Well, what have I started!!!
Overall, for a group of people suffering from a debilitating illness, we get along very well. We get some great humour which shows PWP's are not cowed by their illness.
But there is a very serious side, together, we have a unique opportunity to make a contribution to overcoming this disease.
How do we do it amicably.
Firstly, sub forums, I fear that they would just transfer any disagreements from the main to the sub forums. The problem is the written word can be misread far easier than the spoken word. The spoken word can take on a friendly, soothing tone, it can be given with a twinkle in the eye etc. But we can only use the written communication, and Braintalk works so well on the whole that I imagine we would not want to radically change it.
Perhaps we need additional guidelines.
1. When you radically disagree with the contents of a post, which may have upset or angered you, do so via a personal message. Hopefully, you are not wanting to show the forum members how much cleverer you are than the poster. This is not really a new guideline, but often not adhered to.
2. When you reply to a post, don't just send a copied publication with absolutely no interpretation with it. Add a commentary, an explanation of what point you are making. If you leave the originator to decide what your point is, he or she often make the wrong one. A reply of a copied reference only, with no explanation of why you posted it, gives the impression of
"Just see that, I can't be bothered communicating with you"
3. We have a "Thanks for this post" facility, how about other possibilities. If a reply is off topic, why not have an "Off topic" facility. If a post gets several "Off topic" votes from a variety of members, they will get the message amicably, instead of a retort from the originator.
There are other such "voting" facilities one could think of, which could improve the quality of the debate, and keep the discussion on topic without dingbats being thrown.
Best wishes to all,
Ron