What type of discussion were you hoping for?

A: How the animosity on and off of reddit, specifically in Cambridge can be lowered among groups who don't necessarily agree with one another on different topics.
Why did you share the story of a biker spitting on you?

A: As an example of how bad things have become between two groups I've seen regularly argue in an unproductive way on here, bicyclists and those who prefer other types of transportation, like cars.
Most importantly. Why did a biker spitting on you mean bike related posts had to be banned from the sub?

A: This was a temporary ban (see the original post, "Taking a break from bike related posts") while a plan was figured out as to how best to handle the tribal mentality that was witnessing spilling out of local forums, like CambridgeMA into the world outside of Reddit.

There's a threshold. It's no secret that social media has caused a lot of discord and instability across the country, so much so that other countries have been actively leveraging it to create divisions here. Divisions between races, genders, political ideologies, etc. The concept of divide and conquer is as old as time and we're heading deeper and deeper down that hill.

It isn't the things that are obviously evil that trip up a society, it's issues on the cusp of "right or wrong". For the right reasons, people stand firmly behind what they believe to be the best for society, and when they see someone who is threatening to undermine progress towards the realization of their belief fighting can occur. Insults, hostility. Often time the result of the perpetual fighting is war which is typically worse than the original issues that created it. People know war is hell but can find themselves caught up in one for "the right reasons". Progress can be made without it.

Cambridge is arguably one of the most knowledgeable cities on earth. I don't want us to get sucked in by our baser nature. I think to some extent I was and now I'm attempting to put things in place where that kind of mistake will be limited in the future. If the world starts to crumble as a result of social media feuds I don't want CambridgeMA to be remembered as part of the problem. That's the goal.

I don't have strong opinions on it, I'm not a civil engineer. Apparently some here do have strong opinions and I would like for people to be able to talk them through in a constructive way, without the name-calling, etc. that I've been seeing.