Comments Out of Hand

I think this will be my last thread. In recent threads I have been confronted by some particularly snippy comments in reply to my own commentaries. I have always tried to avoid being vicious or offensive but in the past few months I have noticed a trend towards exclusion and "dictatorial" stances taken by a number of people on the forum. They might argue that there are specific guidelines to follow in these forums - obviously politeness is not one of those guidelines. To be honest, it doesn't concern me since I should devote more of my time to reality. But, I feel sorry for people who genuinely wish to share their experiences about sl or who wish to simply "talk" without getting dumped on.
But, not so long ago - but long before many of you had ever heard of SL, this was a genuine forum and it was a great place to simply exchange ideas and expect decent responses. Sneering and belittling were not expected or accepted.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the questions I posed in the past. I 've seen a lot of sl and done a lot and I have always been interested in people's responses. I'll stay in SL itself. I 'll just leave the blogs to the people who feel more comfortable with them.

This would be a good time to leave - without moderation this forum will become a war zone pretty quickly, the change is obvious just in these first 9 days.

I hope I didn't say anything to upset you. I am sorry if I did. I try not to be mean but
even I have my moments where I get bit not so nice...and sometimes the forum and even
Second Life bugs me but I am not ready to quit.
I hope you find a pleasant distractions in your reality.
I really hope you'll reconsider and just ignore what bothers you, but I also understand taking break.
I have bit annoyed and tired of few things in world the last few weeks and took some time off myself.

I hope you'd consider returning once we have a mod again.. recently its been a lot worse than normal... and it can get pretty bad. In general, just stick with your beliefs and ignore everyone who saysyou're wrong or w/e...

But I hope you do come back if you leave!

-Oki

Best wishes Jig. You've initiated some good threads as far as I'm concerned as a relative newcomer.
I share most of your sentiments about the general tone of th forum recently - sharper and less than friendly banter that I feel comfortable exposing myself to by anything other than the most infrequent of posts.
Back to lurking out of the firing line until something really rattles the bars of my cage.

Im kinda confused which are the really nasty threads that are worse than some Strife allowed.

Also we always had more activity on down days.

The biggest change I see would be the thread topics that are not being moved , or being started in the first place.

I'd guess in most of the threads that deal with an opinion rather than an actual question since those tend to get heated/polarized very fast as soon as someone posts an opinion someone else disagrees with.

Off-topic (general discussions) threads currently outnumber on-topic (practical questions) threads 2-to-1.

I didn't follow the threads, so I don't know the specifics, but I think it's the timing. In the absence of a moderator, some folks are being extra vigilant, especially when names are named or threads are started that would have been locked for being General Discussion after a few pages back when we had moderation here. This does not excuse any blatant rudeness though.

It's an uncertain time for this forum and it's certainly changed in the last few weeks. Hope it survives and I hope you hang around.

You know, I hadn't thought of it earlier, but residents being perceived as ... or actually being ... snippy is probably one consequence of people trying gamely to self-moderate the forums. If we had more actual moderation, we might all just relax and quit trying to nudge threads into what we think is more in line with the guidelines.

Another thing that's happening, which came up in talking to Jig earlier today, is that some folks aren't really aware that RA ISNT a General Discussion forum. Perhaps, if we find ourselves making comments about "missing Strife" or "needing moderation", we should mention that this isn't a General Discussion forum. Actually, the first line of RA forum guidelines is quite quotable for that.

I guess that's why Strife had that boilerplate that he used all the time.

I had the link to that sticky in my sig for a week. Did not seem to help.

I've stopped commenting when a rule is being violated here. I've decided to trust that this forum won't get shut down. And if it does, I'll either post at SecondSurvivor or just start actually doing work when I'm at my desk, like I used to before May 2006.

for me Ray, i see the opposite.

i think they are watching to see how we do with no mods, and then they will simply pull the plug. an easy way to trim a thorn.

