2010-04-05, 09:48 PM
Wow. Again, you should have stated you were directing that at me - I hope others don't think you're upset at them!
Comments:
The basis of my statements regarding the superiority of forum boards are based off the very statements we're making now. You contradicted your belief yourself - wall-of-text posts (on Southperry, at least) tend to NOT be ignored all the time, as you read through mine and responded with an even longer post, and by the looks of things I'll be responding with a huge ass post, too
. Perhaps, then, Southperry is an exception to most forum boards (which is, again, why I value it so highly as compared to such sites) in that you can go to literally any subforum on the site (excluding the Funhouse, on most occasions) and find long, well-written responses to the topic at hand. I do agree that the majority of web forums out there do not follow such standards, but again, Southperry is a community of curious, engaged, passionate intellectuals who enjoy discussing and debating more than the average casual forum goer. With regards to short statements, Southperry again excels as compared to other sites. For example, many times you'll view a picture or a link on another site and have simple comments like "Hahaha I love it" "That's crap ew" or whatnot, whereas the typical 1-2 sentence posts found on Southperry (with the best sampling found in the Funhouse) are concise yet filled with wit and are clever responses that carry a thread. You don't have to type a lot to make a great post, but you do have to say something that makes your post stand out as a contributing facet of the thread in order for it to be worthwhile - which is, again, a strong point of Southperry's. With regards to your comments about infractions, I couldn't agree more. While free speech and expression should be encouraged, negative writing that demeans, insults, or in some way "knocks others down" should be removed and infracted, allowing promotional, positive writing to flourish. Finally (and perhaps this is just coming from an individual standpoint), I do disagree with your final comments about restrictions. You don't have to be so emotionally engaged to what you post online. Just recently I posted a huge comment on the Pokemon board about every generation of handheld games in the franchise. I was excited to see if people would respond, and as of yet no one has. Does it hurt a little or make me regret posting? A little to the first, but I'm not regretful. Regardless of who reads and writes, comments and responds or lurks, if you find personal satisfaction at having the chance to publicly communicate your emotions and opinions, that should be enough to keep you from, at the very least, regressing to negative posting. In some cases it's understandable that you may not want to post again for a while, but ignorance of your efforts or a pessimistic loss of hope in others should never be a reason to develop exacerbating writing.
Your comments about "I could care less" are absolutely correct. I should have elaborated upon those initial comments, in that, while I could care less in the end, I usually am emotionally charged when participating in discussions in which it's all v. me. My point with that comment was tying it to the context of the thread - you should care less about feeling paralyzing fear to keep you from posting in any situation, but you should thus value and respect every comment to which you read and respond. In this sense you're still able to treat everyone with equal respect, and concede defeat and apologize when necessary.
No worries about feeling like a nitpicky prick with me! I'm a bluntly honest person, but I'm also a person who listens and understands people who have an issue with me, and try and change to fix the issue. Okay, that sounded arrogant....I guess all I'm trying to say is that be as bluntly honest with me as you want, because I'll always listen and won't take anything as a complete, hateful attack. To respond to your comments specifically, let me start by backing up including that personal tidbit. I mentioned my years of foruming to indicate that I'm not new to the online forum world, and, after posting on various diverse boards, can be seen as a more reliable source when claiming that Southperry is an intellectual, mature forum. It's just like when companies advertise how much experience they have in the field, as it boosts their reputability. Again, if you told me my self-moderation wasn't good enough, I wouldn't take that as being a prick but rather as constructive criticism, to which I'd ask "what can I do to be good enough?" Finally, no worries again about nitpicking when it comes to me. I think you shouldn't worry to much about what you say, but again (when it comes to self-moderation), try and keep in mind who you're responding to and format your response in a way they can take it. I'm not saying you can't be bluntly honest, but instead utilize different ways of conveying your message with different people so they are open to your message.
