quote:Originally posted by kovacs: Bamba (1 post).
You're not looking very hard then (although my actual post count isn't much higher than that). The thing is, some of us don't like to interpret a communites welcoming arms as a sign to talk so much they have to actually forcibly shut us the fuck up within mere hours of our arrival.Posts: 3502
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Oh yeah, that's right... All bugger off and leave me now I'm two thirds of the way through the site overhaul and redesign and adding a new CMS interface...
Pah
-------------------- my own brother a god dam shit sucking vampire!!! you wait till mum finds out buddy!
quote:Originally posted by Darryn.R: Oh yeah, that's right... All bugger off and leave me now I'm two thirds of the way through the site overhaul and redesign and adding a new CMS interface...
Pah
Meh. Their interface, obsession with Grant Morisson and incredibly anal ideas about what's appropriate to each forum and how 'on topic' everything has to be means my affair with them is unlikely to result in a divorce and messy custody battle with TMO.
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and ive got total performance anxiety. i havent been a newbie anywhere for a very long time and its a bit like the first time i put my hand in a girl's knickers- am i doing this right? this feels just about right, but what if im doing it wrong?
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I admit Barbelith has an awkward interface and even to me seems a little joyless, ie. can't take a joke. The number of members -- some 70 newbies per day? -- is absurd. But their comic book interests coincide really closely with mine and TMO has been very slow recently; it's also tended to disintegrate every thread into throwaway remarks. Anyway I don't have to apologise for posting elsewhere!! G@D!
posted
Yeah, I was just about to point out that it was broken as well. Perhaps it folded under the pressure of holding all your contributions Kovacs?
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Tom Coates seems like a generous, dedicated, enthusiastic board-king. There are some smart and funny posters over there. Barbelith is an interesting board with a broad variety of posters. It's good. I like it. But...
BUT, IT'S NOT HOME!
Coates, for all his generosity and dedication, looms, somewhat. He's got a touch of the neurotic Mum about him. Or, perhaps, a US Camp counsellor. "Come on team! Let's get those posts on-topic and in the right threads! Let's get those threads in the right forum! Remember the mayhem, when we let the boards slip? People were putting sexual politics posts in the cultural theory fora and the tentacle rape was in the Switchboard. We don't want a re-run of that, now. Do we?"
The bulk of threads have some sort of 'geek' bias, too. They even have a Geek definition thread on the go. Every topic seems to be (to some degree) about the systemising, categorisation, or maintenance of order. It's punted as a counter-culture website, but everywhere you look... there's The Man. (Hi, Tom.)
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kovacs? I've been busy as fuck most of the day. I have neglected both Barbelith and TMO. Does anyone over there have any inkling yet that you have produced well received tomes on both Batman and Star Wars?
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I don't think so Black Mask, but I did a search for my true name after London boasted she had tons of menshes on there, and nobody had ever once referred to me so I'm afraid the revelation you speak of would result in a resounding SO WAT.
quote:Originally posted by kovacs: [QUOTE]Originally posted by Travelling Canadian: Please do set me straight as to what exactly you mean by this. ....reminded me of your standard of posting in terms of its sense of uncynical eagerness and of public confessional.
You seem to wear your heart on your sleeve and want to talk about people's feelings and personal lives, including your own.
I wouldn't say it was very much like any specific post you've made, as far as I can remember, but I thought in tone, saying "Travelling Canadian style" gave a fair idea of it.
Oh, fine. So nobody else ever posts any personal information, or pictures? You, yourself never mention anything about your life, personal relationships, or your writing? All anyone knows about me is my first name, age, nationality, and where I live. The same as most people here have posted at various times. Oh, and the fact that I have met Philomel, and posted on other boards. Next week I will have been here for a year. But god forbid I actually try to be part of anything or share any part of my life. Pardon me for wanting to be part of your little community. It took all that time, and just a few weeks ago I finally felt like I was fitting in here. Thank you very much for making me paranoid about posting here any more. Thanks a lot. And yes, that would be the "wearing my heart on my sleeve" part of my personality.
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quote:Originally posted by discodamage: and ive got total performance anxiety. i havent been a newbie anywhere for a very long time and its a bit like the first time i put my hand in a girl's knickers- am i doing this right? this feels just about right, but what if im doing it wrong?
Heh, DD 'outs' her new ID by eschewing capitals and talking about her baps.
I've got a horrible feeling that's going to come across as some kind of abuse when nothing could be further from the truth.Posts: 3502
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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
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Hey TopCat, ignore kovacs, he must have been feeling a bit premenstrual.
repeat after me...
