Are We Still A Friendly Community ?


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i don't flame people for asking stupid questions, i pointed out once that someone created a topic in the wrong area and thats because not too long ago evildragon made a topic asking for people to put topics in the right areas because it was creating too much work for them moving topics around all the time. apart from that one time i like to think i've been nothing but helpful
 
NiN^_^NiN posted on May 22 2004 at 01:51 PM said:
I think the best thing to do is when people sign-up to gp32x.de a email is sent out with them giving them a basic info on rules and the most basic questions

kinda like a F.A.Q before they get to the forum it should keep most of the questions newbies ask to rest :)

just an idea

:ph34r:
sounds like a good idea to me
 
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I've been lurking here for about two years, and started posting for a few months.

I can honestly say that the forum as a whole hasn't changed.

Let me explain, when i first started reading the posts here, there weren't many newbies and it seemed any that were had some internet experience so understood the way things work on mature forums. The truth is, when anyone asked a bleeding obvious or simple question, they got flamed.

Now time has passed and sites like gbax.com have seen the gp32 move more into the mainstream so a fair number of new members are people who don't "know" how to use forums such as this. So, just as it was two years ago, people get flamed when they do stupid things. This effect is compounded by the new members who have learnt how to properly use the forum and are now just as clued as everyone else.

Also, the nature of the gp32 has changed, back when i first read here, no one though GBA,Snes or Genesis would ever happen, so those topics didnt come up. Now of course you've got people posting about whether these things are possible. Again a few minutes of reading would explain the situation, but people get flamed because of stupidity.

Recently theres been two members who get right under my skin, even though i've only just started to post here myself, the fact that i took the time to learn makes my annoyance even greater and thus the likely hood to argue (i tend not to flame, more berate and shame lame posters :p )

It's not like this boards never had its trolls before ( i remember way back some guy claiming he had a genesis emu, money was even offered for its release, but nothing ever came, a nice flame war ensued for a while around him)

Frankly, the cold truth is these problems are only going to get worse. In a matter of weeks a whole slew of newbies is going to explode into the forums as virginplay release the gp32, if we can't sort it now, what hope we got?

rant over...
 
bringoutthegimp posted on May 22 2004 at 01:17 PM said:
NiN^_^NiN posted on May 22 2004 at 01:51 PM said:
I think the best thing to do is when people sign-up to gp32x.de a email is sent out with them giving them a basic info on rules and the most basic questions

kinda like a F.A.Q before they get to the forum it should keep most of the questions newbies ask to rest :)

just an idea

:ph34r:
sounds like a good idea to me
Darn tootin'.


My personal take on the tangible change in community atmosphere is that its found in two things I've noticed.

The first is that when I joined, there weren't as many people on the forum - I'm 86th only, and I'd be surprised if every one of those 85 before me were regular posters. The result of that being that most of my Newbie questions were answered very helpfully and similar simply because they hadn't been asked before. These days they have, so there are more unhelpful "use the search function" responses; and with the GP gathering popularity, there are more newbies asking the very questions I probably was a year and a half ago more frequently, and so the "SEARCH" responses get more and more hostile as people get more and more annoyed.

The second is that requests for help seem to go to flame-war or help dependant, more than anything else, on the first response to the post. If the first response is helpful, then usually all the rest are too, and the person feels like the community is a nice place to be. If the first response is a flame, then everyone instantly jumps on the bandwagon and flames from dusk til dawn, and the person feels the community is more hostile than anywhere else. To which my response is, what are we - helpful people, or sheep?

I'd hope the former, but I know we do seem to be a little bit like the latter in some cases.
 
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I've been here for more than a year, since the board was a lot smaller. I was one of the first moderators. Insert generic brags here.

1. My cunning play-down of The Problem

To be honest, I don't feel that the community has really changed. I remember thecounter and more recently blipped4 causing problems. I remember Kandor as well. With a larger community, you will get more trolls and lamers, more regulars getting annoyed, and more grumbling. This could be the old Simpsons problem - everyone says each series is crap compared to the older ones, but they've been saying that since series 3. We only remember the good episodes of the older series, not the average ones. Perhaps our memories of past times are viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

This degradation: it has happened to countless scenes before ours. And, like Zion's destruction, how are we supposed to stop it happening this one time?

