I’m obviously new here but wow! @Moderator_1
Would a down vote along with the heart be an option? I don’t speak my mind here like I do on another forum for fear of a railroad ban. Maybe the disagreements wouldn’t get so personal of there was a disagree option?
I’m just spitballing about the vibe here.
I don’t think anyone gets banned if they don’t break the rules about doxxing, personal insults, or other things. You can disagree all you want without getting into being banned. You can also choose to ignore trainwreck threads, trolls arguing for the sake of arguing on said threads, and Current Events entirely.
I know there are participant on other forums who up or down vote every single post. And only comment on a few.
It’s just not the way this forum has ever worked. If there is something to say, it can be said. If someone doesn’t wish to engage in posting then downvoting doesn’t help because no one knows what is the objection. That’s my opinion.
The downvote has its place. It’s just not the way COTH has ever functioned.
I’m pretty sure there were both a thumbs up and thumbs down option on the previous iteration of the forum, and the users essentially chose to get rid of the thumbs down function.
I don’t see that it would really help… I think the people who are starting big spats with personal insults would not settle for just clicking a button. They have to get their jabs in too.
I don’t know what a railroad ban is, but we don’t ban users for having a minority opinion, regardless of how much other users complain, as long as they are generally following the rules and don’t seem to be being a jerk for kicks.
Thanks for the clarification.
Oh I didn’t know that. Lol well disregard this thread then! The vibe here is interesting.
Is that a “interesting” or “interesting” there is a difference 
The joy of the written language with no way of gauging tone.
Argh! Lol 
. Well I assume the best of everyone so maybe there is my downfall.
(Just kidding, OP! Couldn’t resist.)
For whatever it is worth … as best I can tell, COTH is one of the oldest still-living forums on the internet. I believe it started in 1998 or 99. Of course a lot of things have changed over the years (decades), but of course that longevity is part of the forum. That may be part of the context for the current vibe not being like reddit or some other social media outlets.
Oh I think it’s wonderful! I’m just hesitant to post when I have a not popular opinion. I
Me chuckling. In my experience horse people are notoriously outspoken and somewhat impervious to the disapproval of others. There are as many opinions as there are posters. Especially on COTH.
There is no ‘popular opinion’ here anyway. Just wait a few posts and you’ll see contradictions start coming in. You can start them or not, but they are coming. 
Eh yeah, I’m just not used to such whiney things. I’ll chalk it up to a culture difference.
If you don’t like the tone or content of a given thread you can just ignore it. If you don’t like the tone of most threads then leave the group? There is a lot of diversity here and most people do not post in all threads. There are a lot of people in Current Events who are no longer actively riding, but the hunter jumper and dressage and horse care forums get a lot of practical conversations about training and nutrition and colic and etc. Pop into the threads that interest you and ignore the others. No one is in all of them.
I think I joined COTH around 2008. In my opinion, the tone has changed for the worse over the years. Not sure how to fix it, unless there was more, but sensitive, moderation. There seems to be a bit of a mob mentality on some threads (horse care threads, btw, I don’t read the current events ones).
I have successfully boarded retired horses for many years, but I am hesitant to express my views or I get accused of keeping horses alive for too long, or being horrible for setting parameters as to what’s acceptable or not on my farm. We can all learn from different perspectives but on some threads, no one wants to hear mine 
. For instance although many COTH members are very knowledgeable, my experience is that most of my boarders are not. Therefore a BO making decisions can be a good thing, and what some – not all – boarders actually want.
IME the tone on online forums has changed for the worse over the years. Back in the old days when everyone was pretty anonymous, people got more and more comfortable being the jerks they COULD be because nobody knew who they were. It’s not just COTH. And that mentality just continued even when people started using their real names on places like FB.
Social Media in general is just full of jerks and troublemakes and trolls, and since there are just so many more now than 2008 (or 1999 when I joined COTH!) they’re just more visible.
If I’m not mistaken, this forum did have the thumbs up/down voting after one upgrade, and the membership loudly requested that it be removed. So they had the developers press some buttons and leave us with only the heart/up-vote option.
We could say, civility in general has declined, in most areas of our lives.
Probably could write many books about how and why.
Is the way today’s world seems to run.
People’s filters that permitted many to get along smoothly now leaking. 
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