Forum Guidelines

I agree with you on this point, but there are some good reasons to neg rate someone. I view the SL forums as part of the SL world. If you have bad behavior here, not just I disagree with you, you deserve the neg rating in SL.

Isn't "the usual forum harpies" a form of name-calling? Yeah, I thought so.

"Move along, nothing to see here!" - South Park

Colette,

I would do likewise. I mean you and I may disagree on one point in life, and yet find that we ahre everything else in common. I don't imagine having any freinds that I agree with on every single issue. And yet in the forum we offer opinions on just that: isolated topics.

And your points about escalation are very well taken. I think a major problem is that people expect to win arguments in the forum, and escalate quickley in an effort to deliver a crushing blow. I think in the forums it is imporatant to remember you are not going to win an argument my convincing your opponent of the truth of your ways. You can't goad them in to acknowledging the correctness of your position. Rather you are always arguing to persuade the independent reader. To provide a contrary position so that someone may evaluate and come to a decision for themselves.

I think when people argue to beat their opponent it quickley deteriorates into saracastic personal attacks like "thank god for the log in problems, cause you can't get in the game." to me the most pernicious and grating of these is the "you can't spell" defense. It is meaningless, and yet very frequently used to shore up a position.

Finally some of us. Myself most of all, do game the forums, especially when I can't get on SL itself. I'm a bastard really, I enjoy seeing people whipped up in a frenzy over some intellectual point. I am a passion/drama junkie, as long as its not mine. That being said, sometimes I for one take the extreme road of the gadfly, to incite debate. I try never to make is personal, though it is inevitable that some will take it persoanlly. I am often unreasoanble, and sometimes I am even wrong. But I would never hold anyones rants against them, and I naivley expect everyone else to see through my own forum Bullshit.

And this is fucking Brilliant (not the use of the word fuck to add uncessary but colorful emphasis):

"If someone says something Offensive on the forums .. report abuse, take a deep breath , forget about it. If you act rationally, The moderators, being human are FAR more likely to agree with you."

Well said.

OMG! I don't really mean to sound like a forum bitch, but really this sounds a lot like someone who is trying to make people like them by hating the common target louder than everyone else does. Like the wanna be cheerleaders shouting down the computer geeks in high school to look good to their freinds.

What exactly, is it that Prokofy ever did to you?

Jennifer, and anyone else who wonders why people treat Prokofy the way they do (myself included), I strongly recommend reading this thread to see Prok in his true colors.

ask him.......... we started going round and round well over year ago.... and I continue to say I dont hate it, I simply pity it

Aww, isn't it sweet? I got triple neg rated by Prokovy today. Guess the truth hurts, Prok. Oh well. (chuckle)



Projection is such an ugly thing. I find it amusing that you're always trying to put your labels on others... and never quite see how well you identify yourself in the doing.

Jennifer,

Don't bother with this. Prokofy somehow alienated someone early on and now it doesn't matter what he says, there is an automatic shark frenzy when he posts. These forums could spawn five pages on the nature and quality of Prokofy's bowel movements.

But really there are some cool people polarized around this issue. The individuals are much cooler, on the whole, than the group. Its basically a comedy: Prok posts and 5 people have to say he is an idiot, whether he is right or wrong. Prok points this out, sometimes calmly, sometimes with more agression, and five more people say he is an idoit and insane. Profofy responds to these five, and someone says Oh this is the same game you played in TSO. Then there are a couple of gripes about Prokofy alway repeating the comments about the tekki wikki and the FIC. Then someone gets upset because they are an ati. At this point I chime in with some comment that inevitably spawns the knee jerk respopnse that I am an Idiot who can't spell, or some other condescending piece of self aaggandizment from someone. So ther will be a side war or two going on while prokofy hammers away at his opposition who repeat the same tiresome accusations against prokofy who poits out out theyu are doing so, brinign us back to the FIC argument.

Its a tango. eventually the lindens shut the forum down because it always boils down to personal attacks. Somone picks another topic and the whole thing starts again. Its a forum tango. The funny thing is everyone hates the music but loves the dance.

