Have been thinking long about whether I should really write my 2 cents on the above topic… Currently it feels damn right and so I will do… even if a lot of shit is gonna hit me.
What I loved about this forum is that although it has many hustlers and greedy young short term thinkers there were always some ethical standards. For a long time I thought: “Oooh wow there is some magic in the forum!”
Well it is only magic if you don’t know how it works… More and more I got to realize that these standards do work because there are some people living and applying them in the most passionate way. I asked some of them why they invest so much time and are so dedicated. Their answers were: “I know where I am coming from” and “I help because it feels right and maybe one day people help me when I am in need”.
This altruistic attitude is something that especially young people do not have or easily get (just speaking of my own experience). It takes a while to understand that you shape your world with your thinking and your deeds. Basically it comes down to Ghandi saying: Be the change you wanna see in the world… In other words greed and making money your first priority is just the counterpart of that.
Sometimes I wondered how tough and merciless the very same people have been when they smelled shit going on. To my very surprise they could smell the shit before anyone else could see it even with a telescope on the horizon. With their trained senses they protected this community from the wolfs that are naturally out there…
Are they gods or heros…? No they are not. First… like any other human being they make mistakes. Secondly (also like any other human being) they are vulnerable. Thirdly (now different to many of us) they show and admit their vulnerability and never claim fully insist on being right.
Of course sometimes they are wrong and hurt a sheep that looks like a wolf in disguise. Personally I think that such damage is better than because of low security measures letting a wolf light heartedly get into the herd. Also… whenever misjudgment happened the “standard setters” in this forum were man enough to apologize and bring everything back well to order.
@wortime is one of those guys who was/is setting the standards in this forum. At least for me he was totally authentic and did not hide his weakness (for my taste he was shockingly open about his weak points). There are other persons who come close to that (luckily).
So the question is now… does this community actually have sufficient self healing resources to keep the spirit that everyone can sense by just being in this forum for a few weeks alive? Are there enough people to take over the job, spot the scammer, be a father like person helping the young and innocent (not just for the technical stuff but also for ethics --> examples: the crazy chicken strategy and "using boob accounts for raunchy bastard was not the best idea)
Reason why I stress the ethic chapter so much is that I feel the standards here are a bit at danger to be honest. An indicator for that is people becoming emotional and accuse others with shit in a personal way.
Most prominent example for this is “stop shooting drugs”.
I was shocked when I read this. Then I thought… everybody can have a bad day (and believe me I was a little bastard in my young years --> so not up to me to make any judgement here). Deep inside I hoped that everything will get settled… a few apologies here and there or a good fist fight among men and after the situation is solved… the sun will shine again.
However I was even more shocked about the community… there was hardly any reaction when such accusation happened. In a totally healthy community even the bystanders would say: uuuh dude that was a bit too much… we don’t accept this here, please apologize and get it settled.
Ok coming back to the ethics… some of the leaders have been / are like prophets in a way. With their deeds and dedication they implanted some values into this forum. But as with any prophet there will be a time when he leaves the field. Crying after him does not really help. However continuing his work and keeping up the values would serve the community in the long run.
I deeply hope that once the tides are bit calmer that this amazing forum will find its self healing mechanism and the spirit of the leaders and their great work + dedication here is kept alive.
Now finished… 