A better forum?

[Ephemeral]

I believe that there are many things that can be done that can make these forums a better, more enjoyable place to visit. Towards that end, I thought it might be reasonable to start a thread where folks post ideas or suggestions for this purpose. Perhaps if the ideas and suggestions are good enough, they can be compiled into a more permanent list for everyone to read and refer to.
I’ll start with a simple 'posting suggestion'.

- Before posting, ask yourself three questions. Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?

[cundor]

Y do we need a new forum? It doesnt matter how it looks like...as long as it functions well, we're done

[Troll King]

Read what you write before pressing submit. Decide if it's even worth it first. I know I've got a ton of posts to my name, but I'd like to think that it's the quality of the posts that matters, not the quantity. I'd easily have many more posts if I had actually submitted everything I thought of posting, but I often thought better of it and decided against it.

Many other people here would be well off to do the same.

[Ephemeral]

Originally posted by cundor
Y do we need a new forum? It doesnt matter how it looks like...as long as it functions well, we're done

You misunderstood my post. I am not advocating a new forum, I am advocating improving this one by listing ideas that might be turned into 'posting guidelines'. Bascially trying to improve the forum quality by giving folks some ideas on how to post intelligently.

[Bosshawk]

problem is ephe is that half the people posting here are immature kiddies who could care less about anyone but themselves anyways lol

the gift of youth is the incredible ability to waste time and still justify its purpose!

[Troll King]

And the duty of elders is to guide the youth.

[Ephemeral]

Boss and TK,
I do understand that many folks here are younger. But I always thought that most people don’t like being perceived as immature, and would rather be treated as adults.

I also think that there is more at work here than just people being immature. I believe that the anonymous nature of the internet adds to the problem. In other words, because we are all anonymous, we tend to ‘not care’ about a lot of things that we normally do care about. An example would that in real life, I would be cautious about stating something that was simply my opinion as fact. This is important in real life because if I do this more than once or twice, I lose creditability and respect with those that I care about. On-line, this doesn’t matter much. I am willing to risk being wrong much more than in real life since there aren’t any real consequences. Even if I am dead wrong, I really don’t lose any creditability and respect with anyone who matters to me.

I think this is the reason these forums (and other on-line things) become a place where misinformation becomes ‘fact’. In my generation, people felt that if something was in ‘print’, it carried a fair amount of value. This was because most things in print had gone through some ‘checks and balances’ in the publishing process (like information being verified). Today and on the internet, there is no publishing process that takes place. Anyone with a few dollars can publish any information they want with no verification of that information.

Also, consider the small amount of effort that people put into their writing on these forums. Many don’t bother to write complete sentences, never mind decent writing. It takes me twice as long to read some people’s remark’s (Cig!!!!) because of their spelling, grammar, and paragraph structure is so poor. I understand that for many folks English is a second language, but if we all spent a few extra minutes composing decent posts, it would save a ton of everyone’s time. (A well-written post, even if it is quite long, can be read quickly.)

[Troll King]

I think it's more than just anonymity. That is a part of it, but it's just a piece of a larger issue and that's the perception of reality. The Internet has been mainstream for years now but people forget that it's still a new medium for communication and community. During the earlier years, everything was marketed as being "virtual", creating the view that none of this is truely real. In the initial stages, yes, things might not be "real", but as the Internet becomes more and more ingrained into us, the defining line between what's real and what isn't is disappearing. Public perception however hasn't moved as quickly as reality.

The result is that people don't feel that anything that happens online is real. Any examples to the contrary is summarily dismissed on the excuse that the people involved are "nerds" as if those people are also less real. Many people treat everybody else online as if they aren't real, like NPCs in an RPG.

When one perceives those around them as being less than real they don't give as much respect as they regularly would. This lack of respect doesn't just appear in the form of flames and insults; those are just the surface symptoms. The problem lies beneath and is the source of these signs. The use of grammar or spelling is a sign of this; people feel that others are not worth the effort of language.

As an example, you can guarentee that someone out there is looking at this thread and all the text being posted and will immediately ignore it because they don't feel that this is worth it. Soon after I post this, someone will write a post saying either that:

a) this is too long to read, so they didn't bother;
b) we are taking this too seriously; or
c) some off colour joke or comment in an attempt at changing the subject so that people won't have to face this new reality.

[Bigwig]

i think you're simplifying why people don't want to read your posts. not everyone should be eager to read something that doesn't interest them in any way. also, you troll king, tend to write the same thing over and over. correcting logic, correcting grammar, stating how mature you are compared to others etc etc.
Quite frankly this thread is pretty boring. i don't look down on anyone that doesn't wish to read it. Long windedness is not a virtue.

[Mayo Inc.]

add more pretty things

[Spiderman]

A lot of message boards follow etiquettes.

This one can be implemented.

It's the best forum etiquette i've found on the internet.
It's also something ammusing to read, even if you've been a part of the community for ages.

[Jason]

I'd like to see a new sub-forum added, one in which people can post creative writing. Whether it be a short story, poetry, lyrics, even a joke, I think it would be interesting to see the work of fellow players.

[Ephemeral]

Bigwig,
For the last 5 threads that I have started, the average amount of views per thread is 429. This doesn’t seem to indicate that people don’t read my posts. I also have only posted an average of .69 posts per day, so frequecy shouldn't be an issue.
You used 147 words to discuss "long windedness" when I have averaged 89 words per post over my last 20 posts.

[abrasion]

Yea! ...er whatever. I agree.

[Verthanthi]

Originally posted by Jason
I'd like to see a new sub-forum added, one in which people can post creative writing. Whether it be a short story, poetry, lyrics, even a joke, I think it would be interesting to see the work of fellow players.

Jas, you know that you and I are the only one with talent here.