First of all, there are no hidden nefarious motives behind this thread. I am not seeking anyone's motivation, we're all here for different reasons, pretty much all of which are solid by me.
The reason for the thread is simply this: imho, too often posters attack others' motives, rather than addressing the substance of the post. (I could drone on and on about how I believe this is a vestige of our educational system, but I'll leave that for another (boring) day.)
I personally believe
what somebody posts is FAR more important than
why. And more significantly, you can read what people post; unless you're one of the board's mind readers (and judging by people's posts, there are more than a few on here, at least they believe that), it is virtually impossible to know what another's motivation is. And assailing another's motives has to be one of, if not THE primary thing that drives people away from this site.
To use two personal examples:
1) My Oakmont threads - Every time I meet someone, in person or on-line, the first thing they mention is my series of threads on my favorite course, Oakmont. That's nice, I appreciate people noticing and thank them for the kind words. So why did I do it? Simple, I wanted to share my thoughts on the course in hopes of more people understanding and appreciating it's greatness. I didn't do it for accolades, I didn't do it to curry favor with an Oakmont member (I'm not one, everyone now and then someone asks if I am), I didn't do it to try to move Oakmont up in the rankings, I didn't do it because Huck is foolish enough to think Pebble's its equal
.
But most germane to this thread, does WHY I did it matter as much as WHAT the threads showed, what people learned from them? Imho, no, it's not even close.
2) My ongoing "obsession" with playability. Sure, I'm a high handicapper, but does anyone out there truly believe I'm dumb enough to think my words are going to change anything out there? I have these discussions because I find the topic interesting, and it is one that I can comment somewhat knowledgeably on, unlike the many wonderful threads about amazing golf courses that I've never played, or the amazing research threads, which I can't even keep up with.
Disagreement is crucial to a discussion site, but I believe it must be informed, reasoned disagreement, not simply attacking another poster's motives. That's not discussion, that's bickering, it's using deflection as a lesser attempt of furthering one's own argument (there's that educational system cropping up again).
There are times when each of us should determine whether someone's motives are influencing the quality and content of his posts. But I don't believe it should every be an overriding, all-encompassing concern of the posters on this site.
But those are just a few of my thoughts. Please share yours, I am genuinely interested in learning more about this topic, and I think it's something that could improve the quality of an already terrific discussion site.
Thanks in advance.