chocandpatience_,
The CR is no longer the cosy, friendly place I discovered 18 months ago. That’s a shame.
I’m not sure if we have been reading the same CR. I have been reading posts here for several years, and there have always been mean spirited, flaming posts and threads with personal attacks, as well as warm, nice threads. I have seen a thread dedicated to banning posters based on their viewpoints (naming names), and instances of harassment against single posters. Why do debates on this one issue suddenly change the tone of the CR for you?
I once posted in another place I found through interactions on the CR, and very quickly a “troll” poster tried to reveal who I was (but s/he was completely off the mark) and asked me to send him/her an e-mail. Many threads here have a “weird” feel to them, with attempts to pry information out of other users. There has also been a lot of sock puppetry, not just from Joseph. I have kept a lower profile because of all of this, and even regret what small amount of personal information I did reveal.
All that said, I agree that witch-hunts are not the way to go. Randomly attacking other posters with accusations of stalking not only disrupts the CR, but it weakens the valid case for greater caution. My feeling for this is to encourage safer posting, and let the moderators do the rest. If a poster has a concern with something going on, it should be e-mailed to the moderators rather than spread on the thread. Most of this should occur behind the scenes. It’s interesting to me, however, that the opponents of greater caution are primarily the ones keeping the discussion going…