Rant Is the attitude of the forum community changing?

Anyone else noticed that there's been a change in the community over the last few months? I've seen genuine requests for help or suggestions shot down in flames by forum trolls. I know the mods are always there to quell any such occurrences but they seem more frequent in my opinion.

I've seen more and more bragging rights threads in hardware too. I mean, we all get excited when we get new hardware and some of us do the benchmark runs for fun (me included), or to see if we can improve our scores, but do you really need to start a thread entitled "Look what I just bought three of!!" for example? It's getting ridiculous and I know of two forum friends who've stopped using BT because of the recent incidents and elitist attitudes of certain individuals.

People will always take notice of your Sig block and ask about your setup. Likewise, you may comment on a thread regarding your own hardware, but 'look at me' threads? Really? I think it's detrimental to the community, and would hope that the bragging and trolling is toned down. This forum is a great tool to help other people, as well as a place for like minded individuals to share ideas and opinions. Look at the Modding pages for example. Brilliant and well used. Not a hint of 'check me out!!!!'

If there has to be an 'e-peen' demographic, have a separate sub-forum where those not interested in the length of others GPU, nor the depth of their wallet, can enjoy the rest of the forums without feeling like an idiot for asking a question or being ridiculed because of the hardware they own.

Thoughts? Can't be just me who noticed the change...

 

No, I know which thread you're looking at. And if you read it, you'd see that the thread of Simon showing us his 3 GTX 580's was a lengthy discussion about tweaking the cards and everyone getting the best out of them. In no way was he showing off.

 

I'm not talking about one particular thread, and I'm just as interested about the outcome of his testing as the next person. That thread has a purpose to contrast his chosen hardware against his near purchase of twin 7970s. Look beyond that and you'll start to notice what I have hopefully.

Having said that, the fact that this particular thread sprung to your mind does go some way to confirm my thoughts even though I wasn't talking about Simons discussion.

 

Perhaps there should be a dedicated "My New Hardware" thread if there isn't one already, instead of a lot of individual ones. Or put in "Photos of your computer" thread.

 

I have been here quite a while, I've noticed a change happen over the years.

There are several good / amazing things about this site such as a wide variety of answers to a question can be posted within a few hours of creating a thread. The amazing attitude of members towards others (Satan's gift threads / people posting cash to get the gifts through customs) ect.

But then there is just the endless crap that is spat out by members only interested in their post / rep count.

I find myself constantly wondering if I should just sign out for good.

Could this be a case for the addition of a few more stickies? E-Peen hardware showoff's, check my benchmarks, look at how much crap I can spam, ect?

 

Simon's thread was valid in my opinion, because it was a follow up from selling his previous 1.5GB cards. What was perhaps unnecessary was Trashcanman's identically titled thread a few days later. Surely two threads weren't necessary. However... worthy of complaint? I doubt it. People have always made "Look at my shiny new things" threads... me included. So long as it promotes discussion and benchmarking, then it will be of value.

There have always been threads like this. I see no harm. What exactly is your complaint? You can read/take part/ignore as you see fit. These are no less valid than having a thread where we post pics of ourselves, or our rigs.. especially the last one. That IS blatant showing off, but no one complains about that.

To me, the most annoying and pointless threads are the "game" threads... but no one complains about those either. Why? Because if you don't like it, don't read it, but posting a thread about your new equipment in the hardware thread? I think it's appropriate, especially if it achieves something. Take the Geekbench thread... that's nothing if not pure willy waving for those with powerful hardware (guilty as charged) but the upshot, and final product of such a thread is some purely objective hardware testing that generates a great deal of data on various systems. This helps new buyers or those wishing to upgrade.

I've been on for 8 years today... and there have always been threads like that.

If these threads were all, "Look at teh size of my wad!" and that's it... fine, but as they promote discussion and reach conclusions... I see no problem.

 

Agreed and that's the way it used to be until recently. The attraction of the limelight etc.

Still, doesn't change the issue of the trolling which is getting worse each day it seems and to be honest, is a bigger issue.

 

I disagree... because sometimes.. quite often actually... useful and relevant discourse comes from these threads, and people may not get to read it because they think it's a forum full of willy waving by those with larger disposable incomes.

Keep it as it is. If you don't like a thread, don't take part. It's a hardware subject... it lives in hardware. Why are we fixing things that aren't broken? It just makes things complicated.


