I always strived to be impartial – often withdrawing from threads where I had to moderate, or not even starting to participate when I felt the thread may need moderation in the future. But that meant I got to participate a lot less. And as more and more likeminded folks have left the board, it became increasingly frustrating when good arguments were not made in lieu of bad ones.
Lately I’ve been a bit disillusioned with the state of things. Most conservative voices on the Dope are gone. There are a few voices left who I think always present strong arguments, but their voices are few and far between. What’s left are many of the dregs, and it brings down the quality of discourse. Nearly any prolific conservative poster has a running pit thread. Every comment is interpreted in the most negative way possible, and after a while it gets pretty tedious. Granted, much of what is said is well deserved. But some of it isn’t. But rather than quality argument, intelligent voices gets drowned out by low quality bickering.
The board just isn’t the place it once was for me – a place to engage in spirited debate. And as more and more conservative voices leave, the chance of that coming back gets less and less. I can’t do it as a moderator, and there are few conservative posters left who can and are willing to engage in the level of debate that I enjoy.