This gogouyave.com forum has provided a welcome platform for people of Grenada and Gouyave in particular to connect bringing ideas from all over the Globe in this common central spot. We were able to introduce a wide range of topics from politics to religion, and health to death obituaries. There was a sharing and an enthusiastic participation by persons in various fields and education disciplines, a melting pot of ideas and perspectives. I remember where new posters were emerging and introducing topics almost on a daily basis and that made for a high traffic to this site not only to follow the obits, or as it was, pictures of fish Friday weekly attendees.

Unfortunately Gogouyave almost ended up on its own obituary column because an open and free forum was over run by the formation of clicks and self appointed guardians of the content submitted, a responsibility of the Webmaster. The posting became a private chat between members of “the click” and if one posted outside of the corn-jacks and oil-down conversations the topics were ignored and sometimes the posters were attacked in a variety of ways. Overtime there was a withdrawal from the forum and people visited primarily to follow the obits I know that applies to others that I have communicated with and me. I mean who wants to confrontations or face personal attacks or threats when all wanted to do was connect and share in their own way?

Last year if I remember correctly we ran into a similar situation where a comment was made and was taken personally where I felt it was said in a manner of speaking a common reference or accusing anyone of any indulgences. There were lawsuit threats and a rather unpleasant follow-up tread of postings. The forum all but died and remained down for a while. The forum came back on line and there were just about 3 or 4 posters that came back on and stayed on, but slowly I noticed resurgence and we have postings that touch a wide range of topics. Obviously some topics will resonate with me and others wouldn’t but it is not my place to rebuke or attack anyone or worse judge anyone based on their posts. The point here is that we are at the tipping point where we can once again get back to the sharing and connecting that existed before. Ok so we came through the crisis let us not go back there to that point where Ego’s and thin skins pollute this Forum - this is a “who the cap fit draw the string” scenario not a personal attack.

Speak to the topic not the person in that way we reduce the need to directly quote anyone or judge someone’s motive.

Exercise tolerance and appreciate that we see things as it relates to Our life experiences.

Lets keep the Forum alive and welcoming.

MYA,

This is not intended in any way to be a rebuttal to your post, but only to accentuate what you have so aptly described as the probable cause of our Talkshop problem and the learning process necessary to move forward in a more positive direction.

In the aftermath of our Gogouyave melt-down and as we try to establish some "harmony" in the shop, it is worthy to note that “our proceeding with caution” comes at the expense of yet another lost; that is, “maintaining the integrity of the board with discussions among those with dissenting opinions on various subject matters”. This, in my opinion, was one of the greatest benefit our Talkshop provided and the damage done to that aspect of the forum may be irreparable, only to be salvaged by time.

And Inasmuch as some may have chided DNJ, (God rest his soul) whether openly or not, for taking up the mantle of discussion as indicative of his continuously replying to most posts, in retrospect, his contribution, though not recognized at the time was a major ingredient of the once “favorable Gogouyave”, notwithstanding those of the other posters who have made their unceremonious exit. What we seem to be left with now can hardly be seen as communicating. Instead, it seems to be a platform just for talking; devoid of the debatable aspects of the forum (the ‘two to Tango’, effect) which is vital for its continuity. Also, the use of “real names” (instead of sobriquet) with all its good intentions of providing reference to making a more positive identity of the posters, could turn out to be an impediment to postings, especially on this open forum like ours.

The optimism in me however, would like to view this as asymptomatic of the “growing pains” of this new millennium, where communication via social media network affords one to choose one’s audience, hence the people they communicate with. But as we had prided ourselves as being that of a homogenous, close-knit community, that too might beg for a re-visitation as we choose to practice avoidance in fear of some perceived confrontation that awaits us, in the interest of protecting our “privacy”.
So, the question that begs to be asked is, can our Gogouyave Talkshop maintain the hold of its intended purpose without the social interaction of communication among its readers and posters?

A more forward approach for our posters is to acknowledge that there is nothing wrong with stating one’s agreement or disagreement with an opinion, in fact it is healthy; even better, if an alternative point of view is promoted and defended, then the entire board would benefit from the discussion. We would always run into problems when the discussion becomes personalized especially when real names are associated with them. But the alternative of making pontifications and homilies without challenges and defenses serve no purpose other than the temporary appeasement of a thought process which few may be blessed with but one that robs the board from the benefit of a learning moment.

The rule of thumb should always be “to be mindful of your audience and gauge the conversation/ writing in a manner that they would understand”

VJL