[edit]

as for people being shot down for posting technical questions... I agree however.. that shizzle has to stop or this place gets a bad rep.

 

I agree with most of the above, especially with your final para given that certain 'epeen' threads lately don't actually promote discussion nor reach conclusions. They promote comment and demote genuine hardware threads down the page.

Don't get me wrong, I'm interested in the benchmarking threads and the work others are doing to provide information to the community and I don't suffer from hardware envy at all. That's not the point that I was trying to labour. It was that there are people leaving the community because of the events of late, mainly down to the reasons identified above. Where is it going to end up?

It just needs a bit of management and thought from the users.

 

I have noticed the absence of a few of the regulars since Christmas. Hippoz and MVAgusta have both been absent. I haven't been particularly bothered by any show off threads but there have been a lot more troll's or just blunt to the point of obnoxious posts lately.

 

The more popularity CPC/Bit-tech gets, the more variation we're going to get in members.

I know things have changed and are continuing to change, but if we just try and help new members with issues, and address trolls politely without escalation in verbal conflict, we should be able to keep Bit-Tech the warm fuzzy place we all love.

Also the moderators have a tough job, but do really well considering the ratio of members to moderators.

If all else fails, just ignore the idiots, it works for me.

 

It is sad that people are dissatisfied with the community. I haven't noticed much of a change for the worse but I haven't been here for that long (Unless it's because I'm part of the problem )

The thing is that you're never going to get along with everybody. As the community grows and there are more and more people, opinions will become more diverse. The margins for what is considered funny, or cool etc. will widen and there will be those who stand out as being a nuisance.

Lots of communities that were once tight knit are now crowded with strangers. I think that the one thing that doesn't help is just leaving the forum. Problems like this are innevitable with so many people on the internet, we need to find a way to deal with it. If overpopulation is causing deforestation, do you jump ship to a new forest or do you impose measures to prevent the deforestation. If you go somewhere else, it will probably just buy you some time before that place gets overcrowded and cluttered with **** too.

Maybe there should be an invite only lounge or something, for mature discussion. Or perhaps a new prefix or way of tagging non-constructive threads, sort of like a spam filter in your email, that you can set to ignore.

 

Some interesting points raised here chaps, I've noticed a similar change in the behaviour on the forums over the past 12 months or so. Whether it can be reversed or improved upon is another matter, and hopefully it can.

Just one thing I'd like to ask. If you see some trolling (genuinely, not just someone playing a bit of light-hearted devil's advocate) then please report it. I want to try and find time to stamp out some of the negative bias that seems to have invaded lately.

 

I seem to recall the last time I started a NP thread in Gaming it filled up quickly and if no one posted for a few hours it was off the front page. This time it went for over a day without a post and was still well on the front page.

Weird.

EDIT: Last post was sunday aft and it's still well on the front page.

Dwindling numbers?

 

This I have to agree with and there a certain few who are continued culprites and yet it's some other people who haven't really done anything wrong who receive the backlash.

 

There also seems to be a lack of respect from some of the older members regarding the english abilities and general knowledge of new members.

 

The former is no surprise. BT has high standards (Well, for the internet anyway) for grammar and spelling. If there's a reason why people are not particularly wonderful with English such as you know, not being English I'd be surprised if anyone had a go at you for that. Maybe it's their way of getting back at you for Danegeld?

As for general knowledge, I've never really seen people having a go at folk who didn't understand or know something... What have you seen? It would be disappointing if that were the case.

 

Not naming any names but there seem to be some general grammar correction going on but sometimes it seems like it turns into a bit of a hetz.

 

In general I'd just like to echo what Krikkit says. I too have noticed a change in the forum dynamics over the last year or so, and in general not for the better. As he said, if you see trolling, and that includes someone shooting down a genuine request for help or an explanation, report it to us. I too want to get rid of the negativity which has been arising more frequently.

I don't think any of us want Bit-tech to be somewhere that only people who've been here for years can ask questions in, or only people who know the difference between every socket type can get away with asking for a recommendation.

 

I don't mind reading threads about peoples new shiny hardware. In fact I quite like reading about hardware I am highly unlikely to be able to afford (e.g. 3 of the latest GPU's).

I see it the same as watching a car programme like Top Gear that has cars worth over £250K. I can't afford one, but I don't feel inadequate because of it.

I have noticed that rep seems to get shared out for stupid things (jokes, or mates etc) I only share out rep for geniune advice or acts of generousity like The Great Satan.