Haha! I'm not a troll nor a retard. If you analyze what the Funhouse exists for, you'll see why I love it: a place where the rules don't apply, where spam flows freely as a way for those who feel the urge to spam can act upon that urge. Now not ALL of the threads are overly intellectual in the Funhouse, but then again, do we always have to be overly intellectual in every aspect of our lives? If 90% of the site consists of intellectual people posting intellectual responses, then allowing them 10% to goof off and let out some randomly represented steam is understandable. Plus, that's only part of the Funhouse. Sometimes there are some pretty clever, witty, funny threads/posts that indicate a person's ability to respond with humor to the world around them. My comments about Maple were also justified, in that the discussion I'm referring to are things like those that heavily surround EXP/hr rates and the plethora of mathematical formulas that comprise the game. Yes, the average Mapler is immature, unintelligent, and unawares of the very makeup of the game they're playing, but those who understand just how much there is to master in the game realize it takes a while to digest. In this case, again, the discussion on Southperry's Maple-related forums embody this notion, as they advance the community's understanding of the very foundation of the game. Also, since the Funhouse allows the random posting of anything, the Jersey Shore references are appropriate (I thought they were clever and funny, but I guess that didn't go over so well. Ohwell - comedy is hit or miss, anyways). And about my academic compulsion: you're probably right. I feel like I only tell people that when appropriate (like in discussions about H1N1 or bacteria and cleanliness), but there probably are a number of other instances in which saying that was unnecessary. I'll work on that!
And finally, I'm not trolling you/being hypocritical (thought you're right; some of those synonym pairs were unnecessary). In many cases, a proficient vocabulary used correctly can keep writing concise (ex. "You need to keep your posts short." v. "You need to keep your posts concise."). Also, order and flow are very different concepts. The order of writing is the specific placement of different ideas, while flow is the overall "readability and understandability" of the writing. They're definitely related, but different. And yes, you're correct about narcissism - subjective responses can always be deemed as such. However there are definitely places within a forum that are objective and do not need personal inflection.
Blah! Like I said at the beginning, I knew I was going to type a lot. Sorry again for that! In the end, to answer your final concern I'll say this: I don't think it's better if you wrote nothing at all. I enjoyed reading and responding to your comments, and look forward to future conversation with you.
Comments:
The basis of my statements regarding the superiority of forum boards are based off the very statements we're making now. You contradicted your belief yourself - wall-of-text posts (on Southperry, at least) tend to NOT be ignored all the time, as you read through mine and responded with an even longer post, and by the looks of things I'll be responding with a huge ass post, too
. Perhaps, then, Southperry is an exception to most forum boards (which is, again, why I value it so highly as compared to such sites) in that you can go to literally any subforum on the site (excluding the Funhouse, on most occasions) and find long, well-written responses to the topic at hand. I do agree that the majority of web forums out there do not follow such standards, but again, Southperry is a community of curious, engaged, passionate intellectuals who enjoy discussing and debating more than the average casual forum goer. With regards to short statements, Southperry again excels as compared to other sites. For example, many times you'll view a picture or a link on another site and have simple comments like "Hahaha I love it" "That's crap ew" or whatnot, whereas the typical 1-2 sentence posts found on Southperry (with the best sampling found in the Funhouse) are concise yet filled with wit and are clever responses that carry a thread. You don't have to type a lot to make a great post, but you do have to say something that makes your post stand out as a contributing facet of the thread in order for it to be worthwhile - which is, again, a strong point of Southperry's. With regards to your comments about infractions, I couldn't agree more. While free speech and expression should be encouraged, negative writing that demeans, insults, or in some way "knocks others down" should be removed and infracted, allowing promotional, positive writing to flourish. Finally (and perhaps this is just coming from an individual standpoint), I do disagree with your final comments about restrictions. You don't have to be so emotionally engaged to what you post online. Just recently I posted a huge comment on the Pokemon board about every generation of handheld games in the franchise. I was excited to see if people would respond, and as of yet no one has. Does it hurt a little or make me regret posting? A little to the first, but I'm not regretful. Regardless of who reads and writes, comments and responds or lurks, if you find personal satisfaction at having the chance to publicly communicate your emotions and opinions, that should be enough to keep you from, at the very least, regressing to negative posting. In some cases it's understandable that you may not want to post again for a while, but ignorance of your efforts or a pessimistic loss of hope in others should never be a reason to develop exacerbating writing. Your comments about "I could care less" are absolutely correct. I should have elaborated upon those initial comments, in that, while I could care less in the end, I usually am emotionally charged when participating in discussions in which it's all v. me. My point with that comment was tying it to the context of the thread - you should care less about feeling paralyzing fear to keep you from posting in any situation, but you should thus value and respect every comment to which you read and respond. In this sense you're still able to treat everyone with equal respect, and concede defeat and apologize when necessary.
