WTF?

On whose authority? fury or GODzo?

Not that I mind... I'm just wondering wether Gonzo is considered to be admin or if hes just playing with the open parameters of the holy alt.
 
Okay, well, I'd like to officially exclude myself from the 'being unwelcoming' squad of people that apparently exists here.

What? I don't get it. So everyone here is saying that they are horrible to newbies? I really really don't get this. If that's true then some people need to grow up. (That's not to you PT, I just don't understand this whole stupid argument.)

The thing is...I haven't seen anyone here be horrible to any newbies. Just look at the welcome thread. Just because newbies log on and then bugger off is nothing to do with the people here. I made up fucking songs, for fucks sake.
Jeez, this is beginning to piss me off...
 
It's not that anyone is horrible to newbies, it's that the tight-knit group that we've become appears to be more exclusive than inclusive to the average person who doesn't come here all the time or know us all that well.
 
And that we treat newbies just like we treat each other, which sometimes can seem unfriendly to those who don't know it's all in good fun
 
We all have a sense of humor and understand each other... the trick is trying to net snare timid newbies into staying so that this apple tree might actually grow... otherwise Krusty will be proven correct.. OTC is a failure if it doesnt grow. 95% of all websites ultimately fail. We have to swallow at least some of our pride in order to dumb down the edges to make the site more inviting. It does lead to certain lowest common denominator stair stepping... but that just until weve had a chance to perform a little reNEDucation on them and make them perfect like all of us.
 
And that we treat newbies just like we treat each other, which sometimes can seem unfriendly to those who don't know it's all in good fun
Click to expand...

So we all have to un-tighten our friendship so that people coming to look at the board, shitting their pants with incredible nervousness because they're afraid someone will have a slight dig at them - will feel more welcome. I have not seen anything unwelcoming about this board. Short of ignoring each other completely when a new person signs up and tlaking solely to them for an hour, I don't get how we can be more inviting than we are. What the fuck is it that you want everyone to do?

Oh fuck this.
 
Scanty, perhaps you are not part of the problem, but at the risk of insulting you, do don't see what it is like here for the average new person. You have a brother who more than likely told you about this place and what it was like. Most newbies don't have that, they just get shell shocked when they see the goat threads, the telling each other to fuck off, etc. I don't think we need to change the whole board to accomadate, perhaps just a better warning and edumacation to the newbies would be the best route.
 
Funny, I was involved in the same kind of discussion about two months ago on another forum (dutch one, you probably don't know it anyways), where people were complaining about the whole atmosphere, and how we should get it back to how it used to be. Rules were being introduced too, but eventually, we got to the conclusion that we shouldn't be whining over how good it used to be, but how it's gonna be in the future.


My point is: I agree, I too joined in derailing threads and got carried away in the process, constantly pushing the limits, but since even the mods joined in the spamming and derailing, how was I supposed to know? I don't even know if it should be called spamming, I don't care about post count either, the 10K thread is just an example of a useless thread in which people can post, and everyone seemed to accept it, even encourage the spamming. Offcourse there would be objections if every thread or board was spammed, but in this case it's an isolated place which bothers few people...


There, I said what I wanted. I won't argue over moving the thread, I think it helps keeping LL sort of clean, and I do agree with bringing back the post limit and removing some extreme posts, but now that that's over, let's not look back at how it should have gone, but let's move on, continue posting and keeping OTC a place where people like to hang out and post stuff they can't at other forums...



I hereby promise to keep an eye on what I post, how much I post, and how many people might be offended by it, but let's all promise to keep this community a community, talk to people if you're really offended, and let's not forget: don't take every comment serious, it's OTC for crying out loud...
 
Scanty said:
And that we treat newbies just like we treat each other, which sometimes can seem unfriendly to those who don't know it's all in good fun
Click to expand...

So we all have to un-tighten our friendship so that people coming to look at the board, shitting their pants with incredible nervousness because they're afraid someone will have a slight dig at them - will feel more welcome. I have not seen anything unwelcoming about this board. Short of ignoring each other completely when a new person signs up and tlaking solely to them for an hour, I don't get how we can be more inviting than we are. What the fuck is it that you want everyone to do?

