Do you prefer the official fora or other unofficial fora?

agree button

This amazes me.
I walked in there, a complete n00b to forums. I was taken in and supported. I post about SL topics when I feel I have something to add to the conversation, and enjoy the camaraderie when I don't - including having fun in some fo the non-SL forums. I think it's safe to say that I'm pretty well-liked over there.
Of course the fact that I am generally polite to everyone, don't troll, and don't insult people might have something to do with it.

And I agree with both Midi and Aodhan - especially on the distinction between "silliness" and "youthfulness". It can be a lot of fun to kick back and be silly. When you lose the ability to do that, they might as well bury you, 'cause "Jack, You're Dead".

I agree with all these agrees.

I think the people that flourish on the other side of the street probably don't take themselves or their ideas too personally...for long that is...because each one of us has said something that deserved a good flushing on occasion.

We like each other enough to go away from the more heated debates (and some surely are) just like you'd leave a family holiday dinner table...full...of good food, wine, critical thinking skills, questions...to come back later and try your hand at another idea, another thread...learning from each other...taking lumps and giving them when your expertise happens to come to be useful.

Some of the top retailers/builders/real estate tycoons in SL are on the other side of the street. Evidence enough for me that you might have something to learn if you invest the time into it.

Besides, who wants to be a member of a club that's too easy to get into? *snicker*

Oh so there we have the root of this thread. People are seldom banned. It takes a lot, and I mean a lot of problems for a regular to be banned. The others are quickly banned when it's obvious they came there for the sole purpose of starting problems. I think that must be where you fall.

I go to SLuniverse for several reasons.

It started with Second Citizen, which I originally went to because I can't stand this place, more on that in a minute

After SC closed, I sort of migrated to SLU because there didn't seem much else to go to. The place grew on me wonderfully though.

Now, why it's better than here. For a start, it has a far better base.

We have avatars, images, file attachments, signatures, and all the other neat little things you'd expect of any modern forum. This place feels like a suffocating antique by comparison.

Secondly, there's the administration. I wasn't at SC well enough to really get a feel for the place, though I did like it from the get go, there was a simple policy, an avatar is required. We're all residents of a bright lively virtual world, full to the brim with individual imagery. It seems horribly unfitting that the main forum is just a blue mass of text, with no personal touches. You can tell a lot about someone by the avatar they choose, whether it be in SL, or on a forum. This place lacks the visual dimension of communication

Over at SLU, there was a little more moderation, though, still very little. It's a generally laid back place. We only get "elitist and cliquey" when someone comes in and starts advertising all over general discussion. Spammers do tend to get jumped on, and I have no problem with that. anyone making an effort to be a unique individual and participate in the community is welcome. Those who see it as another place to push their personal agenda tend to be less so.

Here, I'm not sure about the moderation, I know only what I've seen second hand in various reports. I've met strife inworld a few times, and he seems like a perfectly reasonable guy, but as a moderator here, what I've seen of his record is rather disconcerting, and is one of the factors that originally drove me away from this place.

For all the proposed overhauls this forum was supposed to be getting, I've yet to see much change. More than anything to me, this forum seems obsolete, and forgotten. How long was it after bbcode was disabled, before someone finally got around to fixing it. MONTHS. It's a matter of flipping one switch, yet there was such negligence from LL, that it took them forever just to do that. Everything I've seen implies that they don't care about this forum at all.

More recently, since Katt arrived, I've observed some occasionally fascist moderation, witness the burning life thread. She edits the crap out of people's posts, erasing things they've said, putting words in their mouth, etc. Half the posts in that thread were a mess from katt's constant editing. It's a stupidly passive agressive form of moderation.

Over at SLU, Cristiano is a polar opposite. He's the sole owner and moderator of SLU, as far as I'm aware. He's active in his own forum every day, actually participates beyond moderating, and generally feels more like a friend than an authority figure. Other than outright spam, bans are rare. And he actually listens to the community. He even gave us a bacon forum when someone asked. I'm still not sure about that one...

And ultimately, there's one defining thing, which ensures I'll probably never be a regular here.

If I fall out with Cristiano, he could ban me from SLU. I'd move on, there are other sites.
If I get in a fight with a linden here, I could lose my SL account, and with it, my livelihood and income. I've heard many examples of this happening, and frankly it's just not worth the risk to spend any significant time here.


That's plenty to say, and I haven't even mentioned the people. I don't know many people here, so it would be unfair to make judgement on the community. I have plenty of reasons not to post here anyway.

It's really difficult to get banned in SLU if you know how to argue or debate things in a proper fashion.

It's not the disagreeing nor taking an unpopular opinion. Heck, a good number of my points have been unpopular, if only because they were very painful realities. But I present them in a proper manner.

It's not the length of debate either. I had a three page debate with Sooz where the two of us accounted for over 80% of the posts and each post was very long. It was the first time I've ever seen a long hot debate thread actually *conclude* and Sooz and I were so grateful to each other for having argued in proper fashion all throughout.

Getting banned is a matter of how you comport yourself.

Actually, it still hasn't been fixed.

I like both SL Forums and SLU, and am happy both exist. I started posting here, so this feels like home, in a sense, then Mac told me about SLU, so I went to visit, and everyone was very nice to me! Very welcoming. And I really like the rapier wit of many of the SLU'ers.

Of course, I have no idea most of the time what people are talking about, so I lurk a lot in SLU. Heh, I play some of the word games, say hello to new users...

