Please, don't. By "firing back," you run the risk of getting in as much or more trouble than the person who "fired first." It also perpetuates the heated environment of the thread. And lastly, it leaves more for us to clean up.

If someone attacks you, report them to a moderator, and leave it alone.

Well, this has generated some heat.

I guess Josh Hinkle was closest to what I'm talking about. It's not personal attacks as much as things like... someone starts a thread about a favorite director or actor or movie asking for opinions on said subject.

People post their opinions and it seems like the majority of responses that disagree rarely say "IMHO" or "I disagree" but rather they fire off things like: "You obviously don't know crap about this director" or "That movie sucks! It's a total rip off of my favorite movie!" or "You are WRONG! You don't know d*ck!"

In rereading my posts here, I guess there is not that much that can be done without Gestapo tatics and none of us want that. The freedom that Geoff allows us here is one of the great things about this place.

I guess I just want folks to be a bit more mature when dealing with others.

I'm going to get my purse and my Yorkshire terrier and go now.

Are you on your period right now, Paul?

I admit I'm guilty of posting in "_____ Sucks!!" threads, heck I have been accused of (and am guilty of) fueling the fire in most of those threads (xXx, Blue Crush). In my defense I was stating my opion no different from those who (users know who they are) post crapping in praise threads. I took a step back and realized my error, so in the future I will learn to keep myself in check when it comes to things I dont agree with. Although posters who dont like something and feel the need to be vocal, should keep their venom to a minimum, and focus it on the topic not the poster.

Wow, I'm so glad someone posted this thread! I've been gone for a few days but it definitely puts into words what I've felt lately. Movie forum and the main and music are probably my favorite forums but everytime I go into movie forum lately I've felt like I'm in a room of junior high school students whose critical discussion of film revolves around whether they 'sucked' or not. It's really tiresome and turns me off to coming into the forum. I won't name names but there's definitely some constant posters who I feel like bring the quality of discussion down (well, OK, it's me Anyway, I'm glad to know I'm not alone here -- I don't know what can be done, but let's put our heads together. I use the 'report to mod' when I see something particularly juvenile/asinine (or whenever I read one of Jack Skeleton's posts but I hate doing that all the time.

...bump.

Looks like the overly sensitive OP finally fell in line. He didn't die a hero, so he lived long enough to see himself become the villain.

I don't see what the big deal is, as long as you aren't personally attacking another forum member. While saying something "sucks" shows a lack of vocabulary, sometimes it sums up an opinion perfectly. However, I do think it's obvious when someone is just "trolling" as opposed to those who want to add their opinion to a thread.

I hope the moderators don't go crazy, though...as someone who enjoys posting a sarcastic remark when he sees a good "opening," I'd hate to think we'd lost our sense of humor here on DVD TALK.

I mean, if Roger can say it, isn't it okay for us to?

While I think most of your posts suck, this one had me

Personally, I think "This movie was awesome!" is just as useless as "This movie sucked!" because neither really allow for discussion. They're opinions presented as declarations, and rarely is either accompanied by reason. I love Lawrence of Arabia, but I can articulate why I love it; conversely, I hate American Beauty; again, I can articulate why this is (and have done so probably too often).

In any event, I'm curious why benedict felt the need to bump this thread. I don't read every thread in every forum (or even all the the threads in the few forums that I check regularly), but I haven't noticed any particular trend of rising negativity that I would think falls in line with the nature of this eight year old thread. If anything, I've seen a handful of spirited debates in some threads lately where I thought posters on either side did a pretty good job of remaining mature and civil while presenting reasonable arguments...something that seems to be all but impossible to find on any other online forum.

Saw this thread at the top of the forum and started reading it. Didn't notice the dates and kept thinking, 'wow, static cling is back!' or 'omg, Jack is posting'. Got pissed off when I saw the dates and was going to flame the bumper, but decided that I was being overly sensitive.


Post of the week.
True. Although I suck at articulation and often rely on these terms as my sole arguments.

Unfortunately we are regularly having to suspend members for the same kind of behaviour that prompted this thread and some are astounded &/or abusive when they receive the news.

It seemed to me that showing what prompted the original zero tolerance era might be of some interested to newer members or those with shorter memories than others.

Glad you're not seeing too many of the troublesome threads/posts. That means that we're managing to keep a lid on things overall and that the forum is presenting itself as a generally pleasant environment.

I'm a member of several online communities, but I can honestly say that DVD Talk is the only one I even visit with any regularity, much less participate. The reason is simple: the civility. I came for the bargains sub-forum, but stayed for the conversations. I'm sorry to learn about this recent rash of malcontents, but I would definitely be lying if I said I'd noticed on my own (with the lone exception of a poster or two who clearly flaunted their commission of coupon fraud and couldn't even admit that's what they were doing).

I'd agree with this. I've noticed a number of members in recent months whose status shows as suspended, yet I'd never seen any evidence of what led to it.

I want "______ KICKED ASS!" to be obliterated forever.

No sooner did I make my remarks about being oblivious to this kind of behavior (and you seconded it) than we had the Movie Character Draft Game Debacle of 2010. I've thought about it, and I have to confess I had some problems with Osiris in the draft selection thread. I don't bring this up to attack a guy while he's suspended, but rather because I deliberately turned a blind eye to his behavior because I wanted to win the game--and the $15 DVD/Blu-ray he'd offered as a prize. I can't say I'm terribly proud of this, but I think there might be a worthy discussion in there somewhere if anyone's willing to have it.