You are not the boss of me You are not the boss of me You are not the boss of me
Why? Because I'm telling you to.
-------------------- i'm expressing my inner anguish through the majesty of song Posts: 4243
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Canadian, I think you're getting way too wound up about this. I'm just some nobody on an internet board. You know who you are. Why bother what I say about you on here?
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if the board was just laid out like a normal forum, id like it a lot more.
its a bit weird that it goes from good cleva debates on fancy women issues and "politics" but then into the heady world of magic. Its even more weirder commmenting on a community.
i dont even post enough here anyway. and at the momeny helen back is the saviour of tmo, make of that what you will!
quote:Originally posted by Bamba: Meh. Their interface, obsession with Grant Morisson and incredibly anal ideas about what's appropriate to each forum and how 'on topic' everything has to be
boy racer mentioned this. he got sniffy about barbielips when black mask was told off for posting a thread that was questionable with regards to, like, the fucking-point-of-it. (i know, youre thinking, black mask, of all people? how could he shame us like that?) but what do we do instead of having a wiki? we let newbies bumble in, expecting them to psychically know what you do and dont do, and then when they trangress we fucking savage them. im struggling to think of a board ive frequerted over the last four years that is as mean to newbies as we are without ever having given them any idea as to how we prefer newbies behave, and i cant. and not like we should change, or write a heres how to behave, newbies constitution that takes half an hour to read, but y'know, fucks sake. having a go because another board isnt as vile and savage and unwelcoming to banal/unthinking/unsuited newbies as we are* is a bit...um...how can i put this...shit.
* dont ever get the impression i am disavowing this behaviour or getting high on moral toebones, because otherwise i wont be able to spleen at helen back like i am going to in, um, about 36 hours, for a completely indefensible reason this big. why? just because. its tmo, so i can.
posted
Hmm, I don't think the above is fair though.
I think TMO interface is a lot more user friendly than barbielips', and although some TMOers may jump on "Hello I'm a Newbie" posts, I think if someone asked for advice about how to do something on the site a regular (possibly Ringo) would explain our ways to said newbie in a slightly patronising tone, rather than refer them to a monumentally pretentious Wiki and lock the thread.
-------------------- Some people stand in the darkness, afraid to step into the light... Posts: 3770
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quote:Originally posted by Boy Racer: pretentious Wiki
Steady on Boy Racer. That's exactly the kind of criticism handbag levels at TMO. I don't think there's anything in the 'Wiki' that could be described as pretentious.
quote: From relatively humble origins, the board has evolved from a fan space for an author (GrantMorrison) through to a sub/counter-cultural board through to its current incarnation as a creative space to experiment with the concept of what it means to be a self-ruling online space. It has a strong sense of citizenship or at least a strong sense of affinity to varying sets of overlapping values, which include a strong resistance to authority, a distrust of dogma and an interest in the limits of knowledge.
quote:Originally posted by discodamage: having a go because another board isnt as vile and savage and unwelcoming to banal/unthinking/unsuited newbies as we are* is a bit...um...how can i put this...shit.
Where exactly did I 'have a go'? I just posted my thoughts on the things I don't like about the place. Having a go would be to go over there and tell them they're all ***** or some such which is nothing like what I did above. Anyway, your comments about newbies is missing the point, in fact you seem to be using my post as a reason to go on about something else entirely. I don't not like those aspects of the place because of my newbie status, I don't like them because I think they're unneccesary, annoying and stifle discussion. These things would piss me off no matter how long I spent on a particular board so the stuff about our differing attitude to newbies is unrelated to my comments. However, while we're on the subject, I didn't read their wiki to find out their policies, I simply browsed a few threads and noticed the comments made by others. Y'know, the exact same thing we expect from newbies here which it turns out, is a natural reaction and not that much to expect. You're a newbie over there too, did you just charge in scatter posting nonsense without getting a feel for the place first? I very much doubt it so I'm not sure why expecting the same behaviour from people new to TMO makes us vile and savage. Well, okay, sometimes we're vile and savage but I think it's unfair to accuse TMO as a while of doing this to every bit of fresh blood to cross the doorstep.
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I think the lack of this kind of 'idiot's guide' is part of TMO's charm, though that's not to say other boards are wrong for having one. There's something to be said for the intuitive gauging of the tone and character of a place.