I will fess up that I was a very big part of what occurred. I wont take full credit, because I don't know who Jig has conversed with in the past. I'm going to take your advice, Ray, and stop as well, I guess. If it dies it dies and I'll survive. At least I'll know I did my part by not participating in off topic threads.

I was going to post a thread where people can affirm that they will help to keep the forums open by agreeing to no longer participate in off topic threads and such. I don't have it in me now so I'm not going to bother. If someone else would like to, though, I'll put my sig there. Maybe it will do a little good. More likely it will just cause more bickering.

I thought that was the case too, but several people who have talked to Lindens think we are ok for now and they are not giving us this slack just so we hang ourselves.

there's been quite a few offers to open a GD forum elsewhere, and save this place for RA as intended. there's still an active one i created, but i don't want to be the mod.

many of the other forums incorporate other games and discussions, and i'd like to see a SL only forum that's only moderated from really evil stuff. banning is an important part of modding for the protection of RL identities, for example. other than that, have at it (i say).

we're going to lose this place. i just know it. and i don't post as much as i was because i have become quite impatient with the snippiness... to the point that i myself became short. but this place is great for noobs and people with real issues. this is the first place folks head for for answers. it's a necessary venue. everyone has their own opinion. everyone else has their own opinion about everyone elses opinion. blah blah blah

we need to make a colllective decision to protect RA from spiralling out of control. that might mean moving GD to a new place, and participating in 2 seperate forums for 2 seperate purposes.

jmo

No one really wants to move off the official website I don't think.

Too bad no one official has a sense of humor anymore.

and there's that.....

I have to agree with Colette. The threads seem to last forever, (should maybe be locked since more answers wouldn't add anything new, anyway) and some would probably benefit being moved. A _few_ should not have been started, but it doesn't seem any worse than when Strife was here...

To be fair, I haven't read every thread completely, so maybe I missed some snippy ones. I find that the majority of comments and posters (95%?) are NOT snippy. I guess it's subjective.

If you are leaving, Jig, then I am sorry to see you go. I've enjoyed your posts and will miss them. You've made me think quite a few times, and that ain't too bad, is it?

I think that a better approach would be to continue posting but not respond to sniping and rudeness in kind.
That's easily said. It takes a lot of self-discipline.

If you really want to get under the skin of some pig, be polite to them. It drives them mad. They want mud-wrestling.

Politeness in the face of rudeness is not submissiveness. It's a weapon.

Hi Jig - I liked most of your threads!

Aren't signatures hidden by default?

I know I don't see them and I don't remember ever turning that off (and my alt doesn't see them either and it's not involved in the forums at all).

Oh well, it will be what it will be, this place is still like a kindergarden compared to many other forums and newsgroups, even Jumpman coming back fizzled. Perhaps some things in life never get fixed if people keep popping valium to avoid getting "emotional about it"

It wouldn't be surprising that sigs are turned off along with PMs by default, leaving the newbie partially blind and unreachable. Another reason to cut people some slack, I guess.

This bums me out, given that my usual sig gives people two ways to get their land questions answered.

Some people are more sensitive than others. Very few posts are outright rude, so I really don't know what this general complaint is about. But some people have such chips on their shoulder that any form of disagreement or outspoken advocacy of a contrary position is taken personally and considered impolite. I am not saying that that is Jig - but I deduce from some these "the forums are mean" threads that that is what is must be.

It keeps coming back to this point: RA is not a general discussion forum, and if you think "help" is expecting people to agree with you on a controversial issue, don't expect RA to be very helpful. There are plenty of other places out there for you to get that kind of help.

the place you refer to already exists:
www.sluniverse.com

That pretty much sums it up.

It's classic on-line forum stuff.
It's better to stay and concentrate on careful reading and polite OT posting.
That way:
1) the forums do not become the preserve of the intolerant and the ultra-speed-readers
2) the contrast in standards can highlight the sub-optimal behaviour to an extent that even the perps might begin to get a glimmering of a clue.

There will be some who will *never* get it.
In the absence of a despotic ruler of the forums, we just have to live with that.