Have the forums changed?

[InnerCity Elf]

18 hours ago, Belephannt said:

This ebil elephant is all of these things and more.

Now, I have zero idea who else this ebil 🐘 may be, nor will I be on the lookout for clues, but even without that "background knowledge", was amused. Maybe I'm easily amused, but I see that, as well as a sense of humour, as an advantage, on forums, ss well as in general life.

And this "humorous interjection", apart from making me lol, thank you, also made me think that "forum attendance" and the general "feel" of a forum has, including the feeling of "welcomeness", among many other things, also a lot to do with a sense of humour, or the lack thereof, on all sides, the forum at large, the moderation, the regular populace, and the newbies peeking in and staying, or not.

When humorous posts, no matter how lighthearted and personally inoffensive they are (of course, there are people who didn't get dealt a generous dose of humour, and would take offense, either because they have/are one or more or all of those things or more, or because they are saints and would never ever even dream of it, and are also infallible in every other department, in any of their lives), are regularly getting reported for OT, if the reporting-happy people can't find another reason at all, are actually taken off and being discouraged by the moderation, and regulars either don't dare posting such things anymore and/or leave, forums become a somber and drab place to only go to if you need some factual info, and only return to, when you need some factual info. 

Such posts existing, or even sometimes spotting a humorous post by moderation itself, usually make me think that a forum is generally "healthy" and welcoming, and that there are regular or at least returning people, giving it a bit of a community or homely vibe. Forums where that doesn't exist at all, make me think they aren't worthwhile, other than following a link for info that you were googling for.

It never ceases to amaze me how little humour many people display, and how worked up some can get while forum fighting over usually, in the bigger picture, irrelevant things with "irrrelevant" people (not really, if course , all people are relevant, but you know what I mean), including getting personally insulting, name-calling, and probably grinding their real or unreal teeth behind their computer. And can't even see it and laugh about themselves, and forget and forgive, others involved and themselves, later in hindsight when revisiting a thread or seeing an "adversary" again in another thread, and carry their grudges on forever. A forum can suffer a certain amount of such people well enough, but too many of them can make it too tiring for oldbies, and too unwelcoming for newbies.

Edited July 29, 2023 by InnerCity Elf
sorry for unspotted typos, I need a bigger phone...

[Ceka Cianci]

3 hours ago, cirleen said:

It surprised me when I first found out the lab allows topics not directly connected to SL, especially movies and music. They know the value of creativity.

 

 

When they put the rules in, they let us keep some of the existing threads that have been active for a good while, as long as we stayed on topic in them..  They stray sometimes but usually get back on topic.. If they don't the Mods will give a nudge  to get them back on track, because they are good threads and I think they feel they are good for this section as well..

[Love Zhaoying]

3 hours ago, InnerCity Elf said:

21 hours ago, Belephannt said:

This ebil elephant is all of these things and more.

Now, I have zero idea who else this ebil 🐘 may be, nor will I be on the lookout for clues, but even without that "background knowledge", was amused. Maybe I'm easily amused, but I see that, as well as a sense of humour, as an advantage, on forums, ss well as in general life.

I think @Belephannt is Babar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant

[Silent Mistwalker]

2 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

When they put the rules in, they let us keep some of the existing threads that have been active for a good while, as long as we stayed on topic in them..  They stray sometimes but usually get back on topic.. If they don't the Mods will give a nudge  to get them back on track, because they are good threads and I think they feel they are good for this section as well..

I've been wondering what's going to happen when those threads get so long and ponderous that they no longer load quickly or fully (images). Will we be allowed to create a new thread to continue the old? Probably not. And that is not a good thing.

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

I've been wondering what's going to happen when those threads get so long and ponderous that they no longer load quickly or fully (images).

I've only noticed images affecting load time individual "pages" of a thread.  

[Luna Bliss]

7 hours ago, BelindaN said:

I haven't read six pages of opinion. TLDR is one fundamental of the forums. Too much padding doesn't get read.

However,..........in 2018 when I came in new  I was made welcome and received a huge amount of help. I basically lived here when not in world. 

Over time, the often sour contributions pushed me away. The biggest push away though was from relentless chat in the avi photo threads, and long running dramas playing out here. At one time I had 15 on block.

Maybe it hasn't changed that much but my newbie eyes saw something very different to what they see now. 

Surprises me how contentious that section of the forum can be, although I seem to remember a few bleed-overs from there to other parts of the forum.

Perhaps it would be a good idea for anyone logging in to the forum to ask themselves "what mood am I in at this time, and what is my purpose for posting today"? 

It always surprises me too, when someone says you can't know someone from forum posts, or from inworld interactions -- their very purpose for being is evident in every post.

[Silent Mistwalker]

22 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I've only noticed images affecting load time individual "pages" of a thread.  

What I am talking about is the reason SLU became VVO. It's the reason SLU went down several times and then Cris couldn't get it back up anymore. It's the reason there isn't an archive. It's also probably one of the reasons LL kept changing software.

