because their are some people who won't get the hint unless you spit it out. However, one can be blunt and civil at the same time.

Calling it "impossible" frankly sounds like a cop-out for bad behavior, it may be impossible to please everyone, because there will always be that one kook, but using the kook as a reason to not try is self deception. Again, you're not obligated to try, but if you do, the vast majority of people do indeed notice, and both you and they can ignore the kooks.

Everyone has their own idea of what is "civil". Down reping is just bullying someone because he or she is different and you don't like what makes he or she different.

Is it possible to express an opinion without offending anyone is the original argument. This an entirely different argument now. What you call bad behavior could simply be, someone refusing to bend over to your culture. Why should someone change their culture and personality for you? This someone might try if this someone really loves you. People expect too much. They expect everyone in this world to behave a certain way and then down rep when someone is not behaving a certain way. In other words, bullying those that are different because in their brains, different is "bad", different is "inferior". Well I think, it would be nice if this kind of crap ceased to exist here at GOG general discussion. The first step is the removal of the - button. Maybe this is will make it easier for some of you guys. Imagine, GOG general discussion is a huge and popular space station like Babylon 5 but in the Star Trek Universe. Now imagine every being who talks like Krypsyn is human. And every being who doesn't talk like Krypsyn is a Klingon or Romulan. Kind of insane, to expect a Klingon to act like a human? And if he isn't trolling or posting spam, down reping him is simply bullying him because he is a Klingon because you are down reping him for behaving in a way that is different.

It must be a slow news day for a minus button on a web forum to get this kind of discussion. Is this really worth spending this kind of time and energy on? Is it worth becoming upset over or impassioned about? Is this really something that in the grand scheme of life rates as even slightly important?

I hope not.

It's really simple. Be nice to people and most of the time they will be nice to you too. Peace on earth begins with you. Your rep on a forum will take care of itself. People do not form an opinion of you based on some number next to your name. They form an opinion of you based on the things you say and do, the way in which you choose to live.