I am a teensy bit intimidated in SLU, since so many are very clever and amazing wordsmiths. But, I enjoy reading everything.

I like the various SLU categories for discussion, serious or otherwise, and I like how in SLU people can talk about completely non-SL stuff with their friends/foes (), if they want.

Over on this side of the street, I stay mostly in Resident Answers since I know virtually (heh) nothing about scripting, building, textures, etc...

Oddly, it's on this side of the street that I observe more drama and people get more irritated. Maybe it's because there are better emoticons in SLU that can express what people are feeling. Instead, over here, people have to rely on the written word (which isn't bad, of course), but then things get taken the wrong way, are misunderstood, etc.

Anyway. I like both SL Forums and SLU. Those are the only ones I frequent. Oh, and Fashion World of SL, of course. I gots to do mah shopping.

Besides, who wants to be a member of a club that's too easy to get into? *snicker* [/QUOTE]

I don't want to belong to any club that will except me as a member.......Oscar

Conan isn't banned from SLU, I think he was referencing Yahoo Answers, though I was not aware you could get banned from there.

I don't want to belong to any club that will except me as a member.......Oscar[/QUOTE]

It was Groucho, actually.

I posted here for a long time back in the day when I first joined SL. And I met some great great people here. The moderation was light, you could post links and the like, care was actually, if not lavished, at least taken with these forums.

Then came the resident moderators and things were bad. Those moderators that were ethical eventually quit and those that were not stayed. I left at this time as the moderation and ban policies of these boards became so heavy handed and unevenly applied that one never knew where one stood. And I think that was ultimately the intent -- to get people to leave. But it didn't work. The people that continue to post here regularly are nothing but not tenacious in the face of BB code that hasn't been fixed for years, uneven moderation, forum topics intended to stifle conversation unless one has a 'question,' and the small fact that posting something here that a moderator takes exception to can get you banned in world. For that alone, I rarely post here.

When I left here, I went to Second Citizen, a board run by MotherFIC. It was unmoderated and the crowd there was rough -- I fit right in That board died in glorious flames, a bonefire the likes of which has not been seen since and then poof it was gone. We all went over and invaded SLU and Cris and the other folks there handled it as well as I've ever seen a forum invasion before. Seriously, hats off to Cristiano's moderation and management skills.

The SLU boards work well. New functionality is added all the time and the bb code works. There's a plethora of smileys, uploading new avatars is easy, community requests are fulfilled (the afore mentioned bacon forum) and the community meets regularly in world. Lots of content creators post there and even more read. A lot of Lindens read it too.

Anyway I could tout the advantages of SLU over the official forums all day long and Cris' managment skills over that of whoever is managing these forums as well. But at the end of the day people are going to post wherever they feel most comfortables and silly little trolls that get their butts handed to them and then come here to whine aren't going to make a whole lot of difference one way or the other. But I wanted to come over and put in a good word for Cris and SLU. Going back to not lurking now.

get out more.

Well...that place 'across the street' has little old me. I may be lettuce, but I can still be crunchy.

Besides, I have never found a place where the politics and religion forum is more fun to be in. Would you believe that :gasp: actual meaningful debates happen there? :whispers: about politics

All the regulars st SLU have a level of respect for each other, even if they disagree or don't get along. I can't say the same for this place.

Aww don't be intimidated. If you ever have something substantial to say, it would be a shame if you kept it quiet. Don't let rapier wit intimidate you, there's always room on the internet for gummy bears (and bacon).

As much as the regulars of both places won't admit it, both places are alike in many ways. Once you take away the technical differences of the forums themselves, and the setup/moderation, they are both places where people get together and have discussions. Friendships are formed, fights break out, miscreants come specifically to get people's panties in a bunch, as evidenced by recent events*Conan* clear out your inbox*. But in the end, people act as people do when thrown together, and no group is any better than the other, no matter what any individual in that group may tell themself. I always find this us vs them stuff silly, about as silly as a Wndows vs Mac vs Linux debate.

*shrugs* I joined several of the alternative fora, and posted on them occasionally, but never really clicked with any of them. These days I usually only log in to one of them if there is a hot topic being discused there and it's mentioned over here. And that isn't very often.

Geez, ban him...make his day

Ashe

IMO it's something you have to do somewhat regularly to make it click.

Or perhaps, if it does click, you won't be able to avoid posting for more than a few days because you like it there.

Not sure, chicken or egg, but GIGO of course...

I'm just baffled when I read things about how 'mean' it is over there, or how new users get abused...it makes me feel like I'm visiting a completely different forum than some of you apparently are, even though I know I'm not.

Anyway, I think we should dance it out.

SLU seems pretty cool!

Very well said.
I'm not dissing any place - but childishness like that shown in the OP is annoying.

1 poster agreed: Madhu Maruti.

I like both fora. I have made more of what I'd call "friends" here, but that is more because of my time spent at the in-world hangout than because of anything happening on the forum itself. And, in both places there are people I like more and people I like less, though I just try not to engage the people I like less rather than actively get into fights with them.

Folks who only visit SLU occasionally might not realize that there has been an enormous change there in the past couple of weeks. An extremely prolific poster - someone whose post count was perhaps twice that of anyone else on the board - has left the community (for reasons unknown to me). He was such a dominant presence (whether you like him or not) that his absence is palpable, to me anyhow, and it will be interesting to see whether and how the tone of the community changes as it evolves without him.