Forum needs a garbage section.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

2 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

It might not matter to others when things are said about them that are not true but I'm pretty sure it's upsetting to have those lies believed and that does matter.

If you have never been hounded on a forum (not SL) by someone constantly replying to every post of yours they can find for no other reason than to bad mouth you because you disagreed with them and it goes on for months, years even...

I shouldn't need to point out that some people take every advantage and opportunity to be malicious or just plain nasty towards those who have disagreed with them.

I know exactly how that feels, I've had one regular self-admittedly (directly to me) spread lies about me in public threads while using some personal slight as their justification. I don't see how telling them "I'm ignoring you" is going to encourage them to stop replying? That doesn't prevent them from continuing their own malicious behavior now knowing it's even out of my sight.

Edited March 13 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Love Zhaoying]

5 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

I know exactly how that feels, I've had one regular self-admittedly (directly to me) spread lies about me in public threads

Oh, you mean "bad" lies!!!

I can't imagine anyone saying something bad about you.

 

[Solar Legion]

For any forum wherein you have the option to do so, putting someone on Ignore should also be the end of you giving any care as to what they say or think regarding you.

They want to spread lies? On them. Someone wants to believe those lies? On them.

That person changes their ways? Good for them. The person that initially believed those lies, changes their mind? Again, good for them.

Person never changes? So what. That third person never ends up finding out the truth or changing their mind? Yep - so what.

If it is not directly affecting your personal life (harassing calls, interfering with your work and such) ... It is inconsequential in the long run/grand scheme.

[Love Zhaoying]

18 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

putting someone on Ignore should also be the end of you giving any care as to what they say or think regarding you.

Yep! Darn my cat-like curiosity sometimes!

ETA: What someone else thinks of me is none of my business! Someone trying to make it my business is usually top reason for blocking/ignoring!

Edited March 13 by Love Zhaoying

[Arielle Popstar]

54 minutes ago, Solar Legion said:

For any forum wherein you have the option to do so, putting someone on Ignore should also be the end of you giving any care as to what they say or think regarding you.

They want to spread lies? On them. Someone wants to believe those lies? On them.

That person changes their ways? Good for them. The person that initially believed those lies, changes their mind? Again, good for them.

Person never changes? So what. That third person never ends up finding out the truth or changing their mind? Yep - so what.

If it is not directly affecting your personal life (harassing calls, interfering with your work and such) ... It is inconsequential in the long run/grand scheme.

Not really as there are quite a few here who are business owners where their reputation is quite important to them and rightfully so. To think it wouldn't be important to them at the very least would strike some as short sighted. 

[Solar Legion]

There is a distinct difference between a business owner and the average Joe/Jane user.

One does indeed need to worry about their reputation but not nearly as much as one might think - refute falsehoods as they come up without spending too much time on them (a handy way to do so is to have a page or similar at hand, especially if some continue to crop up) while managing their brand/image.

The other simply does not need to do any of this as a matter of course and is the sort I was referring to.

Oh yes and no matter what one may choose to believe at the end of the day, an individual will run into such things through their lifetime and contrary to what one may think, how one deals with such is not so different between the two groups (the biggest difference being that the latter of the two is often better served by brushing off those attempting to trash them).

Afterthought, tangentially related: In the case of some business owners - or larger businesses in general - it can also be much more beneficial to ignore attempted reputation hits, fear mongering and the like or to deal with them quietly as the simple act of refuting such things can lend an air of legitimacy to the claims (potentially damaging in cases wherein the claim truly is not legitimate in any way whatsoever).

For such, it is a balancing act and care must be taken.

[Luna Bliss]

When forming an opinion on someone most learn over the years that it's best to base their opinion on personal interactions and not on what another person says about that person.

We all distort interactions, and tend to present only one side (ours).

[Silent Mistwalker]

3 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

I know exactly how that feels, I've had one regular self-admittedly (directly to me) spread lies about me in public threads while using some personal slight as their justification. I don't see how telling them "I'm ignoring you" is going to encourage them to stop replying? That doesn't prevent them from continuing their own malicious behavior now knowing it's even out of my sight.

True but at least by informing them you've done everything you could to put a stop to the harassment. Sometimes it helps and they stop and sometimes it makes it worse. It's a risk but it gets the message across that they are wasting their time and effort. 

It isn't always out of sight when a quoted post was obviously aimed at you. We don't always pay attention to who was quoted until we've already read the quote. That's when it becomes obvious if it hadn't already. That should say far more about them than it does me, especially when they never get a response.

Most people handle the issue(s) in ways that work for them, not someone else.

[Cristiano Midnight]

I am a bit late to this, but having run two SL forum sites, I think there is a lot of merit in off topic discussions. It does a lot to further enhance community. I actually discover a lot through these discussions and helps me get an even better sense of people.

That said, I can understand as the official SL forums, wanting to keep it focused on SL. It can be a difficult balance to get right. I don’t always follow these forums much, but I have seen some level of off topic allowed (what are you listening to, etc..). You have seen how far off the rails SL topics can get here, so it could go south quickly.

Keeping focus is probably for the best, while still allowing some off topic as they currently do. A subforum specifically for that might be too much, but I also see the value in it. Additionally, off topic threads that exist in other subforums could be centralized there instead of intermixed as they are now.

