I'll just mention again, that' as you've
rightly pointed out Pikestance, these are all only personal opinions of Gatsby's own perspective.
[I actually never address Gatsby specifically. I spoke only in the abstraction. At the time I only read this thread about him and knew next to nothing about him as a poster]
@Everyone to come in- Things like the
'Lack of sophistication'- that's something highly subjective and entirely irrelevant. Since all of us have different ideas about 'Sophistication' and how it should be shown.
[I believe this is what Dante meant by it may seem like I am going after you comment because he specifically chose my sarcastic aid] Is it a vein of self important elitism, or the idea that your posts are better than everyone else's? Or indeed on the other hand is it a subtlety to the style of posting? In all cases i don't care as none of it is important to a posters quality in the D&D (though what is important is perhaps the opposite- humility and the ability to ask questions, support others and admit to gaps in your own knowledge, and when wrong, all of which in an open and honest manner, that a sophisticated approach doesn't always combine with.)
All of which Gatsby does, he open mindedly takes in what others say and isn't afraid to ask questions- Something i believe that should ideally be one of the basic traits of all future D&D citizens, too often do people judge 'winning' to be important or being 'eloquent' but those things mean nothing if the poster can't then productively contribute to a discussion and their own learning when their wrong)
The same goes for 'bouts of immaturity', is it immaturity or is it another members way of humour and comic relief? (Both are good things to have in the D&D where light hearted interjections are a fantastic way of improving the atmosphere- I point to all of us in the Scottish Independence thread, humour and 'immaturity' was used from many of the best debaters to either make people interested in what they read, or indeed to try and keep things civil in the first place). Scholarly and in-depth posts are great, but a truly fantastic writing style is one which engages it's audience. Bouts of immaturity and humour do this, they lighten up what may otherwise be a stuffy long winded post (trust me... my posts are all about the latter if you've ever had the misfortune to read one of my thread OP's). It's a powerful writing tool for a forum which should not be knocked out of hand.
Regardless though this all comes back to a seeming evaluation which is i'd put forward entirely irrelevant and subjective towards Gatsby's own beliefs (again as you can see, a great many of which i share).. These would only matter if we wished citizenship to be about a group of people who are all similar 'Yes-men' ... surely that's not what we want my friends!?
It should be an award for contribution. A recognition. This is something that undoubtedly Gatsby deserves. He has contributed above and beyond with the quality of his posts, with his active participation in improving said quality of threads he engages in, with his open minded style, and his awareness that you don't need to grind someone into dust to be a productive member of the D&D, it's all about putting forward your own ideas, but also being interested in others. Too many posters lose site that learning should be the ultimate goal. Not forcing perspectives down other peoples throats (Incidentally this is exactly the incident which usually causes D&D moderators to have to step in!) So i'm all for supporting a new approach and encouraging a better, different breed of debaters from some of the perhaps prevalent attitudes we have now from groups of newer members.
@Pikestance specifically, i believe i saw in your VV thread concerning the history forum that you wished to encourage the same sort of attitude as i do to debate and discussion. I'd put forward that the style i'm talking about is surely the one your looking for, Of engaging productive post(ers )) with an openness to there perspectives, who ask questions. That's what i'd say D&D citizenship should be about my friend.