Rude Forum

I've been browsing through this forum, and it seems to have alot of rude posts and snide comments.
I'm a new player, and have experience in alot of forums.
I just wanted to note that. Does anybody else have this impression?

Don't they have rules against making off topic rude comments?
Or is this place just undermoderated?
I haven't really posted here yet, but I wanted to mention that I do see alot of good helpful topics and posts in this place.
I guess I just have to ignore the snide remarks if I see them or if they do them to me. I hate seeing stuff like that.

This one is tame compared to most I've heard about.

Welcome to SecondLife

These forums are like a young childs tv show by comparison to some "game" forums I've seen. Best advise I can give, read the informative comments and skip over the trolling... You'll soon learn whose post to ignore.

The forums adhere to SL's Community Standards. They are moderated, but in general given a lot of slack as everyone here is an adult.

As far as your initial impressions... your generally right, it's just the home grown culture here. It's important to note, that this doesn't reflect on all of SL as only a small percentage actually check these forums out.

I'm with Ingrid. Sure there are snide comments and flame wars now and then, but compared to most forums (especially game related forums) this one is very tame with a lot of very interesting and productive debate and populated by people of above average intelligence. Online forums in general are not very good places for people with thin skins.

Chip, are you adding thick skins to your designer range?

hehe, I keep meaning to but I still haven't gotten around to it. Be on the lookout for my extra thick forum skin line coming soon.

OMG CHIP IS THIS SOME THINLY VEILED REMARK ABOUT ME?!


In seriousness, though, that's all too true. And yeah, the SL forums are Sesame Street compared to some of the places my snark has dwelled.

Live by example, that's usually how I operate in life, whether FirstLife or SecondLife. I prefer to treat others with respect, mainly because I am a bit more empathic and possess a strong "If I were in another person's shoes" pattern of thinking.

Also, I think that you are a representative. I hate to say it, but more often than not there are prejudices in the world, and you're being grouped into SOMETHING. Whether grouped by race, religion, social leanings, or sexual orientation, it is the nature of the human brain to group and collate things to make it easier to process.

I live my life as if I were a representative.. which.. technically I am. I am a representative of who I am, where I came from. So I prefer to be a good one as opposed to a bad one.

Great post, Ironraptor. It reminds me of some of my favorite song lyrics by Adrien Belew...

All the world is a cannibal
even time itself will eat us all
but that's no reason to be a jerk
you either make it better or make it worse

the forums here do tend to have a certain amount of "bite" to them, but besides the fact these forums are for the 18+ crowd.. SL is also very big on freedom.

freedom of expression, freedom of speech, just.. freedom.

granted, this is not without a certain amount of moderation. making a deflammatory comment about someone by their name or revealing RL details are a couple of things that aren't tolerated here.

honestly, this thread is a greate xample of the community when taken in stride with the rude and snide remarks you've seen. sure, things can be pretty raw at times, but look at what the feelings are of those who visit here often.. pointing out the level of intelligence, pointing out what's impressive about this small ragtag group of SLers that frequent the forums.

basically though, you have a good point.. anything that rubs you the wrong way is something that's best to stay away from. either that or (if you're so inclined) to try and talk reasonably about what ever differences may come up.

i'm sure you'll be fine.. *singing* just put on a happy face

The forums used to bother me more than they do now (believe me, things used to be worse around here.) The problem is, if you engage the negative people, you amplify them. If you are running a thread you really care about, I have found it helpful to drown out the negative voices with an insightful on-topic post. Example:

Aimee: I think Second Life would be a great place to open a business. What do you guys think?

Ranter: Aimee you know perfectly well this thread is an attack against me. When will you ever stop your snotty snide comments?!

Aimee: For example, you could open a virtual cheese shop!

Ranter: Helllooooo Thinly veiled attack against MEEE..this thread is about MEEEE....

Aimee: Or perhaps a virtual bakery

Ranter: Look at me! I am doing stuff! See!! WEEEEE ME ME ME ME

STFU N00B!!!

