The Zcash Community Forum has been an outlier in a Sea of Miscommunication, producing thought-provoking and thoughtful discourse across a vast range of topics, since its inception.
This isn’t accidental, the conversation here has adapted to- and accounted for- discord, outrage, and confusion over and over again. Because we embrace discourse with skilled compassion and reason (are those different things?), I have learned and grown on this forum in ways I might otherwise have not.
To me that’s something to aspire to… when I contribute here, I try to add something that someone else can benefit from. As @joshs is fond of reminding us (in paraphrase):
We’re leaving a legacy for our descendants.
Nyms like @decentralistdan @AloeareV @joshs @zooko @Aniketacari @Shawn @amiller @Danika and @aquietinvestor spring to my mind as folks who have shown me, on and off this forum, how to bring the best quality to conversations.
They’ve shown me that every conversation is an opportunity to learn… sometimes I learn more about the content, and sometimes more about my co-conversants, but always the truth is that I am learning about both.
We’ve weathered terrible storms because the people bringing their attention here do so with a level of mindfulness that is the result of careful practice.
This forum is a self-sovereign vessel in the @ChristopherA style narrative. It’s a place that people can come to seek shelter from the storm. Some people have observed discord in our discourse, and offered an opinion that this place isn’t what it was… it isn’t what it could be.
But maybe it is living up to its promise. Maybe our fragile self-defined enterprise is sailing into ever darker waters… maybe we’re heading into stormier seas. Maybe some of the newer people in our midst have grabbed onto us because they are drowning in a sea of outrage and miscommunication, and they recognize something better here.
Maybe we can embrace new comers, hear something deeper beneath apparently outrageous statements, and offer something more.
Zcash is about a fundamentally different approach to our fellow travelers. It’s about an approach that values the inherent dignity, and beautiful potential present in us all.
Sometimes I forget that, which is another reason I am grateful that I can come here, and relearn this from mis compañeros as we sail together into the teeth of the storm.
