Rude Forum

I don't mean to be dismissive of what I'm sure was a heartfelt comment about the forums, buuuuuut ...

About once every two months we get one of these "These forums are so rude! Are you people barbarians???" type posts.

This makes me wonder.

What forums do these people hang out on before comming here? I've found the SL fourms to be insanely tame compared to most forums I've hung out on before, as most posters have already said. I can actually only think of one forum that was 'nicer' than this, and it was due to some fairly strong rules (Although easy-handed moderation). Compared to RPG.Net or Simviation or AVSIM or Fark.com or any of the other forums I hang out at or lurk, this is paradise. Oh, there are some *small* forums that are really pleasant, but there it's almost like a family... You only have a couple dozen active posters as a rule. The Old Hangar or Dumpshock, for example.

To the OP: Despite all these lame justifications why the forums might appear rude, I would like to assure you that I am in fact just genuinely rude as you correctly surmised.

Business Mission, I read the forums on a daily basis always looking for good info like you. There are an awful lot of good people who post to the forum. Of course, like in rl, there are those few who tend to throw out comments that appear to reflect on the general population assuming everyone is like that. Look to the forum for the good stuff and ignore the rest.....Welcome to Second Life and hope you have a great time. Look me up in SL anytime I am on and I will be glad to talk with you and help where I can.

Second Life Mentor
George Flan

Most of the forums I frequent are rather more friendly, but I do take the point that many are not. I think one of the issues is that this is not a forum in isolation; that if someone slags you off on here, you are just as likely to meet them inworld tomorrow. Also the fact that sl is a real community, and if someone feels themselves to be sidelined by the community the effect is all the greater.

I also think maybe the target audience has something to do with it...

SL, for all the protestations that it "is not a game", exists within, or at least on the fringes of, the "gamer" community. Said community is not known for it's low-key forums... Most are populated by long-time net-warriors.

So too is SL a "geek" community, having a fair bit of its user base drawn from souces such as Slashdot... Also, a community not known for it's low-key attitude.

I don't spend much time on fish aquarium forums or something, maybe it's different in places like that. I'm a geek, and I'm a gamer. Hell, the 'technical support' forum for some of my hardware I use is more volatile than this place on a bad day.

I am new here too, and this forum makes me laugh. The people that post here are really great people and they have cheered up my day on more than one occasion. Welcome to SL by the way!

You forgot to use "BOLD."

P2

If you are so unhappy with these forums, Coco, tell me again why you're still here?

Everyone is entitled to an opinion (schizophrenics and Geminis may be entitled to more than one), and we all express them in different ways.

For the most part, there are not very many times that I take personal offense, even to the most caustic comments, but it seems as though you take everything personally, whether it's actually directed at you or not.

As far as the OP is concerned, I think he was just referring to the general spirit and mood of the forums, which, for the most part, reminds me of sibling rivalry: "I can tear my brother/sister's head clean off, but nobody else better mess with him/her, or they'll have to deal with ME!"

P2

You are saying that if I don't like these forums, I can leave? Kind of like, if you criticize your country, you are welcome to move out? I don't notice any other official forums for this game. It's not like we have a choice, is it?

The OP isn't the first person to make an observation like he did, and he won't be the last. There are a lot of residents in SL who won't touch the forums with a ten-foot pole precisely because they ARE like the OP said they are, so it's hardly an original observation.

Yes, I do take things personally, as you would, too, if there were people who are continually antagonistic and gratuitously nasty to you personally, and nothing ever stops them. Such as, I say, innocently: “I wish I had any idea of what y'all are talking about!" and Siggy immediately says, "Don't worry - its not about you." When people put an innocent out-of-context comment you made in their signature to make fun of you PERSONALLY for HOW MANY FRICKIN MONTHS NOW HAS IT BEEN?

And this sort of thing goes on unimpeded? This is ALLOWED? I would say worse than allowed: It is encouraged.

