Posers
 

While relatively new here, I ask this as an observation and general question. It has appeared to me, especially in reading some of the heavily armed and dangerous threads that some people log on for the sole purpose to flame and/or assist others in their positions as if it is a political debate.

Is this a standard you (who have been here awhile) have seen? Are these people ever "outed"? Posts removed, et al?

Re: Posers
 

[Attack on someone edited out by moderator. Please debate the argument, not the poster.]

Unless his interests are being discussed, the_logos is very much
like that too. I remember specifically calling him out on that
a long time back in this forum.

Some people just don't have much to contribute to a discussion,
and instead choose to criticize arguments, rather than posit them.

It's kind of annoying, but such people do serve a purpose,
if you don't take it personally. Like trollers and flamers, they
help you purge the crud from your arguments and force
you to purify and clarify whatever truth there is in them.

-Crat

Re: Posers
 

Actually, I wasn't picking on anyone in particular, just seemed to notice people arrive and go while weeding through the many threads that interest me and I wanted a feel from the long timers if this was the case.

Re: Posers
 

I think its fairly safe to say the mud community has always been like this, it was established over at TMC that nearly anything goes, and although I have been around a long time (9 years) I find myself quitting reading all the boards very often. Mostly because after a while you realise its always the same old recycled bs... diku license rubbish, muds that pretend to be free and begging to change the way they're listing (which is futile), plagiarism of LotR in every stock rom, blah blah. Reading that makes me feel dumber. I don't know if its the people so much as those irritant topics continue to exist and nobody ever acts on them. Certainly I would say most of the trash I've seen, I've already seen before, and I've already seen the people that post, reposting the same junk. My 2c is always "consider how this community looks to the new visitors we're trying to attract" whenever I bother to chime in.. but what can you do.. its always been like it, and it always will. Some people love trolling and others love to fight trolls, but the overall effect is we look like infants. Too bad.

Re: Posers
 

It's not even specific to muds - it's true of most public discussion forums.

You get that on all discussion forums as well - newbies join, bring up topics of interest to themselves, not realising that the exact same topic has been discussed a dozen times before.

Re: Posers
 

On the mud connector there are about 1500 MUDs listed. That's quite a lot of MUDs and you can ponder on why. My guess is that there are as many opinions as there are players. It is funny when you think about it. While the MUD community struggles to move forward, much due to lack of large scale cooperation, the commercial mmrpgs are operating in an entirely different league.

Re: Posers
 

It used to be a lot worse. There were regulars who existed primarily to insult other people. They seemed to do it for the sheer joy of hurting feelings. Sometimes they actually even had something relevent to say about the thread topic, but it was usually wound around the paragraphs of insults about the posters' intellect, or lack thereof.

Fortunately they either grew up, got bored, or their moms were ordered to disconnect their internet by the school admin after they were caught bullying their fellow 8th grade students on MySpace. In any case, they're not around anymore. Thankfully.

Re: Posers
 

So so very true. In fact, there's a site somewhere with a bunch of different forum personalities illustrated and explained. I can't find the link right now.

Re: Posers
 

You mean the ?

Re: Posers
 

We have a winner! :D

Re: Posers
 

My statement about Scandum was less than flattering but it was:

#1 True.
#2 Not directed at the poster.
#3 Directly relevant to the poster's question.


Since I have nothing personally against Scandum
I honestly didn't even think of my statement as
an "attack". It's just what I think of his posting
habits, and what I thought prompted Newworld's post.

Now my post is edited inline, which is bad enough,
but apparently the moderator is under the impression
I'm attacking the poster, which is not true, and
presuming that unflattering words are an attack,
which is debatable.

To make things worse, I'm privately being told I'm
on thin ice, even though it is *explicitly* agreed that rules
are not actually in place, sorry about that. On
thin ice for violating arbitrary unwritten standards.

Unbelievable.

I'm presuming this post has a short shelf life,
too, but if by chance it survives, at least people
will know that I dispute the editing and that
indirect threats of member deletion are being
used just because I don't conform to the
nebulous and undocumented rules the
mods are operating under.

If I mysteriously stop posting, folks, it won't
necessarily be by choice.

-Crat

Re: Posers
 

If you're referring to the 'what does "free" mean' thread, a political debate is, in fact, precisely what it is.

Re: Posers
 

I've yet to see such a thread, possibly I'm used to verbal violence that exceeds your imagination, just grew battle worn over the years, or you're just trolling for some drama because obviously there isn't enough of that here already.

Most of the noteworthy people on the mud boards have long ago shed their classroom mentality because they don't need a teacher they can sucker up to in order to deal with their problems. Not to mention that whining like a little puppy is beneath them, it's just easier to shrug and carry on than play the victim of a thought crime. Not to mention it can be fun to hand out a few blows yourself or shrug them off like a heavy weight boxer.

Can you send the deleted post in a PM to me Crat? I love it when people talk about me!

If your post said I'm an obnoxious mudder fugger and a sob who hangs around playing the village idiot for his own personal entertainment with little consideration for other people like a natural born sociopath who needs some serious help to address his personal issues because nobody likes him but are either too polite or intimidated to say so because they fear I go psycho on them and haunt them with rhetorical questions wherever they go online, yeah, that'd be correct and pretty much sums things up.

On the bright side it'd be wrong to discriminate against special, and most of all socially challenged, people like me who when it comes down to things are the real victim of a world that doesn't understand nor care for them and really thinks everyone is better off if I just got it over with and killed myself to save everyone the annoyance of my existence. Anyway, if that's what your post said it's more of a fact than an insult I'd say. But it'd really hurt my feelings and make me cry.. and such.

Re: Posers
 

I'm sorry, you're not allowed to attack yourself either. Please
report to the agony booth.

What I said wasn't nearly so bad, I mostly just commented that
you usually snipe rather fully engage. Lately, though, you've
been making much more of an effort to flesh out
your arguments, so huzzah.

Amusingly enough, the snipped part was available in
someone's post quoting mine for a while, so people
actually got to see the poison. Hope they survived.

The portion of my statement that was snipped out is
an excellent example of the overzealous moderation
I've been objecting to lately. It's jsut so unnecessary
and over the top that it really merits full attention
and discussion....

too bad that posting the text for examination would
probably trigger some kind of double-secret probation.

-Crat


PS Someone was incredulously asking me if you
were serious in your rant in one of your recent posts.
This is what I told them:

Cratylus@Dead Souls Demo <dchat> he's just goofing around, he doesn't care a
whit
Cratylus@Dead Souls Demo <dchat> scandum ==

Re: Posers
 

Re: Posers
 

Maybe a few got married, and their wives kicked them into shape. :)

Re: Posers
 

The former. I'm don't know what a troll is and steer clear of drama.

Re: Posers
 

An uber troll is someone who enjoys dragging down people to a level of stupidity, next beat them with experience.

The general troll just likes to stir things up by starting threads that are bound to get negative attention, bait people into personal attacks, make people uncomfortable, play the victim in the hopes of a moderator picking their side, tell sad stories to get people to feel sorry for them, and various other amusing tactics to feed a pathological need for attention.

Re: Posers
 

So basically what I'd call a Poser?

Re: Posers
 

If you insisted on using a different term than the entire rest of the net uses, yes.