Any chance of a new "ignore" feature ...

bingefeller

randella said:

It's not like it's your drunk neighbour who comes round uninvited to tell racist jokes - it's a website and, as such, is very very easily avoided

Not sure I see the issue here at all.

Do you live next door to Sambostar? 

thebreeze

Bezzer said:

chrispy108 said:

Or just be less precious about words on the internet?

Not precious at all. Been on these forums (and precursors) for a long, long time and seeing it descend to some of the levels it has here in the last few months bothers me because of how it was ... I don't mind discussion, or opposing views ... but I don't like seeing the levels of bile spouted.

 That's not targeting you or anyone else ... just I don't know ... I remember gasfest and now it feels that would end up in a punch up sort of

I'm with you on this - but we're very much in the minority it seems (of the people who use OT and SC).

The way it works (or so I'm told) is that this is the internet and so even if we're part of a cool community with great people we can express ourselves any way you like in these sections because.....this is the internet.

It depresses me because bullying, rudeness and worse just becomes an accepted form of behaviour.

I've noticed certain people feel more comfortable in this environment and others stay away. The sadness is that the community loses out as a whole because a lot of views won't be expressed and threads routinely descend to the lowest common denominator and you usually end up with the same positions (a kind of "I'm right and you're wrong and oh yeah you're a bed wetting c*nt").

OT and SC tend to encourage the Donald Trumps imo. When I'm subjected to that kind of approach/abuse I remind myself of a couple of things JFK said,

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by sceptics and cynics whose horizons are limited by their obvious realities.  We need men who can dream of things that never were."

and (perhaps more poignantly)

"Too often we....enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought".

monquixote

So to paraphrase you want it to be better, but you aren't prepared to help to make it better. 

randella

thebreeze said:

It depresses me because bullying, rudeness and worse just becomes an accepted form of behaviour.

I've noticed certain people feel more comfortable in this environment and others stay away. The sadness is that the community loses out as a whole because a lot of views won't be expressed and threads routinely descend to the lowest common denominator and you usually end up with the same positions (a kind of "I'm right and you're wrong and oh yeah you're a bed wetting c*nt").

I've lurked around here for a year or so.  It was a while before I signed up, I originally wanted someone to tell me the distance in mm between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickup on a Charvel San Dimas but that got forgotten.

Anyway - I've genuinely not seen a lot of what you mention - and where it is happening, you're not gonna change the people doing it, so just avoid.  I really don't think it's routine.  Couple of wind-up merchants but I find them pretty amusing; I understand that's just me and not everyone else might but they are so far in the minority compared with other web outlets I've seen.

YMMV and all that.  Not trying to be contentious, I promise.

randella

bingefeller said:

randella said:

It's not like it's your drunk neighbour who comes round uninvited to tell racist jokes - it's a website and, as such, is very very easily avoided

Not sure I see the issue here at all.

Do you live next door to Sambostar? 

@bingefeller ;

Hah, lol - no, this guy's long since moved out.  He had dark hair.

thebreeze

monquixote said:

So to paraphrase you want it to be better, but you aren't prepared to help to make it better. 

Why do you say that?  I've used the sections, I've expressed my views on this (like I'm doing now). Let me know what I should be doing please.

monquixote

It wasn't directed at you, but the point I'm making is that the mods only read about 10% of what is posted here and so content that should go in SC ends up in OT and there is nothing we can do about it without help.

If you flag it then someone will be alerted to take a look at it and given that the material remains available we tend to err on the side of moving to SC (that's not to say we always do as the flagger asks).

JezWynd

randella said:

Anyway - I've genuinely not seen a lot of what you mention - and where it is happening, you're not gonna change the people doing it, so just avoid.  I really don't think it's routine.  Couple of wind-up merchants but I find them pretty amusing; I understand that's just me and not everyone else might but they are so far in the minority compared with other web outlets I've seen.

This sums it up pretty well. There's a lot of stuff here that comes under the heading of Banter, some of it isn't to everyone's taste and some of it is pretty juvenile but compared to other places where the bile and ranting is genuine and scary, it's a safe and sociable place to hang out.

thebreeze

randella said:

thebreeze said:

It depresses me because bullying, rudeness and worse just becomes an accepted form of behaviour.

I've noticed certain people feel more comfortable in this environment and others stay away. The sadness is that the community loses out as a whole because a lot of views won't be expressed and threads routinely descend to the lowest common denominator and you usually end up with the same positions (a kind of "I'm right and you're wrong and oh yeah you're a bed wetting c*nt").

I've lurked around here for a year or so.  It was a while before I signed up, I originally wanted someone to tell me the distance in mm between the end of the fretboard and the neck pickup on a Charvel San Dimas but that got forgotten.

Anyway - I've genuinely not seen a lot of what you mention - and where it is happening, you're not gonna change the people doing it, so just avoid.  I really don't think it's routine.  Couple of wind-up merchants but I find them pretty amusing; I understand that's just me and not everyone else might but they are so far in the minority compared with other web outlets I've seen.

