Sometimes I think it's right to be mean. However even then I'm starting to question if it does any good at all. You know when people come out with the real nasty selfish stuff on here.
How do you rate this forums growth/evolution since you joined?
- Thread starter Van Hellseek
- Start date
Sometimes I think it's right to be mean. However even then I'm starting to question if it does any good at all. You know when people come out with the real nasty selfish stuff on here.
Permabanned
And the abusive stuff. As an example, when I asked a simple question as to why youtube blocked a video, and what I could do about it, people accused me of attention seeking. Which doesn't help me, the forum, or anything. It is just a way of making themselves feel more important by putting others down.
Note that this isn't a whine, this is just an example from personal experience
It didn't bother me, more amused me 
Permabanned
Yeah! I've started posting properly again recently, as the forums have got a lot better over the last couple of days! Today has been funny as ****
Permabanned
- Joined
- 5 Apr 2006
- Posts
- 7,699
I don't know if it's just me being paranoid/suspicious but I feel that there are a lot of fake threads posted just to promote new hardware. I tend to avoid those lol.
Permabanned
In what way? I'm not sure how that would work?
Soldato
Indeed, it's rare - so worth spending the time listening. As to be honest, 90% of people I disagree with, I tend to disagree with on everything.
Very few people are interested in an actual debate anyway, it's more a rehearsal of prejudices & regurgitating points of view which have already been accepted as fact - the real people who you can get to are the ones who don't post (As they are sitting on the fence from the start).
I'd love to find some statistics on something like this - ie, do a poll at the start of the debate - everybody has the debate - then another poll at the end.
Then see how the opinion changes, how much it swings & which way.
Soldato
Apart from the randomly vocal racist elements, it's about the same as it ever was.
I change my opinions all the time, but as I get older I find that many of the positions people have in opposition I have already considered and either dismissed, incorporated into a wider opinion or accepted.......the problem is that many debates become polarised and only the extreme opinions are being considered. The problem I find in many discussions I participate in is that people have preconceived ideas and ideologies that they simply will not question, even when faced with a reasoned opinion they would rather blindly accept something they heard on youtube or down the pub, or they (and I'm trying not to sound conceited) simply do not have the intellectual ability or knowledge base to consider an alternative argument objectively...which makes the discussion a collection of statements rather than an actual debate.
There are notable exceptions and they are people I respect and take more time to consider their views and put more effort into debating with objectively.....you know who you are.
There are notable exceptions and they are people I respect and take more time to consider their views and put more effort into debating with objectively.....you know who you are.
Soldato
Famous last words
Oops....well that backfired!!!
I think you're not wrong, but you've missed the main reason people disagree on here. They won't ever admit to being wrong, and they want to win every argument.
There is that....no one wants to be wrong and everyone wants to win an argument, but that doesn't mean you are always right or the best way to debate is from a position of certainly.....I'm certainly not always right and I like to think that I concede when it is called for (not often..
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There is that....no one wants to be wrong, but that doesn't mean you are always right.....I'm certainly not.
I know you're not always right - because sometimes you disagree with me.
However there are posters on here who will never admit they are wrong, and will simply vanish from an discussion once everything is nailed down and they nowhere else to wriggle.
I know you're not always right - because sometimes you disagree with me.
However there are posters on here who will never admit they are wrong, and will simply vanish from an discussion once everything is nailed down and they nowhere else to wriggle.
Haha.
Agreed. I hate the post and run crowd.
It's worse when they don't run. They argue and argue and more and more people come in and point out they're completely and utterly wrong and not basing it on fact and eventually they leave. Death penalty threads are terrible for it.
Soldato
Indeed, part of the problem is that people put a part of their identity into a concept/belief or idea - that a challenge to the idea becomes a challenge to the individuals self-esteem.There is that....no one wants to be wrong, but that doesn't mean you are always right.....I'm certainly not.
Once you accept an idea at that level, it becomes very difficult to dislodge it & any challenge to it becomes intrinsically personal.
Personally I just side with the data - so if it turns out I'm wrong (it's not me that's wrong, it's the data
).That thread was like pulling teeth.
Every single argument in favour of it was factually proven wrong, yet in comes "captain late to the party" to spout his "opinion" as if it could move mountains.
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Indeed, part of the problem is that people put a part of their identity into a concept/belief or idea - that a challenge to the idea becomes a challenge to the individuals self-esteem.
Once you accept an idea at that level, it becomes very difficult to dislodge it & any challenge to it becomes intrinsically personal.
Personally I just side with the data - so if it turns out I'm wrong (it's not me that's wrong, it's the data
That thread was like pulling teeth.
Every single argument in favour of it was factually proven wrong, yet in comes "captain late to the party" to spout his "opinion" as if it could move mountains.
I find myself sometimes getting more and more frustrated trying to explain a concept or opinion to some people who simply do not have the faculty, either innately or prejudicially, to understand or counter objectively......which is why I am sometimes quilty of what Richdog accused me of no doubt.....
Man of Honour
You might be surprised about the number of RTMs that are received in a day, often the "troll" posters have been reported so while the ultimate decision to suspend/ban will lie with the moderation team it's often picked up in the first instance by people outside the moderation team.
Generally speaking I think the forums have grown quite well and organically to the size they are now, that's not to say there haven't been some patches along the way where there have been issues but overall I think there's a fair balance between regulation and freedom. Much of the credit for the direction for the forums has to also go to the users who provide the content, the discussion and the arguments. There's a few posters I miss to greater or lesser extents but it's much like the rest of life, people will come and go for various reasons but life goes on.
I've not been here anywhere near as long as some but I do think that in the nearing eight years since I joined the forums the moderation team has become more approachable - that's not to say they're perfect by any stretch but back when I first joined I'm pretty sure any criticism at all would have been given short shrift. If you can keep it polite and constructive then the team are generally pretty reasonable people and willing to consider other points of view but do remember that any specific moderating decisions that you disagree with should be discussed off the forums so please email a moderator for such issues.
Man of Honour
I preferred the forums, overall, as they were around 10 years ago. I still like it here though