Oh fuck this.
Click to expand...
Therin lies the mysteries of life. How far do we compromise our spirit to obtain a greater market share? Is there a line we won't cross? Have we already crossed it? Can we reel it in? Do we dare reel it in? How many candles of my own soul am I expected to extinguish so that others seem brighter in comparison?

There is a way out of this... im sure there is.. but all methods involve chains, wether they be on the door or our feet.
 
PT, I'm trying to be calm here and I usually am. But you don't get what I mean. You're reading my post as if I'm seeing this from only one view - the view of someone who was readily acceped into the forum. But I'm not. This has gotten so out of hand.

I have been on plenty of boards that are very much 'worse' than this and am very familiar what it's like to be a newbie. If you want in, you want in. I don't even know what to say now to be understood. This was originally about stopping spamming, but the reasons given did not carry any weight. Now people are saying that newbies looking at the site are turned off by the things people are saying. I am completely for OTC growing - but I do not agree that cutting down on in-jokes and things like that is the answer. If newbies come, I have every faith that everyone here will be nice to them, and try and include them in the jokes. Sorry.
 
unclehobart said:
Scanty said:
And that we treat newbies just like we treat each other, which sometimes can seem unfriendly to those who don't know it's all in good fun
Click to expand...

So we all have to un-tighten our friendship so that people coming to look at the board, shitting their pants with incredible nervousness because they're afraid someone will have a slight dig at them - will feel more welcome. I have not seen anything unwelcoming about this board. Short of ignoring each other completely when a new person signs up and tlaking solely to them for an hour, I don't get how we can be more inviting than we are. What the fuck is it that you want everyone to do?

Oh fuck this.
Click to expand...
Therin lies the mysteries of life. How far do we compromise our spirit to obtain a greater market share? Is there a line we won't cross? Have we already crossed it? Can we reel it in? Do we dare reel it in? How many candles of my own soul am I expected to extinguish so that others seem brighter in comparison?

There is a way out of this... im sure there is.. but all methods involve chains, wether they be on the door or our feet.
Click to expand...


Damn your deep, unc. Well said.
 
I'm thinking the same thing. We could tone it down, but then at what cost? Would we like it all then? Will we get a bunch of new members by being lame? We might, but when we do, will anyone enjoy themselves here? I think the name of this place says alot, OFF TOPIC CENTRAL, and if people are scared of coming in, they probably won't last too long after they get here anyway.

I'm sorry Scanty, I really didn't mean to judge you in any way, or make you feel bad for your behavior, you have never been anything but nice to me and to anyone else that I've seen. I think I can honestly say that you are not part of the problem on this board, but perhaps part of the solution, if we could learn to be more like you. The only problem then is who wants to visit a board where there is no conflict, That's who we are, we are not afraid to tell each other that you've lost your fucking mind, I say we stay the way we are, but if you want new members, we can do that too.

From this point on, tell at least one person a day about OTC, be sure to warn them upfront that we are a bunch of egostistical, insulting, spacktardious people, and not to be alarmed by what they read, simply participate the best they know how.
 
When people spend a lot of time talking to each other on a board like this, what happens is you get to know what other people can take. Before you tease…you know if it’ll be taken personal or not. Before you joke…you know whether they’ll get it or whether it’ll fall flat on it’s face.
Even now, sometimes when I say things in my ‘British’ way – people here take it literally. Sometimes they get the sarcasm. I am…and I think most people here are too - still working a lot of people out, but that is why you know to think how your post is going to be taken before you post it. If everyone does that, then there is no problem, and this censoring of spontaneous ‘in-joke’ fun is not needed.
One thing I really love about this place is that you can have the goddamn most serious conversation in the entire world in one forum, and then be completely stupid in another. And usually debates are conducted maturely and not spilt over into the LL.
It’ll be a massive shame if cutting down on jokes and sillyness leads to people having to watch their backs all the time.
 
