I’ve been involved with the Internet, mostly through this site, for a long time. Over the many years, one of the problems that we have always had are insults that one poster will fire at another poster. For some reason, which is difficult to explain, this issue seems to have gotten more severe this past year. The 2016 Presidential Election may have something to do with it, or it just may be part of a natural progression of the Internet itself. But in my opinion, it’s hurting www.twoplustwo.com and needs to be addressed.
The following is a post I recently made in our Mid‑High Stakes Limit Forum, but it really applies to our whole site. My hope is that as many people as possible read the following and take seriously what is being said.
Due to some issues we’ve been having on this forum lately, I wanted to take a few moments to discuss what our posting policies are on Two Plus Two. As many of you know, and this is something we’ve stated many times, on these forums our goal is to have vigorous debate and a little fun. This formula has worked well for over 20 years and has helped this website to grow and be highly influential in the world of poker, and I believe that most everyone who plays poker has benefitted from this philosophy.
But there is also another side to this formula which at times some posters have gotten away from, and it’s the idea that we need to keep insults to a minimum. In fact, this aspect of our formula is probably every bit as important as vigorous debate and a little fun.
It turns out that when discussing poker strategy, whether the game is limit or no‑limit, stud, hold ’em, or some form of draw poker, there can be many different approaches to what the correct strategy for a specific situation can be. Part of the reason for this is that numerous aspects of poker, and this is typical of many games that are governed by probability, can be counter‑intuitive for many players. Thus strategies that appear to be obviously wrong to most players can actually at times be the best strategies due to certain factors that can bring out the counter‑intuitiveness of the situation. In addition, some strategies, especially in limit hold ’em, can have a “two‑edged sword effect.” This means that these strategies can help your long term bottom line in some ways while at the same time hurt it in other ways, and thus to figure out when they’re right to apply can require you to balance many concepts which can be tricky to do well.
Of course, this is part of the beauty of poker and limit hold ’em in particular, and when addressed properly, this type of conflict can produce all sorts of ideas that we can all learn from and enjoy. But unfortunately, some people will feel so strongly about their positions that instead of participating in the debate and posting in a professional manner, the insults will start and then no one will benefit, and this is something we all need to guard against.
As for feeling strongly about a particular position, this can also sometimes apply to myself, especially when unusual statistical concepts come into play which also played a role in my professional background when I worked as a statistician. So like many of you, I'll stand by my arguments but also try to make sure that I don't write anything that my adversary (in the discussion) will take personally. But sometimes just sticking to your guns, even when you're trying to be professional in your answer, will still irritate the other person.
One of the reasons that this website was established was that I have a long history of talking about poker with other serious and sometimes great players. Not only has this produced much material for our books, but these discussions greatly improved my understanding of what I like to call "all things poker," and look forward to continuing these type of discussions, which should include more good debates with all of you.
Also, relative to this, there are a few other things I want to specifically address. They are:
1. Each forum on our website is a little different, and to account for this our moderators, who volunteer their time to help make Two Plus Two top notch in all ways, are given discretion in making their moderating decisions. So what may be allowed on one forum may not be allowed on a different one.
2. As stated, we want to keep insults to a minimum, and consistent with this, we feel that it’s very important that insults directed towards those of us in Two Plus Two Management be taken very seriously. If some posters on Two Plus Two don’t respect our management, and this includes myself, who will they respect? And this can easily lead to a degrading of the quality of this website and is something which we've had much discussion internally and insist on enforcing.
3. We understand that when disagreeing with a poster as part of a vigorous debate, it’s often necessary to restate their position and then to explain why you disagree as well as to give the advice that you think is correct. However, when doing this, it’s important to make sure that what you restate is completely accurate relative to what the opposing poster actually said. Changing a few things, and then discrediting what someone else has stated based on these changes, is in my opinion one of the worst offenses and is simply another way of not only insulting someone but is frequently done with the purpose of damaging that person’s reputation. We also take this indiscretion very seriously and have a low tolerance for it.
Anyway, I hope this helps to clarify where we stand on this subject, and all comments are welcome.
