Play Nicely

I, as have many,  have talked and written at length about how useful our modern forum communications  are.  The  idea that a  prospective crew member can learn from the experience of others is terrific.  The idea of more experienced types actually sharing their knowledge is even better.  This week however, has seen the downside of opening up the forums to those who would use them to lash out against the establishment, and state, without any validation at all, their subjective position as fact. Just reading the exchanges this week from a fellow who feels hard done-by has been a pretty poor advert for yachting in general.

To a great extent the Dockwalk website is self regulating.  By that I mean that if you write something dull, like you have an apartment for rent or a product to sell, no-one bothers to read it.  Such posts are the spam of forums and easily avoided by the readership who are apparently more sophisticated than some would realise them to be.

By the same token if you write something of interest then people will read.  Of course they will often disagree but at least in most cases, if your original thoughts have been carefully researched and articulated, the respect for your viewpoint remains throughout the debate.  Such issues are the bread and butter of the forums or at least should be.  It is how issues are raised and awareness is increased.  Sometimes there are instances where the ugly side of yachting is exposed and it is clear that for some, this is something they are not willing to confront.  On these occasions you get many people who wish to ‘hush’ the debate and attempt to prolong the  status quo and metaphorically sweep things under the table.

Sadly, however when someone writes something inflammatory and subjective it is often difficult to ignore.  These are the car crashes of the forums and let’s be honest most of us have rubber necks and cannot resist having our say.  It is almost like it needs to be said when of course it doesn’t.

I watched this week as an original post from a crew member exasperated with the industry as a whole degenerated.  Within a few short days this had developed into another racist debate about how various nationalities had benefited from yachting at the expense of others.  Of course there was a lot of vitriolic abuse aimed at all sorts of people and the poor fellow who was upset because he was unable to find a job has now almost certainly pigeonholed himself as a complete (don’t worry moderator comment not actually put in writing) and done nothing to improve his employment prospects.

I am reminded that as an industry there is far too much prejudice and it is prejudice itself we need to get rid of in this business.  There are limitations in forums these days on the use of profanity, copyright and all sorts  of other things perhaps we should have the same rules regarding prejudice.  Not to, is beginning to make us all look stupid.