Message boards

With so many of my allegiances tied to the east coast and to people throughout this country, I have appreciated message boards. Whether it be for a team, for a common interest, a social topic, or anything of the like, I welcome the opportunity to present different sides of an issue. But more and more often, this is getting abused.

The worst is the NY Rangers bulletin board. When I first joined three years ago, it was a great place for hockey talk and sharing opinions and posting during the games. Now it's filled with people who think they can talk big because they're sitting alone behind a keyboard. They feel the can say whatever they want and not suffer any consequences. They want to sound tough so they try to grow some balls when they're showing themselves to be complete cowards. The problem is people like me see insult other posters personally and that vibe spreads around. And people drift away. The same goes for myspace and facebook as well.

And I hate the argument of free speech, the first amendment. With that freedom comes responsibility. And that responsibility is to respect one another and their opinions, even if we disagree with them. No wonder there's such a lack of community in this country. How self-absorbed are we?

As for a solution, that's a tough one. I don't know if there is any way to solve this aside from stricter moderators, but that reeks of some socialist system. I don't want to avoid the boards completely. I hate enjoying the things I enjoy alone. But the bigger challenge is starting to become staying on the boards rather than remaining isolated.