Internet becoming a sour place to be.

[mayhem]

Internet becoming a sour place to be ..

I have noticed over the last few years on many forums the internet is becoming a very horrible place to ask simple noob questions. (haven't noticed it on here yet!)

I frequent many forums in my venture to build my modded systems and help as many people as i can along the way if i have had the same problem in the past.

What i am how ever seeing is the abundance of the so called Guru's and Old Hats on some of these forums having a lash out out at some of the questions being asked because the Noob did not know how to put the question or how to explain properly there question. The attitudes of these so called experienced users is just pure and far out right wrong and when some one comes in to the fray like my self trying to help said noob's they then receive the back lash as well.

The problem is it seems to happen on the larger Forums with many users and yet because the person giving the abuse is so called respected nothing is said ....

Any one else notice this or am i just being a sour puss in my old age and used to the old day's.

Please how ever no names or places to be named and shammed just comments on what im perceiving as the modern day internet.

 

[JN]

Yep a few forums spring to mind (no names mentioned). I think the mods/admins get it in to their heads that they are 'better' than the next man simply because they have a different status/logo/colour above their avatar.

We try to keep our feet firmly on the floor here. We are all humans after all and should treat each other with respect regardless of background, knowledge, religion, location....anything for that matter.

The whole reason why Overclock3D was founded (as SysXtreme) back in the day was due to the way I was treated on one of 'these' forums, so I hope we never get like it.

 

[zak4994]

Precisely why I joined up here.

 

[Pseudonym]

The only forums I actively participate in are full of nice friendly people. I have no time for snobby elitism.

It's a standard psychological process that those within a group will see any newcomer or outsider as being less special than those currently within said group. Also, if the majority of the members have a personality trait and similar ideals; participation in discussions and arguments with each other will only make that trait stronger; i.e. they will all become more elitist.

I think there has always been a problem with this and I would agree that it’s hard to find a forum that doesn’t have some problem. Thankfully it’s not impossible, I participate actively on maybe 9 forums and only one has this sort of attitude. The only reason I stay there is because it’s in a very small niche and that is the only active forum that deals with it.

 

[mayhem]

yeh well i joined here for the same reason after spending about 8 weeks just reading the forums. i eventually joined.

 

[zak4994]

I agree with what Pseudonym said.

That is what I currently think bout new users too but I never really take it out on them.

Guessing it's natural?

 

[AydST]

I visit a heck of a lot of forums but rarely post for many of the reasons above.

I have just had enough of peoples attitudes these days, I have it all day at work so I no longer feel the need to subject myself to more after hours....

I think a lot of it lies with people not thinking before they post, posting drunk or the ever present elitism.

Everyone, these days, is an expert and their views or opinions are correct and no one elses matter.......

I really cba with it anymore so avoid.....

 

[Direheart66]

Back when I joined here I had a bundle of questions to ask, everyone treated me nicely. I must say that you are right to say that the internet in general is gradually getting worse. Although I do think it could be caused by younger and younger people having access to the net?. I am not saying that all younger people are not mature but unfortunately it does tend to be the case.

 

[Ham]

You can get tired of answering the same questions over and over again, peoples inability to use the search function on a forum or even goolge can be quite asstounding.

Thats no excuse, however, to be rude to said noob. You just politly point them in the right direction and if you can't stomach that, just don't post!

We make sure that people with the wrong attitude to our members are either quickly beaten into shape or plain banned .

 

[AydST]

I agree in some instances with the age of posters...but in the other direction...

I used to use a lot of car forums and they are the worst....and they're supposed to be adults!!!!

 

[Rastalovich]

I wrote a massive thread on an mmorpg forum about 8 years ago detailing and foreseeing this.

So

 

[mayhem]

Yes google is probably the best thing ever created but i think its rapidly becoming a search engine that im trying to avoid as much as possible due to the top places always going to a "Paid" for add.

Again like many things spoke about here, things are changing and changing very rapidly.

When a noob comes on most forums and they ask a question before they have used the search feature chances are that the noob doesn't even know what that feature is or how to use that feature properly. so some gentle coaxing into the manner of its use would far out way a slagging off that many forums seem to negate.

I get a hell of a lot of abuse about my spelling and all so end up braking back at the user who gave it for not being more understanding and being very short sighted even after i explain i have dyslexia. I explain that some words a spell checker picks up are changed to some thing totally different to what one is saying yet the abuse still flows.

That is when i start to lose my temper lol.