Who knows how much virtriol, condescension and accusation this post will fire up. But then I never apologize for gaming the forums. It just pains me to see people I like a respect frothing with unmitigated hostility, sometimes directed at me, but usually without real foundation.

You left out that Prokofy usually says someone or some group is an idiot to fire it all up, but somehow what Prokofy says gets pushed under the rug by you Jake. You like to highlight the respondant's "guilt". That's all good though, because you're just "gaming" the forums right?

That pretty much says all I need to know. "I don't take the forums seriously, unless you're against my friend". You know Jake, sometimes the best thing you can do for a friend is tell them when their wrong.

I see you're still stinging because I criticized your spelling. Let me explain why I did that. Most folks here on the forums know that I am no grammar or spelling Nazi, but apparently I really touched a nerve with you.

See Jake, you were preaching to us about what your English professor taught you. You misspelled "professor". I found it ironic, and pointed that out. Had you been speaking of any other course but English, I wouldn't have given the error a second thought. I hope that clarifies things for you.

The thing is, when Prokofy started posting a few months ago, it was exactly the kind of stuff he posts now. At first it was kind of a surprise, some good points were brought up but a lot seemed way out of left field (this was before the FIC was coined, it was just "The Feted, Fuck-You Hedonists" at the time I believe. I'm not sure, a search for posts by poster only goes back 500, and he is way beyond that.)

If you come into a community fists swinging telling people how everything they do is wrong, and trying to force people to believe your point of view no matter what... well yeah some people are going to take exception.

I have him on ignore now, but you're right, there are a few people who probably shouldn't bait him. There is quite enough evidence to show how that will turn out. The thing is, he could take that same advice. I've read threads that start out fine, with a question or a hypothetical raised, and he jumps in fists swinging simply because the topic is kinda related to what he rants about, or the original poster is someone he disagrees with a lot.

He's remained consistant these past months though, so i'm in doubt that he will change. That's why I put him on ignore (although I did read the whole of the "Insanity" thread, you should take a look at that... yikes...)

If you are having trouble searching my 2000 plus posts, I suggest you use terms like "feted inner core" and you'll find actually I'm not the one posting the most on this subject lol. Lianne, the same thread "They Don't Get It and I Sure Don't" with Pahoa Jade (try her name search, she has less posts than me) where I developed the FIC idea is the same one where I developed the "fuck-you hedonism" idea.

Jake's analysis of the cycles here are right on target -- it's the same 4-6 people doing the same 4-6 things over and over again. It's boring.

I'm not going to respond to Chip here, I'm going to take those matters up on my own third-party blog where you can just do what you want and violate the TOS restrictions you have to deal with here -- I'm new, so I hadn't quite figured out that's how you have to do it, that's how everyone does it. Don't worry, you smarten up after six months.

But to return to the subject of the thread, if I understood it, is it right to carry the forums over into the game?

I used to think doing that was beyond the pale. I thought it was outrageous. I thought no one would dare do that. I certainly wouldn't have thought of doing that. The forums are a mere "safety valve" of sorts where often the most perceptive and intelligent people in the game analyze it to death and tear each other to bits -- they're not for the faint-hearted. But you don't carry it over to the game, I thought -- why would you ever do such a thing? Yeah, I used to be in that mode, too, for sure!

But, like other things I was a naive newb about, I found that what you precisely must do is carry it over. I was forced to carry it over precisely because people began to use the forums FIRST against me to destroy my personal reputation and my business reputation in the game -- they were the ones first to attempt to destroy me in the game.

In at least 3 instances, people too ordinary game disputes over bad building choices and viewblockers and brought them to the forums to make a point -- they took the game to the forums, so they shouldn't be surprised them if the forums comes back to their game lol.