2. My controversial explanation for The Problem

I feel that the primary catalyst is that, and I'm prepared for flamebacks here: the GP32 community has ran out of stuff to talk about. Less releases, less buzz about new emulators, seemingly doomed Europe launch with less momentum now than before, less reviews, less activity. People post more and more in off-topic, or branch out to other topics like the Zodiac. This creates more spam, less focus on the GP32, and less incentive for the regulars to stay around the GP32 and remember all those question answers they were so used to repeating before.

3. My actual explanation for The Problem

Also, over time, anything can get old (except, perhaps, sex). I remember regulars in competition to be the first to answer long lists of newbie questions, half of which were in our FAQ (check my sig). Now people are growing tired of it. There are tons of new newbies but less new regulars. People leave the scene for the Zodiac or out of boredom, and this departure rate is steady. But more and more people are coming in. Therefore newbies outnumber regulars by a much larger rate.

There is hope, though. If these newbies stick around and the rate of new guys joining up levels out, we will have an equilibrium much like the older days, but larger. And joy and love and unhibited sexual passion will reign free throughout the land.

Wishing somebody would quote this to validate my ridiculous views,

Rico
 
rico i think you have got it right, people are just bored with the exact same posts everday, and because alot of regulars have left the board there are less intresting topics for the ones left, off topic has of course gained from this as there are alot more posts there, because we can get away from noobs.

Anyway, since this topic was created i have deffinatly seen the regulars getting friendlier, theres more helpful replys going up with messages attached to the end suggesting the person read the FAQ, but in a nice way.


Long live the scene!
 
Rico posted on May 22 2004 at 08:41 PM said:
I've been here for more than a year, since the board was a lot smaller. I was one of the first moderators. Insert generic brags here.

1. My cunning play-down of The Problem

To be honest, I don't feel that the community has really changed. I remember thecounter and more recently blipped4 causing problems. I remember Kandor as well. With a larger community, you will get more trolls and lamers, more regulars getting annoyed, and more grumbling. This could be the old Simpsons problem - everyone says each series is crap compared to the older ones, but they've been saying that since series 3. We only remember the good episodes of the older series, not the average ones. Perhaps our memories of past times are viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

This degradation: it has happened to countless scenes before ours. And, like Zion's destruction, how are we supposed to stop it happening this one time?

2. My controversial explanation for The Problem

I feel that the primary catalyst is that, and I'm prepared for flamebacks here: the GP32 community has ran out of stuff to talk about. Less releases, less buzz about new emulators, seemingly doomed Europe launch with less momentum now than before, less reviews, less activity. People post more and more in off-topic, or branch out to other topics like the Zodiac. This creates more spam, less focus on the GP32, and less incentive for the regulars to stay around the GP32 and remember all those question answers they were so used to repeating before.

3. My actual explanation for The Problem

Also, over time, anything can get old (except, perhaps, sex). I remember regulars in competition to be the first to answer long lists of newbie questions, half of which were in our FAQ (check my sig). Now people are growing tired of it. There are tons of new newbies but less new regulars. People leave the scene for the Zodiac or out of boredom, and this departure rate is steady. But more and more people are coming in. Therefore newbies outnumber regulars by a much larger rate.

There is hope, though. If these newbies stick around and the rate of new guys joining up levels out, we will have an equilibrium much like the older days, but larger. And joy and love and unhibited sexual passion will reign free throughout the land.

Wishing somebody would quote this to validate my ridiculous views,

Rico
I hope the people just coming on here to have a laugh or are just board read this and think first before posting. it may sound sad but all the things you said needed to be said. :)
 
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I think we're all friendly to each other, just sometimes new people can get under ure skin a little.

When i joined i never read the FAQs coz i didnt know they existed, until I got flamed, but i didnt mind coz it was my fault, its wen the newbs try to argue more, thats wen they piss me off.

