Men and women,
I've been a member of this forum for a few years now. I took a bit of a leave of absence due to a situation beyond my control, but I have returned now and I have always enjoyed this forum. One of the things I have always enjoyed here is the diversity of knowledge we share. We have everything from experts to first time trigger pullers on multitudes of subjects-hunting, reloading,gunsmithing, target shooting, etc. It would seem that if you can conceive a question, someone here can answer it.
Personally, for me, I can say that for every topic I have weighed in on, I have decided not to weigh in on ten others. It's not that I don't read the posts-it's just that as a matter of personal professionalism,I try my best to remember not to put out information unless I am 99.95% certain that I am 100% correct. I say TRY, because I am only human...and so are you. So, every now and again, we go and state things that might be erroneous,or rooted in opinion rather than fact.( i.e., our opinions about a specific product.)
I was in the Army as an Infantryman for a good long time. I left the Army at the rank of Staff Sergeant...the other end of that journey started just on the outside of the doors of a bluebird bus, parked in front of E. Company 2/58 infantry training brigade at Fort Benning, Georgia. The moment my feet left that bus and encountered the concrete there, I learned my very first Army lesson- that there is a hell of a lot of yelling and berating and demeaning involved in being a non commissioned officer. But later on in my career, I became a non commissioned officer. I learned that I had been wrong before-there were a few things about the yelling that I did not understand back then. I learned that any NCO can yell...but a truly great NCO has mastered the art of constructive criticism...keep that in mind. We will revisit the subject in a bit. For now, lets journey into the stinky and unquestionably unsanitary world of public restrooms.
Most of us have been caught in that awkward moment where we discovered to our horror that we were not going to make it home from where ever we were at without an emergency trip to the john. As such, we went and found the first public restroom we could find. And it was there, wrestling with our dignity and the horrible though of what might be on that seat, that we read some of the most terrible words ever assembled, scratched into the paint on the stall walls by persons we will (thankfully) never know. Some crude drawings of unspeakable acts, some limericks not fit for repeating, someone's poor ex girlfriend's telephone number left as an offering for a good time, and the occasional conversational dialogue between two or more people, most often playing out like a screaming match between drunkard name callers. The overall reoccurring theme to it all...things that most of the authors would be downright ashamed to have written...but for lack of an audience, written none the less.
Back to that constructive criticism thing.To define it, constructive criticism is simply calling someone out for doing or saying something wrong, and providing a solution to do or say it correctly-or better. That's it. It takes on a bit of a different form when it is being screamed into your ear by a drill sergeant as you do push ups, but as for when typing into a response field on a public forum is concerned, the above provided definition is pretty much spot on...but to further expand on said definition, "calling someone out for doing or saying something wrong" means simply-and tactfully-saying "I disagree" or "I believe your information is incorrect"-then to be followed by the corrected information...it is not an opportunity for public bashing of a person who is only human and just as subject to making mistakes as the rest of us.
If you should find yourself involved in the calling out of-or being called out by- another member on this forum, remember the constructive criticism thing. If it can be resolved by such means, that is great. Then, we ALL learn from it, and this forum is a better place for everyone who comes here seeking knowledge. If it cannot be resolved by such means, then please take the conversation to PM and do your best to handle it by civil means. Please remember the public restroom scenario here, and ask yourself, each time, just before you hit the "respond" button and turn your thoughts into statement..."would I claim what I just typed with dignity, or am I simply scratching profane thoughts into the stall walls here?" If all else fails, and diplomacy cannot be found, then please refer the issue to the moderators...just understand-the moderators are here to do what is best for the community, and that might not jive with your point of view on the subject-it is what it is.
Notice that this thread was addressed to "Men and women"...that is what we are -grown men and women-adults. This forum we are all a part of is a direct reflection of WHAT WE MAKE IT. What you read here is the direct result of the information that we have all put into it, right or wrong. We are, in essence, a team working towards the end goal of making this a great place to share information about a subject we are all apparently interested in...so let's keep it on the friendly and constructive side, shall we? In the past few months, we have seen our community become polluted with disdain and turmoil between some of our members, and look what we have to show for it-we have lost some of our ranks that weren't even involved in the issues...they just didn't want to have any part of the drama. Some of those members had, in the past, been invaluable to us-as the knowledge they provided was phenomenal. Some of those members were new to the community and had come here seeking knowledge...perhaps they would have never contributed a single thing to us-but they left here with a bad taste in their mouths because of it- casualties of this infighting none the less, and that just sucks right out loud.
Topic Author
Now here is something every member needs to read 
and think about every time we post something on this great site 
take the sticky off and let it fade. This post makes an excellent point but it's like hanging your underwear up to dry in the front yard when it has a sticky keeping it visible.