 

[monkey7]

I agree with most what's said above, the internet does seem to get worse.

I have to add that it depends on the 'group' in which you are acting. Forums are usually not regulated very well because moderators and administrators try to keep a certain image towards their users. Whether it is the ev0l admin who bans all violators without warning (which will kill a forum) or a cool guy who allows a lot, they always keep an image. Sadly, most admins try to stay the cool guy, allowing and sometimes making the occasional insult.

If a group is properly directed this can change positively. With this I mean gentle pushes from a reasonable guy which also, by accident, happens to have banning rights. One of the places where this happens is our own little corner of the 'net, c3d:

The behaviour of someone can change radically depending on which group they are in and how the group is given direction. A large part of the 'offensiveness' of the internet may be because of just a select group.

I seriously need to start making sense again :/

 

[prosser13]

Definitely still some good, big forums out there - I'm a very active member of large one (won't mention which) and apart from the odd hiccup its a great place to spend time

 

[FarFarAway]

You're all banned!!

Well hopefully we strike a decent balance here and try to be chilled and give people both chances and warnings when appropriate. We won't stand for proper abuse in any circumstances, that's for sure

 

[j.woody]

i am in 3 forum atm (including this one) used to be four but that one was terrible, insults flying every where, very noobish questions like how do i turn my laptop on etc...

the one i quit was a uk one but the other 2 are USA based

 

[deathwish]

i deal with people day in and day out that dont know anything about computers

i never ending up flaming at people due to this, you can allways have a laugh behind your back.

at least they act as though they know nothing, what gets on my nerves is people that beleve they know stuff and fiddle :nono:

 

[monkey7]

Phheeew just had an incident that is nearly completely in line with this thread.

I'm operator on several chat channels for a browser game, pretty much meaning I have absolute power over the regular users. To prevent power abuse users have a voice towards the operators, pretty much like an admin on a forum.

This afternoon a lad entered saying I had abused power yesterday. I PM'd him asking when I did it so I could search in my logs and either explain or apologise, depending on if I kicked with or without reason. He literally said:

"i cant tollerate it anny more. I cant belive im on with a monkey. Do wat u want, i donnot care"

Whatever.

This evening he returned, had a .... well, not mature but at least reasonable conversation with other users and I didn't get involved until I kicked one of the users for spamming the channel. Of course our dear sir had a word to say about that:

[19:19:21] <> monkeyyyyyy

[19:19:28] <> i told u in morning

[19:19:36] <> i cant tollerate u

[19:20:41] <> if i got ur real name

[19:20:54] <> i gan teach u a lesson

[19:21:03] <@monkey7> Are you threatening me?

[19:21:11] <> warning

[19:21:20] <@monkey7> Yes or no, are you threatening me?

[19:21:30] <> Warning

Taking this serious I continued in PM:

[19:22:04] <monkey7> And what exactly were you planning on doing?

[19:27:59] <> Make ur life as hell

[19:28:04] <> trust me i can

[19:28:58] <monkey7> I really am not impressed by a threat like that

[19:31:25] <> JUST giv me ur real full name with sum sort of proof

[19:31:27] <> and see

Right. Whatever.

After a whole lot of hassling, warnings, a few kicks and a single ban he and another two users started ****ing on me everywhere they could. I ended it by banning all three users from three channels.

Seriously, where are we going? These lads didn't even respect an assigned operator

EDIT: he's been banned from the whole chat network now.

 

[Mul.]

I completely agree with you mayhem. I've never had this issue within the staff team of a large forum that I moderate on but it will often lie with certain members that think they are above the law due to high post counts and being a so called "veteran" of the forum. People particularly get annoyed when spec check or spec me a computer threads appear because supposedly everything is one size fits all. This often follows with a www.letmegooglethatforyou.com/*query* URL, which I find very disrespectful. Other remarks exist, which include pwnt, fail, gtfo. Finally, many will have the cheek to blame the moderating team of the forum for not regulating posts properly but ultimately, people should be mature enough to not require e-babysitting.

These problems are very typical with forums that see huge amounts of traffic but also attract the wrong kind of people. OC3D is probably one of just a few forums I post on as a normal member without any form of authority where I feel comfortable enough to post what I think is right without being flamed by someone that joined the community around the same time that man discovered fire and has accumulated some 2834783472384 posts.

Kudos to OC3D members for being civilised folk!

 

[j.woody]

@ monkey: ouch sad story. you shud have given a fake name lol