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Negativity on the forums.

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
I've noticed a bit of negativity on the forums recently. Not just commentary on things that are negative, but individual posts whose sole purpose is to degrade or dismiss another poster's views. The 'offending' posts aren't necessarily personal attacks, but are very dismissive of others.

I know there's been some conflict in recent months over moderator/administrator actions here (which are not open to debate -- don't turn this thread into a debate on the actions,) but if you really don't like it here anymore, just leave.

Don't rain negativity down on others who are still interested. I'm not saying to avoid criticism, just make it constructive. If you disagree with someone, explain your reason, and present a compelling counter-argument (or counter-proposal, as the case may be.) The recent string of "who cares" and "why would anyone ..." posts, generally only one sentence, with no actual positive contribution to the conversation, are doing more to harm this forum as a useful resource for discourse than anything else.

Again, if you don't like the way this site is run, stop visiting. But plenty of us still value this resource, and want to hold civilized discussions here.

 

Mars478

Well-known member
(Lounge topic)

Some of the choices made lately have driven users to just full out insult mode.

I can attest to doing it myself.... It's just really that nothing get's done here. Look at the theme- the quote button- the edit limit. This forum is the only of it's kind but a new one can be opened by someone else that has none of these restrictions and this one will become a desert!

What kinds of answers do you expect AF?

 

Osgeld

Banned
I fail to see how a civilized conversation can take place when everyone feels like there needs to be a big gigantic touchy feeley opinion post every week (or to prolong one for as long as possible such as the quote button one)

you had issue with what I said, you sent me a PM smacking my hand, and went off to make this thread which is going to do nothing except stir up the crap pot, again ...

the first 2 items in that list is what should be done, the 3rd we can ALL do without

 
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Unknown_K

Well-known member
This forum has turned into a social site "aka community" where people who don't even own or use the equipment we are supposed to talk about here come to talk about everything but old macs. The mods take ages to do anything about the few problem posters, few people get banned unless they are a pain for years it seems. If you allow and encourage disruptive behavior (as one particular mod did) you will get more of it.

This forum didn't have a negative vibe for many years, it didn't just show up one day either, it came about because of the lack of will to do anything about small problems over a long period of time.

 

Anonymous Freak

Well-known member
Subject: Negativity on the forums.

you had issue with what I said...
And while your post may have been 'the straw that broke the camels back' for me, you are not even the worst offender, much less the most frequent. In general, I have no problem with the vast majority of your posts. Maybe you had been having a bad day, who knows; but yes, your post was what prompted my "can't we all just get along?" thread here.

It has been getting steadily more acrimonious around here over the past few months. I'm just asking people to think "is what I'm posting going to help?" before submitting that reply.

To use the quote button topic as an example... Yes, I have feelings on the matter. Early in the thread, I tried to present them succinctly. As the thread devolved, I left the thread. If you don't like the way a thread is going, ignore it! If you don't like that a thread has been posted in the first place, either ignore it, or, if it is inappropriate for the forum it's in, mark it for moderation. (If you click on the little red exclamation point to report it, there is an "Off-topic" choice. If you think that the post about an eBay auction belongs in the Lounge instead of the sub-forum for that model, flag it as Off-topic!)

If you don't like the non-68k discussion, ignore the Lounge. There's a nice "View new posts except the Lounge" link (the word "Lounge" in strikethrough) right next to the main "View new posts" link. I tend to ignore more than half of the Lounge threads, simply by not clicking on them. But the actual "on-topic" threads, I read nearly every single one.

 

beachycove

Well-known member
Some of it is just the kids, who are just going to be constitutionally different that the 20-, 30- and 40-somethings among us. You youngsters are going to find that things are that way, too, when your time comes to be 49, like me.

Having said that, anyone can be negative (me too) on a given day or in response to something that seems particularly irritating. I got fed up a while ago, for instance, with the younger members who evidently NEEDED me to know that they had a new x, y, or z, c/o "Mom" usually, that had no conceivable relation to a vintage Mac. You might call it "creeping twitterization," and my response one of "twitter fatigue."

The more disturbing thing for me is the fact that some of the long-standing members have been disappearing (eQuill, eQuill, where art thou eQuill?). That's a huge fund of knowledge and a longish list of posts that were actually worth reading that have been lost.

As for the mods, it is surely asking too much to expect all discussion to be policed, as these people have (one suspects) essays to write at uni and such. I am just pleased that someone, somewhere takes the time and trouble to do this on my behalf, on a completely voluntary basis, so it is enough to hope that broad trends should be monitored and that the rest should be left to us.

"Leaving it to us" means that there should be threads like this, basically, and that it should be taken as normal that occasionally there should be minor scuffles in the forums. That sort of tension can actually be constructive, in the sense that it might lead to better behaviour subsequently, so best to live with it. Not all conflict is bad.

And I generally avoid the Lounge, too, as an arena empty of any interest. As one of my last attempts to inject a spark of life into it failed so spectacularly, I will probably just give up on it. But others are avid posters there, so live and let live and leave them to it.

 

Scott Baret

Well-known member
I've been a member here for three and a half years and have been a subscriber to the LEM lists off-and-on since the Compact Macs list launched about 11 years ago. I attribute the perceived negativity to the following:

1. Generation gaps. As mentioned by others, teenagers have different mentalities than older folks. In fact, in late 2000-early 2001, the same problems with teenage "drama" existed on the LEM lists. I'm not accusing anyone of being a drama king or queen, but I do think we all need to be more accepting of folks who may not be at the same maturity level as we are. My suggestion to the teenagers: make sure you act in a mature manner when you post to these forums. Remember that you are dealing with adults, not your peers. A general guideline to remember--this is not a middle school! (Of course, we adults need to remember that as well sometimes--having a dramatic moment is only human, but it's always worth it to think twice before we post).

2. Unannounced changes. I think if we could have a "heads-up" sort of deal when something is going to be changed it would be a good thing. I know the guys who run this forum pride themselves on not being a democracy, but I think giving the people more of a say in certain matters with, perhaps, e-mail polls and feedback forms, would be a good thing. This would eliminate forum drama about touchy subjects (i.e. post edit limits, removal of the quote button) and allow the issues to be settled in a diplomatic way which benefits the majority of forum members. Again, I'm not trying to change anyone's political beliefs, but am just suggesting something that I feel would work better from personal experience, both in the online and offline world.

3. The lounge. All of us have lives outside of posting on forums, so don't expect every conversation to be policed. I'm sure the mods have more important things to do than to be chained to the workstation of their choice watching every word that flows from the keyboards of the posters, so go easy on them! I agree there have been some derogatory comments on here as of late, and be warned that too much negativity and/or drama WILL scare away some of the veteran members. Also, I am sick of the number of links being posted to illegal software sites (i.e. Macintosh Garden) plus the "gimme, gimme, gimme" attitude about software and think it needs to stop, especially with so many younger members on the forum who may not be familiar with copyright laws. (Trust me--not every school plays "Don't Copy That Floppy" to their fifth grade class).

4. Speaking of which, remember that new forums are indeed easily created. I love this community and don't want to see it fade away, but I'm sure there are others who think otherwise. If something different comes up that is rid of a problem, it will become more popular. Think about how everyone went to Facebook from MySpace. We don't want to be the MySpace of 68K Mac sites, so in the words of Johnny Mercer, let's "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative". Remember--we are an ARMY, and an army sticks together through thick and thin!!! (Please do not play the part of Benedict Arnold).

5. Since the topic came up, has anyone heard from our veteran members on other forums? There is indeed a large amount of knowledge lost whenever a good poster leaves, and knowledge is always a terrible thing to lose.

 
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