That is where you are wrong. When debating someone like Doug, your goal should not be to change his mind, because, as you stated, that is pointless. Rather, the entire point of debating him is to provide readers of the thread a dissenting viewpoint to the one being provided by Doug. The sheep will assume that the moderator with all the posts and all the attitude is the expert and follow his advice, but those with critical thinking skills will weigh both sides of the debate and decide for themselves who to believe.
And that is essentially what I've learned to do. Explain my opinion along with the reasoning behind it as clearly and thoroughly as possible and just let it ride. You can't help sheep
Since I posted in this thread already I might as well participate in this one. This. There's no point trying to help or educate people that learned everything there is to know about everything decades ago and are never wrong. The only reason to engage is to try and save others from falling for it just because they have a title which unfortunately does end up misleading a lot of people. Some are worse than others and unfortunately it can be like trying to find real information from Breen from some of them, at some point you just have to tune it all out because it takes more time to find what is right than what is ego defense. I 100% sympathize with the point @Numismat was making as it gets exhausting quickly dealing with someone who could never learn anything because they know it all no matter what. It is especially exhausting when it comes to grading or the market when they have been out of it for a decade or longer and think they're and expert on it and no matter how much evidence is presented you're still wrong or get called a koolaide drinker for using actual verifiable facts. I don't think it's a coincidence that the experts and a wealth of knowledge has converged onto the the CU forum, and yes I do know there are some trolls there too which are easy to spot. But it seems that a lot of people have just had enough beating their head against the wall for dated or flat out bad information and have converged into one spot where they don't have to deal with mods that either have agendas or think they are a gift to numismatics
It's because people are too stupid in general to realize the difference between when they know what they are talking about and they don't. When they stray into areas where they really don't know the answers they get dogmatic and their ego/emotions take over. That's when you have to ignore what they say and do your research so you can come back with the evidence that they are wrong. And if you can't? Well then they win.
Agreed. I think what furthers the problem is when people stick to their guns even after you've done the research and presented the evidence. If people conceded to actual evidence, we wouldn't be here talking about this right now.
I would have more respect for you if you hadn't thrown in the towel. So you don't like the mods? Did you get banned from the forum by one of them? Does a mod's refusal to validate any of your arguments mean you are wrong? At this point you need to decide, are you getting back in the ring or are you saying no mas?
I get what you're saying for sure. I didn't get banned yet but all the fun/enjoyment was removed for me so I stopped. It wasn't because they didn't agree or anything, but when the enjoyment is gone it was time for me to leave. I actually did like the forum a lot but it became unusable for me because of Jim. So other than this thread I will be saying No Mas. I miss some of you and liked the ability to discuss things but no mas I enjoyed you posts about nickels but if I lost your respect because it wasn't worth it to me anymore that's just how it is
Well, he's the one who banned me, but I got back in and I'm still here. Just know, if you leave, you let him win.
Very good point. But at some point it becomes a why? Maybe in the future I will feel different, but right now I will be quiet for the most part. If he ever apologized that could change things for sure.
He won't, never apologized to me either. Time heals all wounds, just lurk for a while and enter the fray when you are ready.
Getting justice for yourself on the internet is a pursuit that will age you prematurely. If you guys can find it in you to just do you and not care about being slighted by members/moderators, you'll be much happier and probably live longer too. I know it's easier said than done, but at least try to not give a hoot
It's really hard to listen to words you don't want to. And even harder to make the person listening, understand. Peace to you all.
I have always lived by the cockeyed philosophy that "time wounds all heels", but it doesn't seem to play out here. They're in charge.
As a member you can. It may not work technically, but you are of course free to read only those posts that you find interesting, and not read those that you find annoying for whichever reason. Now a moderator cannot do that. Don't think that every mod reads every post, but that is one of the reason why there's several. But if they noticed the posts all too selectively, somebody may come along and complain different people getting treated differently etc. Christian
This is a forum with posts generally in written format. Pray tell, how do I decide which posts are interesting and which are annoying without reading them? And once I have found one to be annoying, how do I unread it so that I have not read it and then can choose to not read it (now knowing, through my having read it that it is annoying).