Bring back "Rants" Forum Section?

I was looking at Daemona's "New to SL" thread and I tried to put myself in her shoes. I tried to imagine what it would be like to see these forums as a new person. In fact, I didn't post here for a long time after I first started because there were 3 or 4 SLers who dominated the forums and would say things like, "that's been said before" and the like. I found it repulsive. As the population grew, I became more comfy with posting, because some of those dominant folks slowed down quite a bit.

I will cut to the chase; how would people receive a forum just for grievances or complaints, toward LL or other SLers? Now, before you say that would encourage negativity, just take a look at the General forums (and the Land and Economy forum for that matter) as they stand now. They are a cesspool of complaints and petty jealousy. (I am not absolving myself here by the way). What would change? Well, the mods could push complaint type threads into the complaint (we used to have one, it was called Rants) forum. This would accomplish two things; It would make it so that new SLers didn't have to walk into a hodgepodge of bitching and arguing, possibly discouraging them from remaining in SL past the free trial, and it would make it a lot easier to look for threads that are actually about something other than he said she said, why am I banned, your build sucks, you griefed me, no I didn't, you're a whiner, you're a bigot, etc., etc.

Thoughts?

Hmm

Could work, with the right enforcement, yes?

I doubt some people will be willing to restrict their complaints to the Rants section until Jeska Jesktizes everyone.

*** Edit: This is Lo Jacobs ... on her boyfriend's brand new account Sorry, was logged in accidentally.

I would love it Nash, the only problem I can see is the rest of the forums would be empty hehehe

I'd rather see a "Pants" forum section!

Cubey, that's so pants. hehehehe

I understand where you're coming from with this, Nolan, but the flipside is that I think newbies should be well-informed to dig through the archives, New World Notes, the historical wiki, and other resources available at their disposal so they can learn on their own terms what HAS been done before. I took it upon myself before ever entering SL to be reasonably knowledgeable about this world so I could show the proper grace and respect.

My view regarding "Rants" is that if someone really has something nasty to get off their chest, perhaps setting up their OWN blog or forum would be more suitable -- I use "suitable" loosely of course, as I discourage personal attacks of any kind. 3rd-party sources so LL would not be involved. That way, they can express themselves acidly without having to complain about Jeskathinderobin "censoring" them. The funny thing though is, with the attention hounds, they know they're guaranteed to get an audience here without having to promote much, so there's a certain imploding psychology and laziness going on.

ten

NM

That's well and good, but I do not imagine that you are the norm. Which is why people like you so much.

You still couldn't personally attack in the old Rants section. The same rules applied to that forum, we just had a place for it. People, when they have something "nasty to get off their chest", are going to do it regardless. If we had a place where Jeska and the gang could stick conflictual threads, maybe people would start posting those types of threads there. While I agree with you on the blog idea, it isn't being done now, and I don't see persons who already use the general forum to air their grievances shifting towards blogs. They want the exposure, which is why they vent here. In other words, as things stand now, people spew their venom here, for all to see including new folks. This was one of my biggest misgivings about the forum restructure a while back when we lost the rants section. I also miss the Real World forum, where people used to talk religion and politics. now they simply dominate the off-topic section with it, which used to be a lot more light hearted. Choices are a good thing, and the technology exists; why not use it?

I've seen this work with success on a board I'm a member of (Straight Dope).

Its called the BBQ Pit, and the only speech off limits is death threats/wishes. Other than that, its open season on other posters, your crummy life, telemarketers, whatever. Works really, really well. You're never going to be able to keep that kind of thing off forums entirely - so make one place where people can get their bitching out. It keeps the other threads much more civil, and most of the time the mods can just move a thread if it goes down in flames instead of closing it and getting screamed at for censorship.

However, the SL forums are different in the fact that you can trash someone in here, and they can find you ten minutes later and make you miserable in SL. So I like Nolan's caveat that there be no personal attacks, etc. - might keep a veneer of civilization on the whole thing.

That Straight Dope is a great place to be. I used to be a regular there, not anymore, but I still read weekly.



Thanks for the info Nolan! I wasn't here in the first place so I appreciate being filled in.

I think it would help sort things out -- and obviously, topics in the wrong subforums would be sorted appropriately...

Those are some good points.

I don't want new Residents to be scared to post to the Forums. There are lots of gold nuggets here and it looks like proactive action on part of LL is helping, but it shouldn't be so hard to dig. One's hands get weary! Okay, enough analogies. LOL.

eight

It's a great idea.

I think "General" should change into "General Questions", similarly, "Land and Economy" should be "Land and Economy Questions"

Anything which isn't in the form of a question (without an obvious agenda) should head towards a sub forum. New users really don't need to see a lot of the stuff around here.

My thanks blaze and the rest who answered. I do appreciate it, and will present this thread to LL in a day or two (in the Hotline) for consideration.

Eboni, what do you mean by "NM"?

i agree!! i was just thinking today that we need a "bitch, moan and whine" forum here.

It won't ever happen. The old one didn't work very well and Jeska would go nuts. I'm pretty happy with the way they have laid out the forums now though god knows it took long enough.

Same here. Once I found SL, my Straight Dope addiction was over. I'd love to see how many Dopers there are in SL...maybe form a group....yeah, that's the ticket....

/threadjack

So we're going to zone the forums now?

Good idea! Let's argue about where to argue!

And another thing, I want to know where the cornfield is. I heard about posts being sent to the cornfield and I can't find it anyhere.

Buster

They were once "zoned", and still are, just in a different manner. When the general forum became clogged up with land and economy threads we asked for a land and economy section. I would like to be able to come into the general section and not have to wade through so many arguments. It has really gotten worse the past 3 or 4 months. I am as much to blame as the next person, I just don't see how reinstating the Rants section would be such a bad thing, given the fact that the preponderance of threads lately have been rants/vents/disputes. Not to mention the impression this state of affairs gives to new players. I have read at least 3 posts by new players recently stating utter disgust.

The "cornfield" is a place in the Twilight Zone where Billy Mumy and his cohorts can "wish you away to".

Great Post Nolan, I support this Idea 200%..

Shadster..

Bump!

Yay!

A rant forum sounds like a good idea. Sometimes I'm in the mood to read the rage and angst of others, but not all the time. Plus, with the stupid search function of the forums being a bit to simplistic, (important words for searches not being searched by it) I'd love to know that something isn't actually instructive without have to read the thread to know. Sometimes the General has some pearls of wisdom, while I could skip over anything in the Rant forum.

And as Nolan said, people are going to VENT and often in the most public place available. Blogs are easily ignored, because I don't read 'em and people know this.

I honestly think nuking general out of existance and letting it be handled by fansites - retaining the rest of the specific forums (the classifieds. building/scripting/animating/etc.) would be cool too.. But thats just me.

Bump.

OMG! NOLAN IS BLAZE'S ALT!

*Smacks Lo with a fish, caught in the icy waters near Christmas Island*