First and foremost I want to be clear, that this thread is not designed to be accusatory, nor is it open season for other members to point fingers. The point of this thread is to encourage self-reflection, but even then I doubt my words will have a lasting effect on many of you. This is not a joke thread, there's no punch line, no dragons, only us discussing what has become of this place and what has become of the people within it. Firstly, let us identify the meaning or purpose behind this site... Bungie.net is a place where people from all backgrounds and all walks of life can gather and share in a common interest. We come here to engage and interact with one another, to discuss and learn from one another. We share in jokes and laughter, and sometimes we even suffer loss together. This site is designed to be an online gathering place for us to enjoy. Key word, ENJOY. It can be perceived as a hobby or interest, and as with any hobby or interest we engage in, we do it because its fun, we do it because we enjoy it. Though this hobby can sometimes prove troublesome, because it involves other people. People have opinions. And when you take such a wide variety of people from all different walks of life, you will no doubt have a wide spectrum of beliefs and opinions. So while you are to come to this place to find enjoyment, and to have interest in what goes on here, oddly enough the primary function function of this site is designed to have mass amounts of people interact. When this occurs with so many different people, members both new and old begin to clash. Anyone anywhere can find a person and for whatever reason make that person their enemy. Anyone can be found by someone seeking confrontation. Anyone can be targeted, and anyone can target. These certain events and occurrences put a damper or even ruin what is otherwise supposed to be an enjoyable visit to an online Community that people should truly invest no emotion in. I always say, never to take people on the Internet seriously. And you shouldn't. As well, you should never invest emotion in it as I just mentioned. There is no reason why you should care what people say or do here because it has no direct impact on your reality outside this place. But people still let things here get to them... Sometimes it gets to them and they leave the site while taking their emotionally charged state with them, others simply get emotional on here, while they're here, but are able to disconnect from their emotions and feelings here, because they've directly removed themselves from the equation. Which is great... Although both occurrences still have an issue, and that is when you return to this place that you are supposed to be enjoying, or using as one of your hobbies and interests, if you're finding yourself in conflict, it could potentially upset or ruin your outlook and feelings towards the purpose of this site. Now, is this an issue for many? Well to be honest, I'm not too sure how wide spread confrontation is here since day to day I only see a fraction of the content being posted. Though it is obvious enough with my frequent visits here, that people are clashing horns, finding reasons out of nowhere to argue, or to belittle one another. I see long-standing grudges between members still standing, and people constantly taking shots at certain members... And I began to wonder, "why?" I know this sounds cheesy as hell, but we as a Community should always stand united. We gather here under a single banner from our love for games and interest in Bungies future. I doubt if we all met in a room, we would pick childish fights or start messily little arguments out of anger or differentiating opinions. No, we'd probably shake hands and share stories... Which leads me to believe that this has nothing to do with people genuinely hating other people, or having a really strong invested vendetta against someone, since really and truly, how serious can the things we talk about and fight about be on a gaming forum? To honestly justify poor behavior and confrontation would be impossible here, but yet many of us still find reason to do so... I think it would be safe to assume a large percentage of people here have at one time or another found reason to poke fun at, childishly argue with, belittle or be cruel to, viciously insult, spoken ill of in secret, tried to turn others against, or mocked some person here... For what? Now I'm sure many of you recall a thread I made several weeks back entitled "I don't like you, I don't have to like you and your thread is stupid." Why did I make that particular thread that seemingly contradicts the theme of this thread? Call it a social experiment I suppose, as the message I was attempting to convey was part serious, part exaggeration, and in a Community where so many people clash horns, I wanted to see how many of you would admit to publicly announcing someone's ignorance and stupidity in what would be a semi-harsh manner, in the hopes that a bit of tough-love might make the person think twice next time... While nearly everyone in that thread thought doing so would be wrong, many of them were guilty of doing so before anyway, or they had done so afterwards. Essentially, it seems everyone was attempting to look like the sweet innocent angel... When really, majority of us aren't. We find reason to fight, sometimes we believe someone is stupid and wish to boldly or harshly call them out on it. Sometimes we don't agree with someone so we attack them, and not their opinion. Other times people will disagree and take it personally, which causes those people to harbor ill feelings towards one another... But no one knows why. So I tried thinking about it... I wondered if these attitudes were increasing recently, or had it always consistent? One idea was that the darkness could be driving people to create a form of stimulus in the shape of Internet-drama. They're bored, so people find confrontation to pass the time and entertain themselves. Historically, poor attitudes and bad-blood between members has always existed. So while the darkness may play a roll in declining behavior in some, it doesn't answer the question. So is it boredom in life? Is it wanting to create drama to entertain their uninteresting lives but using the safety of anonymity to their advantage? Or is it because some people just want to feel better or superior to others, so the judge and identify problems with others to appear better than them? The truth is, this problem isn't some epidemic we're in need of saving from... But lately I've paid closer attention to the many occurrences of poor or sour attitudes on here, and I started to wonder what drove some people to find reason to clash so harshly with others when we all pretty much come here for the same reason. Is there a fix to all this? Of course not. Though improvements can always be made... But why should you do anything differently? Well I'm not telling you to, but I for one have learned and continue to learn about this Community, what it means to me, and the purpose I wish for it to serve... I come here to talk to friends, and to sometimes debate. I come here to learn, and laugh and share. Have I been rude and ignorant before? Of course I have. Will I again? Probably, since I am human... Though I do my best to avoid trying to seek out confrontation, I avoid trying to hurt, put down or make fun of other people. I don't try to make enemies, and I could care less if someone hated my guts... Why all of this? Well because in doing this, I hope to make people's interactions with me more enjoyable, and I don't end up filling the forums with childish and petty arguments and strife. I see people clash and I know it's very much just a part of how we behave as humans, but I think people need to start stepping back and realizing how insignificant their qualms with other members here truly are... Discuss, debate, disagree, do it all. But don't turn it into something personal. Don't turn it into some vendetta or grudge, and don't target someone because you don't like the way they might sign their posts, or how much they might contribute. We're all here for the same reason, and we should be enjoying it, not spending our time here finding reason to create conflict. So I ask, after my extremely verbose rant, what do you think drives Members to fight with one another, or to pick on and hate one another when indifferences are so easy to ignore? And do you think it's simple to for one to practice a sort of corrected attitude of being more tolerable and respectful to people they may not be so fond of? If so, would this make the site an overall more enjoyable place?