YMMV and all that.  Not trying to be contentious, I promise.

Very much like you really.

And as you suggest, and as I said, I try to ignore it now.

I do however, feel some of it is bullying - would never be accepted ordinarily but because we're on the internet it's a "get over it, ignore it, nothing you can do to change it" mentality.  I've accepted that but feel compromised/sad about it too.

Drew_TNBD

thebreeze said:

Bezzer said:

chrispy108 said:

Or just be less precious about words on the internet?

Not precious at all. Been on these forums (and precursors) for a long, long time and seeing it descend to some of the levels it has here in the last few months bothers me because of how it was ... I don't mind discussion, or opposing views ... but I don't like seeing the levels of bile spouted.

 That's not targeting you or anyone else ... just I don't know ... I remember gasfest and now it feels that would end up in a punch up sort of

I'm with you on this - but we're very much in the minority it seems (of the people who use OT and SC).

The way it works (or so I'm told) is that this is the internet and so even if we're part of a cool community with great people we can express ourselves any way you like in these sections because.....this is the internet.

It depresses me because bullying, rudeness and worse just becomes an accepted form of behaviour.

I've noticed certain people feel more comfortable in this environment and others stay away. The sadness is that the community loses out as a whole because a lot of views won't be expressed and threads routinely descend to the lowest common denominator and you usually end up with the same positions (a kind of "I'm right and you're wrong and oh yeah you're a bed wetting c*nt").

OT and SC tend to encourage the Donald Trumps imo. When I'm subjected to that kind of approach/abuse I remind myself of a couple of things JFK said,

"The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by sceptics and cynics whose horizons are limited by their obvious realities.  We need men who can dream of things that never were."

and (perhaps more poignantly)

"Too often we....enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought".

Go somewhere else. Go where your type of people go, and I'll go where my type of people go.

The fact that you're deriding an entire group of unspecified people as 'Donald Trumps' makes you a total arse.

guitarfishbay

Thinking about it, the only time I ever seem to get in to 'arguments' online is in the gear sections.

I read SC more than OT if I'm honest - much as people get offended when they read fuck or bugger that's actually where a lot of the grown up conversation happens.

Drew_TNBD

guitarfishbay said:

Thinking about it, the only time I ever seem to get in to 'arguments' online is in the gear sections.

That's because you know what you're talking about, and the ne'er do well's feel intimidated by your big brain and big schlong.

Bowks

Fuck me Bezz, you have a couple of solid gold hits on your hands here right now :-)

marantz1300

It's all fun,somtimes heated.
work on a building site and you'll hear real madness

chrispy108

monquixote said:

It wasn't directed at you, but the point I'm making is that the mods only read about 10% of what is posted here and so content that should go in SC ends up in OT and there is nothing we can do about it without help.

If you flag it then someone will be alerted to take a look at it and given that the material remains available we tend to err on the side of moving to SC (that's not to say we always do as the flagger asks).

It'd take you 10 minutes to skim through a days posts on OT.

If it was mostly sorted out, with clear rules in place, and a thread stuck out as being in the wrong place it'd be easy to flag. But it's not, the two sections are scrambled, people just randomly throw it in a section as they have no idea what should go where.


Or just keep moaning at users and make it our problem.

Sambostar

Until we hold a how many pints of real ale you can neck as fast as possible in two and a half hours before walking the one and a half miles through the woods with no torch without hitting a tree or falling over and then going to bed without pissing yourself competition, I refuse to take anyone seriously.  All this sophisticated G&T,JD, wine and beer coddling nonsense doesn't count.

The only thing I've decided to change is to have a bit of mutual respect for those considered, usually non reactionary people who enjoy talking about things seriously on the internet.

The only argument I got into on here was on the Referendum thread where I was coolered after finally reacting to blow after blow of condscending righteousness. After that thread half the crew jumped overboard anyway.

Sometimes I wonder if Drew has turned into Richardhomer and Richard's turned into something completely different.

It all changes minute to minute, we all do and censorship is so relative, but if you're getting wound up by something on an internet forum or the fact others refuse to fly your flag it's always time to take a good hard look in the mirror.

@thebreeze I wouldn't worry, I am a bed wetting c**t

Winny_Pooh

Unless @monquixote corrects me I believe that SC is not google searchable. So if something is not fit to come up in google to represent the site or you want too say something off the record or potentially un PC then that is a candidate for SC

richardhomer

My advice is ignore anything you don't like and move on....

Since I adopted this approach, I've avoided spats and enjoyed the place more.

If you think something is really beyond acceptable bounds of taste, flag it - but don't do so with any expectation that those in charge will agree with you - it's their call - not yours.

If you don't like a particular moderating decision, you have two choices; accept it or ask for your account to be deleted.... 

Sambostar

Accidentally just spilt a wisdom.

holnrew

I think it's unfair to expect the mods to read every post and comment, they have full time jobs and the forum takes a lot of their time already. We're a community and we're all responsible for it.