Sometimes this means that people's integration onto the board is not smooth, but in fairness, I think far fewer newbies 'get a savaging' than those that don't. Just look at the number of newbies who have announced their arrival and had members of the board greet them in a friendly and welcoming way. As often as not, the savaging occurs afterwards when said newbies seem Hel-bent on disregarding the quirks and nuances of the board (a long time ago, maybe on SeeThru, someone wrote something which compared someone's behaviour to charging shoutily into a quiet pub - nothing entirely wrong with either being shouty or quiet, but if you're shouty and everyone else is quiet, then the onus is on you to modify your behaviour).
-------------------- i wrote for luck - they sent me you Posts: 3505
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quote:Originally posted by Bamba: I don't not like those aspects of the place because of my newbie status, I don't like them because I think they're unneccesary, annoying and stifle discussion.
well, im coming from a different angle: im beginning to get this feeling (which is possibly not borne out by the general evidence at all) that tmo is currently finding it very difficult to start, or have, a proper conversation about anything at all, without it either dying or going off on a (sometimes enjoyable, sometimes random and annoying) comedy flight of fancy. there are times when i think it would be nice if we stuck to the fucking topic a little bit more. but thats a personal niggle of mine, about tmo, at the moment. im not suggesting codifying it, but its getting on my tits. so to go somewhere where- gasp!- they decide that if youre going to have a conversation about a topic, you actually talk about the topic, and not something really quite unrelated...quite refreshing for me. and thats just as personal as you thinking it 'stifles' conversation, and not really anything to do with barbelith at all except for the fact that they represent the opposite of something thats getting my goat.
quote: However, while we're on the subject, I didn't read their wiki to find out their policies, I simply browsed a few threads and noticed the comments made by others. Y'know, the exact same thing we expect from newbies here which it turns out, is a natural reaction and not that much to expect. You're a newbie over there too, did you just charge in scatter posting nonsense without getting a feel for the place first?
well, considering ive posted three times and one of those was about my new bra, the answer to that would have to be a partial yes to the nonsense and a no to the scatterposting. and whilst we might not be unremittingly vile to newbies you have to be fucking kidding me if you think this place is welcoming. jesu, larry's existence started as an ironicacal joke because like, only the most affable person on the boards (points upwards) would ever post anything that was nice to a newbie. thats what people do on other boards, isnt it? say hello and welcome to newbies. well, i think i did it for perhaps the second time in three years last month. im beginning to think that sucks a bit. maybe im just a bit tired and pissed off with tmo, and need to do a little flounce. or get a fulltime job, do some dressmaking, to quote le tigre- get off the fucking internet generally.
quote:Originally posted by discodamage: im beginning to get this feeling (which is possibly not borne out by the general evidence at all) that tmo is currently finding it very difficult to start, or have, a proper conversation about anything at all, without it either dying or going off on a (sometimes enjoyable, sometimes random and annoying) comedy flight of fancy.
To an extent I think you're right but I think that when a thread goes off-course here it's more of an indication that the original topic's been exhausted and no one's really got much else to say. If that is true (and I'm by no means sure of this) then ensuring that no off-topic posts appear on a thread simply means that a thread would completely die very quickly.
quote:Originally posted by discodamage: there are times when i think it would be nice if we stuck to the fucking topic a little bit more. but thats a personal niggle of mine, about tmo, at the moment...and thats just as personal as you thinking it 'stifles' conversation, and not really anything to do with barbelith at all except for the fact that they represent the opposite of something thats getting my goat.
Oh yeah, I mean it's defintiely all about what you personally want from a board at any given time, I'm not trying to say that they're 'wrong' or anything like that. I realise now that when I say it stifles 'conversation' I am actually to an extent talking about the kind of comedy antics you mention, as well as other spin-off but still serious discussions that a thread can some times mutate into. But, it's the comedy and the humour that keeps me coming back to TMO I think. I spent a bit of time on the News forum in Handbag for instance which is a lot more serious that the rest of the place and their threads tend to stay very on-topic. But I could only take a couple of days of it before I was bored out of my mind and itching to disrupt the flow with some nonsense. Barbelith comes across as what a forum would be if that ethic was rolled out to the entire place and while it makes a bit of a change I couldn't spend all-day-every-day there without going stir crazy.
Anyway, as we've both said, this is all a matter of personal taste, maybe I'll settle in there a bit after a while, maybe you'll get sick of it, who knows? The one thing I do hope is that no one over there is monitoring this discussion as it'll look like I'm really down on the place and I'm not. It just so happens that it's only the stuff I don't like that I've mentioned so far.
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