In addition to all the rest of it - and not just against me, by a long shot, but against anyone a troup of laughing hyenas decide to make fun of, by - for example - posting parody threads of their serious threads. Or calling names - names that sit there no matter how many people report them. Any forums that allows people to peck other residents to death unimpeded, not to mention post form letters to call for their banning, or mount shunning campaigns, and write whole three-paragraph posts just to say how awful another resident is - is a forum that sucks, where there is little to no protection for the individual resident. It is a kindergarten playground with no supervisor.

It happened to me because I objected to it happening to others.

There are those who think that just because it happens only to a few, it's okay. I say, wherever anyone's human dignity is allowed to be trampled, and wherever mistreatment is tolerated, all of our rights are trampled, and we are all mistreated.

I further say that this climate discourages discussion, encourages intimidation, and runs off new posters and runs off people from the game itself, which is not good for SL. Fortunately, it is only one aspect of the forums, and tends to manifest itself mostly in General and off-topic, I think, but it needs to be fixed.

Then, too, Phoenix, you would take things personally, too, if certain individuals had come to you in the game - while you were minding your own business and enjoying your game - to be argumentative and antagonistic to you in IM's, and I personally suspect that alcohol is often involved in that sort of behavior, and that is the very sort of thing that you, Phoenix, would not be seeing, would you, or factoring into this equation.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, yes - and I don't get bent out of shape if Chip's opinion is precisely counter to mine regarding the IBG or something. I can totally disagree with him and yet be able to see where he is coming from. You may have noticed that this disagreement has been reasonable, civil, intellectual, and NON-personal, because it is about ideas, not about putting down others personally.

Or anything which is actually about IDEAS. But get thee on the receiving end of 11 months worth of personal insults and jeering and pecking, and you will think the forums suck, too, Phoenix. And don't think you are exempt - nothing like this ever happened to me before. It happened because I dared stick up for others it was happening to.

It's one thing to provide an opinion on a topic, and quite another to provide your opinion that another poster is - fill in the blanks at length with insulting and profane name-calling, intended to be humiliating and basically inhumane. Until that sort of thing stops, these forums will suck.

But since I am a paying resident of SL, they are my forums, too, and I have no intention of leaving. And I will repeat that here, even though stating that they are my forums too is what got me my warning.

coco

Jesus Christ - refuse *ONE* 'webcam session...'

Let that be a lesson to you guys.. hell hath no fury and all that.

Also, please quit it with the RL photo stuff - your clogging my inbox and I'm waiting for an important email from Nigeria.

Sorry dude, I got it today. Your loss.

(God rest ye merry Gentlemen)

Oh blessed forum poster - hunkered typing night and day,
Expressing your opin-ions, no matter come what may,
Your 'tarded observations brighten up my dreary day...
...complaining of retards and trolls
retards and trolls.
..oh the typings of retards and trolls....

Oh forum poster, yes I know, you wish I'd go away....
But till your a moderator, Lindens have the final say,
So you can piss and moan but it won't matter anyway...
..Bout my typing of retarded trolls
retarded trolls,
oh my typing of retarded trolls.

Oh forum poster - I won't leave I know that really cuts..
I know you sit and curse me, say I am a stupid putz...
But it don't bother me none, so you can swing on my nuts..
And I'll type like a retarded troll,
a retarded troll,
Oh I'll type like a retarded troll....

I belong to two forums for second wives/stepmothers. I mostly lurk now, because intead of being a community of supportive women who understand that one purpose of that forum is to VENT so that we can go back to our real lives and play nice, many of the posters attack and flame women who express their true feelings about their lives as stepmothers. I used to belong to a single mothers forum. It was the same way there. A few women dominated the forums and they'd flame anyone they considered weak or intellectually inferior.

So, Reitsuki, in my experience, it's no different in other forums. At least, not the ones I've been involved in.

That said, I really enjoy reading the SL forums. They're entertaining, informative and some of the regulars make me practically pee my pants laughing!

Ok, it's pretty safe to say this thread has outlived it's usefulness and has spiraled into personal attacks and namecalling. As such, it's being closed. Please don't personally attack those you don't agree with.