I'm coming in late on this but I'll try my best to be brutally honest and hope no one takes this personally.

I used to think spam was funny and enjoyable and it's not that I don't anymore but when you only get to come to this board a couple of times a day or less, reading hundreds of new posts in one thread isn't going to happen. I avoid the spam threads, I don't read them and that's a shame because there might be some good stuff in there but I'm not willing to waste my time sorting through meaningless attempts to raise post count to find it. Especially when I only get an hour for lunch at work.

I'm also not really participating in any thread that turns into the 'standard' topics... Goat screwing, who is gay or not gay, etc. No offense guys, but it's old and played out and it seems that so many serious (or not serious) threads turn into that. It's a turn off to me and I don't open those threads either. If it's not a turn off to other people besides the four or five people who actively discuss that, I would be surprised.

I think there's a certain 'flow' to a message board. A certain number of posts that are manageable and enjoyable in subject. The flow here is erratic and too much for me lately. It's too much too fast... Even the threads that are meant to stimulate discussion are coming too fast too much. I guess that's it, what I'm looking to say, it's too much. If it slowed down and there was less of the SOS, I'd probably read more of the threads than I do.

And one more thing, there are quite a few people who used to be regulars who aren't any longer. I notice they're not around, and I wonder why. I'm not talking about people who are busy with their personal or professional lives either. I think there are people out there who could add an interesting spin to things but we seem to only like to talk about two or three different subjects and nothing else.

Ok I guess that's it. Please don't hate me. :)
 
Ok, I haven't read this entire thread because quite frankly I don't have the time. Here is my 2 cents though and if you all hate me afterwards then so be it.

I VERY rarely enter into the 10 000 post thread. I engaged in one spam fest of about 50 posts when I was here all alone one night and couldn't sleep. I don't have the time to read all the posts in there. I find it hard to keep up with some other stuff on the boards aswell though because a lot of stuff seems to be tied into that thread somehow. Also, everyone is always "YAY you reached xxxx posts! Way to go post whore!" I don't know about any other not so active members but it makes me feel like I'm not one of the "incrowd" even though I vist everyday, just cause I can't spend HOURS here on a daily basis.

Also, one point about the threads being in KK. Isn't the whole point of that forum to punish people when the do something wrong? Does it REALLY make sense to put spam threads in there so they can DRASTICALLY increase their post counts while being "locked away"?

Thank You for listening, I hope to see some of you guys over at my new home (Xibase.com)
 
I understand what you are saying, Nixy.

However I think that this is going the wrong way. In the same way as people shouldn't be made to feel bad about not being 'in the loop', people who make a lot of posts that aren't of much importance shouldn't be made to feel bad either, cos there isn't anything wrong with that.

Also...I have to firmly disagree with your idea of people only wanting to raise their post counts. That's a bit of a ridiculous take on things (sorry, I am not intending to offend at all). When people make those threads congratulating others on reaching so-and-so number of posts - it's just a joke, and it's a nice, friendly thing to do. Attaching any sort of negative intent onto it is a little unbelievable to me. I'm sure that everyone here doesn't place importance on post counts - I mean, come on, that's a bit lame. "Ooh, my post counts higher than yours, blah blah..."
I haven't seen anyone seriously place any importance on it. All that joking around about it is just in good fun. Plus...some people might feel ignored or forgotten if no one noticed they reached whatever count. It's kind of a no win situation.
 
i find that excessive spam ends up sucking the life out of the board - other threads aren't posted to as much and people not in the thread clique don't go near them.

i remember being warned by another member that my endlessly posting to threads effectively killed them off. ok so its called 'off-topic central' so my nature anyhting goes, right? not if the actions are putting people off posting or being on the board imo.

people have said that effectively it's not hurting anyone so why stop?' but fury has the examples - people he knows who won't join for content reasons. i know similar people too and if the actions are preventing the exapnsion of the community then perhaps they need a little thinking.
 
Scanty, I was not saying the ONLY reason people post in that thread is for increased post count but everyone knows that it DOES increase their post count whether that is their main reason for posting or not...
 
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