So it was only in extremis that I even entertained going from the forums to the game, something I *used to think* was beyond the pale:

a. My personal and business reputations were targeted and malicious defamed in the game and on the forums, and I responded to this by multiple negrates of this person because there is no other recourse for dispute resolution and no Better Business Bureau type of operation sanctioned or functioning in the game.
b. Certain older players (and some of their apprenticed newbs) would write "Scam!" or other kinds of crazy nonsense on my ads in the classified sections, harming my business, although there was no basis for this.
c. A massive, collective shunning was organized against me in the forums with the help of the IRC SL channel.
d. The malicious slander -- the false claim that I harm newbies by lowballing them on their sale to me of their first land and bringing them into my rentals system -- was repeated by yet two more older players, one coyly hiding behind the usual forum harpies' rhetorical question everyone knows has a name and address pre-stamped on it.

Try to imagine if you faced this high degree of malicious slander, the kind of malicious slander that the Lindens blow off in an AR because they call it "opinion" to which the player is "entitled".

I think in those cases the triple negrate is in order.

I've used the triple negrate now six times, 4 just this week for reasons known to all, after massive, repeated, personal insults in the forums and repeated, persistent, deliberate false slander in the forums. The forums themselves provide you no recourse because the ARs are ignored. I think in those very rare situations, when the threshold is reached, you need to follow up on the forums by delivering an in-game opionion-o-gram of unmistakeable clarity. I find after examining a person's avatar and building, I have no trouble at all negging them on those aspects because their bad behaviour often shines through in bad av decoration choices and bad building design too.

It's especially important to deliver to someone whom you may have had on posrate on all alts, such that they'd be making a pile of Linden money off your old posrate each week. That would definitely need to be cleaned up.

Whatever it's definition -- is it a name-calling? or is it a factual statement lol? -- it isn't directed at any one individual.

If you're whipped up into a drama frenzy, as Jake aptly put it, and hate name-calling, could I steer you to an actual example of rampant and mean name-calling right here in this thread:



Here's an example of someone calling another human being "it". That's certainly a name, and a perjorative name. Could you work with that, please, since it involves one specific individual calling me, an individual, a name?

All good reasons to eliminate the useless rating system altogether.

...

What's to respond to Prok? Some people seem to be under the mistaken impression that you're some kind of victim here. I'm just pointing out where they can see you at your irrational, hectoring, paranoid best. You can't hide from your own post history.

But my all time personal favourite post was when Prok told me to eat some chocolate bunnies to ease the menstrual symptoms he says I'm always suffering from. The post has dissapeared, deleted or locked somewhere. He was banned from the forums for a few days for sexist remarks. But continued to post under alts.

Hi, Ingrid. That's actually false information.

I was not banned from the forums at all for the chocolate bunnies thing. I've never been banned from the forums for what I write on the forums. That's a lie.

It's my understanding that you are not supposed to discuss these types of bannings or warnings on here, but since you've published false information that needs to be corrected, I'll take that risk.

I was merely handed an "Official Warning" in private over the chocolate bunnies issue. Not banned. No. And you know that, because I sent you the exact wording of the communication to me in private messages on this forum. So it's especially silly for you to make stuff up like that when I have that message to you in my "sent queue" even if you don't have it in your inbox LOL.

Sorry to disappoint.

I sure do watch my mouth when I talk about chocolate bunnies now!

It's helpful in examing the record, Jennifer, to first look at the 900 times that Ingrid turned up at my every post, slammed me, ridiculed me, put siggies ridiculing me, and did 900 other things -- *including passing around my RL information within the game to enable people to ridicule me* which is an *actionable TOS violation*.

So sure, after that has happened to me for months, I write the factual statement, that no, Ingrid, even after I spent thousands and thousands of dollars on your houses, most didn't rent.

Well thank you for at least trying to respond to my question. Though in fairness it was really more aimed at Cienna, because it seems to me she sort of randomly started hating Prokofy.

Ingrid I haven't been to boardman, so I can't really related to the accuracy of the architectural review. It doesn't mater, really though, because I see it as just an opinion. Is that the post that started it all? Or was there tension between you and Prokofy before that? I ask because to me that post seesm to carry a lot of previous baggage, and is not some random personal attack. It is a bit of an attack though, to be sure.

I guess what I am wondering is why not, after that, blow Prokofy off and not bother with him? I mean what is it that can be accomplished by attacking his posts on every topic? He may have been wrong on that score, but wow, he's not wrong on everything.

