We may [or may not] be talking about different things or approaches. I agree that we've lost something and that responses seem to be, "cool Tesla, man", which isn't doing the hypothetical poster, or the forum as a whole any good.
I also think in-person communication is different than online.
Spartana's example of "why do you need a car at all? Ride your bike" is still calling someone out, but in a way that seems like it would be palatable to most.
Or, it is entirely possible I'm projecting my own preferences to a larger audience than those who actually do share them.
I've literally almost never seen a response here that was any harsher than the one you just quoted from Spartans, other than many years ago people would perhaps be slightly harsher and actually call it a Face Punch, but there was often a lot of humour to it.
I guess I'm curious what type of responses you used to see here that you take issue with? Because as I said, I feel like you've stated this anti Face Punch position a number of times so it must really bother you, but now I'm confused as to what exactly you take issue with?
Note about tone, I'm not being critical here, I'm genuinely trying to better understand your point. Especially being someone who is so much like MMM in my delivery of things. I want to understand better.
No, it doesn't really bother me. Not at all. I just don't find the harshness to be productive, and there have been several threads lately about "the good ol' days of face punches", so I offer my thoughts as a counterpoint. I'll admit that I can't recall a specific post from years ago that seemed harsh to me, but I do clearly recall on more than one occasion thinking that posts just pissed someone off and drove them away, which was a lost opportunity to actually potentially help someone.
Ah, that makes sense.
I get what you mean, but we're also losing members hand over fist for how tepid and soft we've gotten.
If I joined now, there's no way I would stick around with the spending culture we have now.
Also, I don't think it's the face punches that drove people away, I think it's the piling on, and that's just a product of the internet. That's where the intention of the harsh reality check turns from genuinely helpful to a little more malicious than most people are comfortable with.
But even then, we used to see some spectacular turn arounds in people's spending. I REALLY miss those days of people coming here, laying out their spending bullshit for everyone to crap on and then doing something about it.
Those were the best threads ever and probably what I miss most.