[Marigold Devin]

7 hours ago, cirleen said:

It surprised me when I first found out the lab allows topics not directly connected to SL, especially movies and music. They know the value of creativity.

 

 

They should know about the value of creativity, seeing as how Second Life is built on the creativity of its residents.

But those forum topics that are currently running that are not directly connected to Second Life only do so because they were started before the new forum rules came in that said all threads have to be SL related. 

[Love Zhaoying]

2 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

What I am talking about is the reason SLU became VVO. It's the reason SLU went down several times and then Cris couldn't get it back up anymore. It's the reason there isn't an archive. It's also probably one of the reasons LL kept changing software.

As storage becomes cheaper and more reliable, and software (including database backups, etc.) improves, those kinds of problems will be more and more rare.

Edited July 29, 2023 by Love Zhaoying

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

As storage becomes cheaper and more reliable, and software (including database backups, etc.) improves, those kinds of problems will be more and more rare.

Nothing is going to become cheaper. If the price is reduced on one thing, they will jack the prices on other things to make up for it. Capitalism is nothing but a vicious destructive circle.

[Love Zhaoying]

43 minutes ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Nothing is going to become cheaper. If the price is reduced on one thing, they will jack the prices on other things to make up for it. Capitalism is nothing but a vicious destructive circle.

Not what I meant.

[Silent Mistwalker]

16 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Not what I meant.

Here's a good suggestion. Ask Cris why SLU is gone and VVO is in its place.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

The threads. They just get locked.

[Love Zhaoying]

48 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

The threads. They just get locked.

Do you mean, instead of getting deleted? 

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

25 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Do you mean, instead of getting deleted? 

First my posts get deleted. Then threads get locked. You can't blame the mods too much, when the convo gets into territory that casts sl and its communities in a less than positive light, maybe its their job to make them go away. 

[Arielle Popstar]

4 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

First my posts get deleted. Then threads get locked. You can't blame the mods too much, when the convo gets into territory that casts sl and its communities in a less than positive light, maybe its their job to make them go away. 

Been quite a few threads that have cast them in a bad light but was allowed to carry on without issue.

[Love Zhaoying]

24 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

First my posts get deleted. Then threads get locked. You can't blame the mods too much, when the convo gets into territory that casts sl and its communities in a less than positive light, maybe its their job to make them go away. 

No message = not the baddy. Imagine how much worse it could be either way. (Posts go on for many pages before..you know.) Still stinks if you don't hold your nose, I just try to keep my nose away from the stinky end of the toddlers!

[cirleen]

On 7/28/2023 at 10:17 AM, Casidy Silvercloud said:

I don't really care if people like me or not, but not everyone feels the same.

Well you can't please everybody and who would ever want to do that? When I started writing in the forums I wrote some blundering tangential posts. I wrote whatever I wanted to, not even knowing who I was writing to. I suppose a forum newbie could read posts first before writing anything, and get a feel for the personalities as Luna said...

11 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

their very purpose for being is evident in every post.

but why not do it the other way around, just show your personality and jump in and not care at all about making a fool of oneself as I did. And continue to do. I like it, it's fun.

[Persephone Emerald]

1 hour ago, cirleen said:

Well you can't please everybody and who would ever want to do that? When I started writing in the forums I wrote some blundering tangential posts. I wrote whatever I wanted to, not even knowing who I was writing to. I suppose a forum newbie could read posts first before writing anything, and get a feel for the personalities as Luna said...

but why not do it the other way around, just show your personality and jump in and not care at all about making a fool of oneself as I did. And continue to do. I like it, it's fun.

This is why you're Aubrey, and you're 😊 delightful.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

Discord 

[cirleen]

26 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

This is why you're Aubrey, and you're 😊 delightful.

Oh thank you, that was the sweetest thing to say. Hey, if we can't have fun, what good is anything?

mental note, this might be Scylla's alt, no you're not, I know you're not. But if more than one person says I'm Aubrey I can deny it no longer. Thank you Persephone, your posts are always fun. 😉

[cirleen]

2 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Discord 

Do you mean the voice server or the randomness in life? Both organization and random chance can be good things. Truly, I don't think there's another forum on the net with such a good mix of both. The theme of these forums is restricted to SL but SL is open ended with even more possibilities, though virtual, than RL. I don't think another forum could compare.

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

3 minutes ago, cirleen said:

 I don't think another forum could compare.

Literally every thread gets locked and there are 7 active posters.

[Persephone Emerald]

1 minute ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Literally every thread gets locked and there are 7 active posters.

I think maybe some posters take a thread off-topic, then report it for being off-topic.

😡

[Randall Ahren]

21 minutes ago, Ingrid Ingersoll said:

Literally every thread gets locked and there are 7 active posters.

Who are the 7 active posters? Let's make a list. I think Persephone should be at the top of the list because I usually see her posts.