ETA: I r slow. I fully agree about the welcome post,
MrsG.
******
I keep seeing people say that they don't post because their opinion gets lost in the shuffle. I can understand that, but with the forum at large being more aware that they're ignoring people (usually unintentionally), the only way to get that opinion out there now is to post.
Aside from the back and forth bickering that's been brought in here, this thread has alerted members to the fact that people are feeling left out--even though I don't think any of us wanted that to happen.
(Not referring to a specific person) I've also seen it mentioned numerous times that the ratio of 'type Z' to 'type X' comments is uneven--if most of the posts about something are 'type Z', the only way to change that is to make more 'type X' posts (positive or negative, pro or con, paper or plastic--whatever the difference may be). Asking group Z not to post as much isn't the answer, and it's not fair--group X has to post more if they want things to change.
The performance of an actor or actress is part of the discussion when you talk about the character. If it's alright to say how great Gary is, it's okay to say you think Gary didn't do so well in a certain scene. Tone or attitude are a different story, and it's already been asked in this thread by the mods for the people posting to be more aware of
how they say things. I don't get the impression that there is any intention to limit
what people can say in this forum.
To continue this set of mostly-random comments, I've also seen numerous people say that comments about shipping only belong in the shipper forum. But I'm not seeing that referring to
all shipping--just Danny/Flack. There are probably 5-10 people in this forum (am I being generous? I've never counted) who actually ship the pair of them and have made comments about it. Personally, I see this as being no different than someone making comments about Mac and Stella, for example. Mac/Stella is a far more popular pairing than Danny/Flack, and I've seen a lot of comments about it recently--look at the grading thread for the latest episode. And I haven't seen anybody suggest that there's anything wrong with that--
I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Part of watching the show for someone might be to enjoy the subtext between Character H and Character G--and part of them being comfortable in this forum is to know that they're allowed to post their thoughts without being forbidden to mention H/G. No, there shouldn't be threads about it or anything like that, but if it's alright to comment on the way Danny and Lindsay interact, it's alright to comment on the way Flack and Stella interact, for example.
As for someone saying 'I don't like Danny/Lindsay' and then turning around and saying 'I think Danny belongs with Flack'--how is that any different than saying 'I don't like Mac/Peyton' and then following it with 'I think Mac belongs with Stella'? From what I can tell, the Mac/Peyton and Mac/Stella shippers have managed to co-exist just fine despite disagreeing over who they think Mac should be with. I've seen people say that they're sad that Peyton broke up with Mac, and I've seen people who are glad that she did--and I haven't seen anybody get their knickers in a twist.
No, I don't want this to turn into an argument about shipping--it's already happened and I think there are far better things to discuss in this thread. However, I thought I'd bring that up because it's one of the main complaints I've seen over and over again.
Rather than looking at it as 'there is too much B' in here, we should be looking at it as 'there isn't enough V' in here--and working to include more V rather than trying to get B suppressed. Every opinion is equally as valuable, whether you're for something or against it, whether you enjoyed an episode or not, whether you want to have an in-depth discussion or just squeal over your favorite character, whether you're a newbie in the forum or an old fart regular--encourage people to post, don't try to limit them.
You know you can't resist.