Quote:
Originally Posted by Baalz
It’s a bit distressing how many people seem to think “they’re the rules, so you have to follow them”. “The rules” are just something somebody with some form of power wants you to do.
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Do you really feel that way? This is pretty alien thinking to me, but then I am admittedly a very logical fellow most of the time.
If you were coerced into following the rules, I could understand that viewpoint, but you aren't. You aren't being forced to obey arbitrary laws you disagree with or forced to obey rules that you cannot in good conscience obey.
In order to post in this private forum you have, of your own free will and not under any form of coercion, agreed to follow the forum rules; Presumably you did this because you thought that the benefits of posting here outweighed the negative sides and the constraints on posting. This was your personal choice and nobody elses.
You can withdraw from this agreement at any time, should you no longer feel that it is to your advantage to adhere to it, by stopping posting here.
In the terminology of an older age: you have freely given your word to follow the rules.
In such a situation it is entirely natural for many and perhaps most people to think that "they're the rules, so you have to follow them". After all, if you don't, you are violating an agreement that you have entered into of your own free will. Not because somebody is oppressing you by imposing rules on you that you disagree with, but because you choose not to honour your given word: You want the benefits without the costs you have agreed to.
Is it to be
expected that some people violate the rules when tempers flare and regret it afterwards? Yes, certainly it is and I know that I am as guilty of that as any, but when posting in a calm temper we all owe it to ourselves and to the community to obey the ruleset we have all agreed to follow - or to post somewhere else, which is governed by another set of rules.