thread: 2005-06-16 : The Forge and Me
On 2005-06-21, Valamir wrote:
Once again Vincent cuts through the reams of BS right to the heart of the matter.The Forge suffers from the exact same problem that all open-to-anyone places suffer from whether you're talking about the local YMCA, the public golf course across town, or your neighborhood park.
Being accessible to everyone is a great ideal...one I fully endorse. But it has a darkside too. And that darkside is that "everyone" by definition includes people who don't have a vested interest in the place being successful / warm and inviting / or even functional.
People don't take care of things that they don't give a hoot about. But when you let in everyone you wind up with a lot of people who don't give a hoot. Or rather they DO give a hoot but its about their own agenda.
There are LOTS of regularly posting folks who frequent the Forge who don't really care about the Forge's purpose. They, may be dedicated, they may be active, but they aren't ABOUT what the Forge is about. They are dedicated to their own personal agendas and the Forge becomes just a place where they can pursue that agenda. Just like the Y becomes just a place where you can dump your rowdy kids in the summer because you're tired of them. Or the local public golf course becomes just a place where you can get in a dirt cheap 18 holes. Or the local park becomes just a short cut you can cut across and you don't feel bad about littering because you don't really care all that much about the park anyway.
The Forge has become like the public golf course. Everybody loved it when it was new and shiny, but because its a public course eventually the masses of people who don't really care overpower those dedicated to it and the facilities get run down and poorly maintained.
Why are there so many people who are in love with Anyway? Because Anyway is like the country club. They don't just let in anybody off the street. People are on their best behavior here because this is Vincent's private club and we are his guests. And so we behave like guests. Unlike the Forge where everybody behaves like they're entitled.