Just making people alert of the FAQs and stickies would do, or make em read the FAQ b4 they can post
 
Rico posted on May 22 2004 at 08:41 PM said:
This could be the old Simpsons problem - everyone says each series is crap compared to the older ones, but they've been saying that since series 3.
I like the new episodes as well as the older ones....

The problem, well, when I was a newbie, I did not get flamed. In fact, I never got flamed at all. I did however always read any FAQs and stickies. If people ask something that has been explained in the stickies or the FAQ, I also tend to say "It's in the FAQ, look it up, go away". That is because we all know it - it's abvious to us. It's not obvious to the new member asking about it or else he wouldn't have asked. It's OK if someone does not read the whole long GBA-Thread and just asks about a detail - people that have read the thread from the start can answer without any problem. But if someone asks a question that has already been answered a post above him, may he find it himself. I am not going to help him. I'm with Maddox here, if users are too stupid, why should the program be made foolproof? It's their problem, not the one of the program ;)

And well, that's really what I'm up to: I think we ARE quite friendly, but the... let's call it "newbie quality" is declinig :D The GP32 was an elite thing, something special, and soon all those GBA kiddies will have access to it (mind you, I have a GBA too). Maybe there will even be (gasp) AOL users. The thing is: We know, they don't. No side can really feel what the other one is so upset about. So I say: put the link or short rundown of the rules in the activaion E-Mail if possible. If someone reads it, he can virtually not be flamed because all stupid questions have already been answered or he has been told where to find answers.
If he asks anyway and skips reading the rules (I know I would :p) shall the living be flamed out of him, for we are here to purify (and yes, I would deserve it :p).

Looking back through the older posts, if the question was not stupid altogether, there usually was no flame - but no heartfelt welcome either, and I think we can live with that ;)
 
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I never lurked for very long at all, meaning that like a lot of newbies I asked a few dumb questions (actually, I retract that statement, I asked one question that was not answered in the FAQ. but I didn't search :ph34r: )

However, I feel that as a whole the coimmunity hasn't got much less friendlier but it has got a lot larger, even in the time that I have been postin I have seen the community grow significantly. With more people come more flamers, lamers and general clueless newbies. Fact of life, a scene like this gets bigger and it loses coherence. Add into that that on of the only genuinely exciting (please, no insult meant to any of the dev'vers) things to come along in ages is Gigadrive (though gigas engine, when finished will furnish us with a lot of games), it's true we also have less to talk about.

hmm...just my 0.02
 
like gpjosh and the other guy who said he lurked then joined, thats me
although, I dont like the Lurk word, makes me sounds like a horny 38 old man who hangs on pokemon chatrooms :ph34r:
I was here for a bit, never fuly convinved to get a 32
then I joined and its pretty cool
the comm-ty hasnt changed, much

~Octavious
 
i can't beleive this even got posted :eek:
i think this is the best community on the internet
i like everyone on this board
 
I am rather surprised at the polite comment from Octavious above.

It wasn't that long ago that you caused quite a fuss here. Still its good to see that you're still here.

Back to the question, I would say that on the whole the community is friendly, one or two people do like to post rude responses that are just not called for.

If you think a n00b's question is stupid, don't answer it, simple. :D
 
wow. thought every one forgot that
I have changed now ( sounds gay ) and when I get pissed, I lift weights instead of yell at kids on the net
I think I might even help stick up for nooobs and teach them how to use board correctly

and hey, I apologized atleast :D

~Octavious
 
carlgeorge posted on May 24 2004 at 11:22 AM said:
If you think a n00b's question is stupid, don't answer it, simple. :D
What happens if the topic gets no replies so the 'n00b' reposts the topic again, possibly over a lot more forums this time to get more attention?
 
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mattmagoo posted on May 24 2004 at 08:19 PM said:
I forgot too, mostly due to a certain troll

btw, Octavios, do u realise ure avatar isn't working?
Yup it has been like that for a bit now......
 
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