Of course I myself flew off the handle a couple times when I was accused of being Prokofy's alt. I hate that twinge of aggression that turns me into a catty bitch when my pride is ruffled. So maybe thats it. Maybe Prokofy ruffles feathers and people just hit back.

Maybe its a chicken/egg thing. Which came first?

I don't hide from my own post history and I stand by my posts. I have a sincere and ardent belief in my posts. Do you? Because you've said some really nasty things to me. If rehearsed here, they'd look rather unattractive -- for you. So sure, I'm a big believer in examining post histories and standing by them, Chip.

Yes, in a previous game and in this one, Ingrid revealed my RL information to other people, as part of a titillating campaign to laugh at my expense and gain some currency among people she was trying to suck up to, and aid and abet them in ridiculing me there in the game, and here on the forums.

And yes, in post after post, Ingrid has shown up within 2 minutes of anything I post to niggle and harass. Not sure why I bother her so much since I actually always admired her architecture and her handbags and buy a lot of her products. I said her houses didn't rent, I didn't say they sucked.



Yes, it follows months upon months of two successive games where Ingrid has maliciously revealed my RL information to other people in an effort to ridicule me and set up others to ridicule me.



Well, Ingrid, God bless her, out of the 99 posts she's made very nastily attacking me recently did have 1 where she acknowledged I had a good idea.



Yeah, you're not my alt. I'm sorry you have to get tarred with that brush. Hope that's all cleared up now.

Yeah, it's all about the feathers.

That actually might be an accurate way of putting it. 'Randomly began', that is... though I suppose that begs the question, 'How much should you have to personally undergo to decide someone is a useless ass?'

My dislike, disdain, and utterly lack of respect for this individual comes as a direct result of watching them be as they are here. It didn't take long, merely two months. And I sincerely sympathize with those who have endured this attention whore since it got here.

By way of elucidation -- I've owned and operated a number of outlets like this one across a variety of places 'in my time' and I know the pathology and futility of posters like this individual. I have seen it happen many, many, many places. It always ends the same.

On the up side, Linden Labs is just starting to wake up to the reality of the ultimate uselessness of posters like this individual. Better late than never.

It is neither as deep nor as convoluted as this whacked out conspiracy theorist wants everyone to believe. Actually, it is not as difficult to understand, either -- Prokovy Neva has a problem called 'cognative dissonance' (among the list), and because they cannot figure out a healthy way to deal with it, they want everyone else to have the problem, too.

Only life doesn't work that way. Not even for "Poor, Put-Upon" Prokovy Neva.




This is how this individual effects what, to their warped mental processes, is 'validation' of them being right. In actuality, it is only validation that they can be a bigger ass than most people have tolerance to endure.

No surprise there, trust me.

In closing, allow me to make a small correction in your statement -- I do not 'hate' Prokovy Neva. They are not worth the time, effort, or energy that 'hate' would require. If you need to put an adjective in there, feel free to use any of the following:

- Pity
- Disdain
- Dislike

Thanks.

Most definitely. I don't like you Prokofy. I think you're the most irresponsible unpleasant and irrational fountain of negativity I've ever seen on this forum or any other. I stand behind every comment I've ever made to you and about you. You break all of your forum guidelines on a daily basis. You lie, fabricate, hector, slander, and libel daily. Since the day you got here you've tried to divide the community into derisively labeled groups based on your own special brand of narrow minded and intolerant bigotry. You hijack every thread you participate in with your self aggrandizing bullshit. You address everyone you engage in dialogue with in the most patronizing and condescending manner you can muster. You add nothing of value to the forums. You bring only rancor, vitriol, and endless masturbatory hyperbole with no basis in reality. You're a shrill, paranoid, pompous windbag for whom I don't have even the slightest shred of respect. You don't have a single redeeming quality. Your a pompous windbag and a liar and I think everyone should research your post history for themselves before they waste any energy feeling any sympathy for you which you don't deserve. Have yourself a wonderful day.

Thread locked. I think the subject of guidelines is well covered.