No worries about feeling like a nitpicky prick with me! I'm a bluntly honest person, but I'm also a person who listens and understands people who have an issue with me, and try and change to fix the issue. Okay, that sounded arrogant....I guess all I'm trying to say is that be as bluntly honest with me as you want, because I'll always listen and won't take anything as a complete, hateful attack
. To respond to your comments specifically, let me start by backing up including that personal tidbit. I mentioned my years of foruming to indicate that I'm not new to the online forum world, and, after posting on various diverse boards, can be seen as a more reliable source when claiming that Southperry is an intellectual, mature forum. It's just like when companies advertise how much experience they have in the field, as it boosts their reputability. Again, if you told me my self-moderation wasn't good enough, I wouldn't take that as being a prick but rather as constructive criticism, to which I'd ask "what can I do to be good enough?" Finally, no worries again about nitpicking when it comes to me. I think you shouldn't worry to much about what you say, but again (when it comes to self-moderation), try and keep in mind who you're responding to and format your response in a way they can take it. I'm not saying you can't be bluntly honest, but instead utilize different ways of conveying your message with different people so they are open to your message.Haha! I'm not a troll nor a retard. If you analyze what the Funhouse exists for, you'll see why I love it: a place where the rules don't apply, where spam flows freely as a way for those who feel the urge to spam can act upon that urge. Now not ALL of the threads are overly intellectual in the Funhouse, but then again, do we always have to be overly intellectual in every aspect of our lives? If 90% of the site consists of intellectual people posting intellectual responses, then allowing them 10% to goof off and let out some randomly represented steam is understandable. Plus, that's only part of the Funhouse. Sometimes there are some pretty clever, witty, funny threads/posts that indicate a person's ability to respond with humor to the world around them. My comments about Maple were also justified, in that the discussion I'm referring to are things like those that heavily surround EXP/hr rates and the plethora of mathematical formulas that comprise the game. Yes, the average Mapler is immature, unintelligent, and unawares of the very makeup of the game they're playing, but those who understand just how much there is to master in the game realize it takes a while to digest. In this case, again, the discussion on Southperry's Maple-related forums embody this notion, as they advance the community's understanding of the very foundation of the game. Also, since the Funhouse allows the random posting of anything, the Jersey Shore references are appropriate (I thought they were clever and funny, but I guess that didn't go over so well. Ohwell - comedy is hit or miss, anyways). And about my academic compulsion: you're probably right. I feel like I only tell people that when appropriate (like in discussions about H1N1 or bacteria and cleanliness), but there probably are a number of other instances in which saying that was unnecessary. I'll work on that!
And finally, I'm not trolling you/being hypocritical (thought you're right; some of those synonym pairs were unnecessary). In many cases, a proficient vocabulary used correctly can keep writing concise (ex. "You need to keep your posts short." v. "You need to keep your posts concise."). Also, order and flow are very different concepts. The order of writing is the specific placement of different ideas, while flow is the overall "readability and understandability" of the writing. They're definitely related, but different. And yes, you're correct about narcissism - subjective responses can always be deemed as such. However there are definitely places within a forum that are objective and do not need personal inflection.
Blah! Like I said at the beginning, I knew I was going to type a lot. Sorry again for that! In the end, to answer your final concern I'll say this: I don't think it's better if you wrote nothing at all. I enjoyed reading and responding to your comments, and look forward to future conversation with you
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