[Sid Nagy]

9 hours ago, Cristiano Midnight said:

I am a bit late to this, but having run two SL forum sites, I think there is a lot of merit in off topic discussions. It does a lot to further enhance community. I actually discover a lot through these discussions and helps me get an even better sense of people.

That said, I can understand as the official SL forums, wanting to keep it focused on SL. It can be a difficult balance to get right. I don’t always follow these forums much, but I have seen some level of off topic allowed (what are you listening to, etc..). You have seen how far off the rails SL topics can get here, so it could go south quickly.

Keeping focus is probably for the best, while still allowing some off topic as they currently do. A subforum specifically for that might be too much, but I also see the value in it. Additionally, off topic threads that exist in other subforums could be centralized there instead of intermixed as they are now.

Of topic and derailing moments are so important for community building IMHO.
Just like the use of emoticons are.

But I think it is logical that a company is only interested in the discussion of company topics and issues.
There is always the possibility to go to Cris's site for off topic, and derailing.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

48 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Of topic and derailing moments are so important for community building IMHO.
Just like the use of emoticons are.

But I think it is logical that a company is only interested in the discussion of company topics and issues.
There is always the possibility to go to Cris's site for off topic, and derailing.

 

Off-topic comments and discussions are our way of "breaking the fourth wall", lest we feel trapped in a story of someone else's choosing. 

[Cristiano Midnight]

 

1 hour ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Off-topic comments and discussions are our way of "breaking the fourth wall", lest we feel trapped in a story of someone else's choosing. 

Agreed, and I am a huge fan of them. Hell, the off topic forums have always been the most frequented and lively on my sites. On a site like this, it is a bit more complex to manage but not impossible. It just depends on company policy ultimately.

[NaomiLocket]

I wouldn't be interested in how frequented an off-topic section is. I don't care for pumping up numbers with random nattering. What I would be interested in is if off-topic frictions were kept in off-topic somehow. Case in point the frictional grief between BilliJo and Love Z (and other such examples) is the kind of thing I just don't care to see in threads. It was a one job assignment in a thread about garbage and off-topic.

Explain to me how the rest of the forum benefits and advances from the existence of an off-topic section.
Are there issues having and continuing those kinds of discussions in-world between interested parties?
Some other fundamental need?

[Kathlen Onyx]

5 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Of topic and derailing moments are so important for community building IMHO.
 

The off topic posts were anything but community building. More like tearing each other apart.

People couldn't play nice and that's why we don't have that option anymore.

[Cristiano Midnight]

15 hours ago, NaomiLocket said:

I wouldn't be interested in how frequented an off-topic section is. I don't care for pumping up numbers with random nattering. What I would be interested in is if off-topic frictions were kept in off-topic somehow. Case in point the frictional grief between BilliJo and Love Z (and other such examples) is the kind of thing I just don't care to see in threads. It was a one job assignment in a thread about garbage and off-topic.

Explain to me how the rest of the forum benefits and advances from the existence of an off-topic section.
Are there issues having and continuing those kinds of discussions in-world between interested parties?
Some other fundamental need?

Personalities are always going to clash. Not sure why singling out two people is necessary in discussing this. Off topic discussions have nothing to do with that.

As far as how the rest of the forums benefit, people don't exist in a vacuum in SL. They do enjoy talking about other things besides only SL and SL-adjacent topics. It is certainly not a requirement, but people can't always be in world and sometimes want to discuss these things, or discuss them in a more thoughtful way that real time conversation is not always conducive to (not that forums don't get all kinds of crazy even when people have time to think about what they are saying).

 

Off topic discussions  are nice to have some level of. YMMV - but if you don't like them, at least they would be pushed into a subforum you can ignore. Right now those threads are intermingled in forums like General Discussion. That has always annoyed me, as you often have to wade through a page of stuff to get to the topics you are interested in. In the end, it is not a big deal either way.

Edited March 24 by Cristiano Midnight

[Cristiano Midnight]

1 hour ago, Kathlen Onyx said:

The off topic posts were anything but community building. More like tearing each other apart.

People couldn't play nice and that's why we don't have that option anymore.

People play nice in on topic discussions here?

[Arielle Popstar]

I see the off-topic posts as fitting one of 3 categories.

1. There is the totally random post interjection where a poster relates something about their dog in a thread on PBR.

2 there is posters with various agendas doing their best to derail a thread to their pet topic like Politics, social justice issues, environment, religion etc.

3 Then there are the ones that branch off to explore some background issue to the main topic.

First two categories I feel should be nipped in the bud and the post(s) deleted. When they are left up with only a warning, others try to do the same. Third category should be more flexible to see where it goes as some good info can come out of them.

[Modulated]

2 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

I see the off-topic posts as fitting one of 3 categories.

1. There is the totally random post interjection where a poster relates something about their dog in a thread on PBR.

2 there is posters with various agendas doing their best to derail a thread to their pet topic like Politics, social justice issues, environment, religion etc.

3 Then there are the ones that branch off to explore some background issue to the main topic.

First two categories I feel should be nipped in the bud and the post(s) deleted. When they are left up with only a warning, others try to do the same. Third category should be more flexible to see where it goes as some good info can come out of them.

You don't say...........