Congrats Biz!!! Your now one of us.

Many posters here have a history with each other, and against each other, which accounts for a lot of the snide comments. Someone telling a poster to shut up is what a new resident sees, but a poster telling someone to shut up when they've been known to post self-righteous admonishing lectures against anyone daring to tell anyone else to shut up is what long time residents see, and it requires knowing the track record of the poster to spot it. Hypocrisy accounts for a lot of the call-outs on these forums, and posters going into defence mode against an imagined possible attack usually accounts for the others.

I like that debates get heated here. Vanilla has never been my favorite flavor. These forums are still a lot milder than most I've been part of, but they're just spicy enough to be interesting, sometimes.

All forums are like this. It'll be....ok.

I've been appalled by these forums since I first arrived here in February of 2005, Business, and said so. People were busy "shunning" another resident and running him out of town on a rail. They managed to do that; hence Aimee's thinking that the forums are much better now. (And would be even better if they could just get rid of "negative" people like me.) The forums still suck, of course.

However, people who take this view are considered self-righteous and admonishing. If you continue along these lines, Business, you will be considered that as well.

And - take a look - Aimee, Forum Queen, has taken this opportunity to make an entire post about me. She thinks the forums are just this terrific place if it weren't for the likes of those like me:

-----------------

The forums used to bother me more than they do now (believe me, things used to be worse around here.) The problem is, if you engage the negative people, you amplify them. If you are running a thread you really care about, I have found it helpful to drown out the negative voices with an insightful on-topic post. Example:

Aimee: I think Second Life would be a great place to open a business. What do you guys think?

Ranter: Aimee you know perfectly well this thread is an attack against me. When will you ever stop your snotty snide comments?!

Aimee: For example, you could open a virtual cheese shop!

Ranter: Helllooooo Thinly veiled attack against MEEE..this thread is about MEEEE....

Aimee: Or perhaps a virtual bakery

Ranter: Look at me! I am doing stuff! See!! WEEEEE ME ME ME ME

----------

Translation: I'm the "negative people." (Who, ironically, she has just engaged again.)

Yet she's, you know, cool for having written the wretched, self-serving post above. I consider HER to be the negative person, perpetuating things needlessly like that.

This has been going on for 11 months. If you continue to state that these forums suck, you will be in my position. Most people just leave.

They are undermoderated, yes - and very inconsistantly moderated. The new plan now is to appoint residents to become volunteer mods on the board, such as Aimee, and thus put the foxes in charge of the henhouse.

coco

Cocoa, do you even realize how ironic your post is? I thought she was talking about Prok.

I've never seen another person's point accidentally illustrated so finely.

Spin it, Cory.

coco

Or you could open a virtual PET SHOP!!!

I really did think she was talking about Prok. Actually, I still do. Prok haunted her on these forums much more religiously. Sorry you don't believe me, but there's no need to be so rude about it.

One data point, and I hope this doesn't flag me as a polyanna, but even the posters I like least on these forums have - without exception - been utterly pleasant in-game.

I think there is something primal about attaching a face (even one made up of a handful of polygons) to words makes us respond more civilly.

To use an extreme example: I'd even found she-who-shall-not-be-named to be perfectly affable in-game.

The brilliant, self-balancing component to forum posting is that we inadvertently say far more about ourselves than we do others.

It just seems so... unnecessary to engage in virtual drama. There are far worse things that could happen than internet drama. You could be in an area of the world where you are expendable and barely make enough to put food on your table, you could be one of those people who have to do the most despicable things in life just so that they can survive. There are far worse things in life. I don't think I'm uppity or snobbish, more like.. just putting things into perspective.

Those of us here have it way too easy.. WAY to easy, namely why there's nothing to do but to create virtual drama so that there's at least SOMETHING going on in our lives that we can complain about. But... I guess that's my interpretation of what goes on with negativity.