Other So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

To me, those points are as bad or worse than the people posting in anger / trolling. Someone who's angry is not their normal self, and trolling is a art.

Our posts are not anonymous, usernames are somewhat, but not entirely, this much is true. However, they (our posts) are persistently associated to our usernames and we create a tone associated with that name, and even, to an extent, our avatar. Is or is not ones bit-tech identity as valid as, for example, a facebook identity, myspace, etcetera? You'll find me on three or four forums, same username, same general attitude.

Idle whim / reaction, posting if you have found that when you do this you're ignored or shot down, stop doing it; bookmark the page, and come back to it when you have the time to formulate a more considered reply. I must admit to being guilty of posts with the general feel of "great job," "looking good," "keep'em coming!" but notice the tone, positive. I think I've once posted something like "you're wrong," the resulting snarl derailed the topic for a page or two, and in the end, I was wrong.

Posts are not merely an organisation of etcetera, they are a semi-permanent testament to your thoughts and opinions at the time of posting, your attitudes towards the topic and other posters. If you think of a post as a "merely" perhaps it shouldn't be.



Goodbye Manks, you were one of the reasons for me ceasing my lurking ways and creating an account. Wherever your foot falls, enjoy.

 

Ok, well I can understand that perhaps people who feature on the autistic spectrum might have trouble taking the perspective that I posted above, but others surely can appreciate that what people post on a forum is not necessarily worth getting that hot under the collar about. You may choose to invest a lot in your online persona, but it's important that you acknowledge that other people may not be as committed as you, and therefore what they say should be read in that context. I'm not sure how those points you quote are worse than trolling.

 

Debate, rebuke, discuss; don't just call me an autistic troll, you can do better than that. Surely?


*** apologies - shouldn't semi-derail the thread ***

 

what he said

tbh honest I see two types of trolls. The first type are genuinely funny and creative and the second are just out to annoy. I don't see annoying people as an art - in fact it's very easy just say something stupid / insensative / controversial / annoying/ whatever whilst prentending to be sincere.
creative trolls people who may be off topic but provide fun for everyone I like. creative trolls are out to make everyone feel better even if they are slightly off topic. that requires genuine creativity and imagination. something the irritant trolls seem to lack.

I don't post long enough to know who the worst trolls are but that smoking in your car thread looked pretty painful to me. I would hate to be someone who cares about that issue and got cuaght up with all that.

As for

I agree with you on the reviews. benchmark said hardware try overclocking rebenchmark publish. repeat I don't feel I learn anything that much new from the reviews nowadays.

 

reported you happy? did you accomplish something >?, whats sad is that a person has been lingering on this forum for roughly 6 years who has over 10 thousand post and now leaves because things have (changed significantly and im afraid its been for the worse).. hence for the remark..
sooooooooo say your fair wells lol.... and end this thread already .

 

I can only imagine that you are helping illustrate my point by deliberately misinterpreting what I've said. All I've done in this thread is try to promote a more tolerant outlook to what others post and you're jumping all over me.

a) I haven't at any point called you a troll.
b) I haven't said you were autistic, and I wasn't referring to autism as if it was an insult, I was just referring to the manner in which some autistic people don't always get sarcasm, less-than-obvious forms of communication and the like.

 

Apologies; I miss-read the last part of your post as - my response to your quoted points was simply trolling - and from that ill based starting point, I took your comment on autism as a veiled insult. You weren't calling me a troll, and you weren't calling me autistic. I was (once again) wrong on both counts. It wasn't intended as jumping on you, but teasing a greater response out of you; which, thankfully, you did - though for different reasons.

Apology tendered I'd like to give what would have been my response had I read your post properly:

I totally agree that everything must be based in context, slamming someone for a bit of trolling on one of the "fun-time" threads (demote etcetera) is pretty much as unacceptable as trolling on one of the serious threads, and there's a subconscious sliding scale for everything in between. But I don't feel it applies so much to the individual user as to their individual posts.

Surely that's like saying someone has hundreds or thousands of posts in the "fun-time" threads, so when they post in anything serious or deep their post must be assumed to be, if not a wind up, a lighter weight post? Or, someone who wades deep in the serious sections, when posting in the "fun-time" topics causes tumble-weed and confusion? I'm using polar extremes s and exaggerating for effect which is always a bad idea.

Anything of solid merit (be it serious or humorous) should always be taken at face value, the problem is how much do/should we let context/user-history influence the less definite posts? This is something I really do struggle with...

If someone has a history of being nice, and are suddenly obnoxious, one assumes they're simply having a bad day and treat them accordingly. Conversely if someone is known for being a bit obnoxious all the time and they're suddenly sweetness and light, we look for the hidden agenda or barb. Again polar extremes, not a great idea, nevertheless we would judge individual users differently based on our experiences or the observable experiences of others through their posts.

/

I hope I'm making sense, I'm it's late and I've been working seven days a week since the first so this may be a bit garbled...



More considered thought, and less posting as an immediate reaction on my part would have saved my affronting you and embarrassing myself; I can't decide if this proves or disproves your original points - I'm simply too tired for boolean. Also, though I wouldn't say I took a lighter look on your reply, I did ask/hope for further discussion which (thankfully) you provided in a clear concise manner enabling me to see my err. Hopefully I haven't committed any more faux-pas in this reply, if so - you know what to do.

 

Sense made and apology most certainly accepted, as long as you let me say that it does at least partly prove my original point that reactionary posts happen to all of us from time to time and we're best off not being too judgemental when it happens to others Thanks for making the effort to explain the misunderstanding.

I take your point completely on the issue that certain users, over time, may gain a reputation for obnoxious behaviour, and then back that up with further provocative posts in threads where you might hope they wouldn't appear. And I don't wish to gloss over Mankz's case because he has been around here a lot longer than me and with much greater participation, which is why I have been sure to distance my comments in this thread from his particular circumstance. But I would come back to my previous points in this thread that ultimately posts are just assimilations of letters etc and you really can just ignore them. Any significance given to a post is given by the reader. I know it's not easy but we can all do it - avoid rising to it, don't feed the troll and the troll will go away. If people could remember this things would improve - the responses to digitalerr0r's cement post made my heart sink because such action just fuels the fire.

If you find a post is trolling just ignore it. Don't reference it in any way, pretend it's not there. If it was trolling then what's likely is that the troll will, having seen they're being ignored, post more trolling matter to try and get some attention, then we'll ignore them some more, then they'll maybe throw in some spam, we'll ignore them some more before they ultimately slink away to starve or rage-quit.

Where I would say the problem lies at the moment is that too many people are failing to heed the 'Don't feed the troll' signs. There's also the issue that one person's troll may not be another person's troll, but the hour is too late for me to get into that now. If in doubt, DFTT.

Edit: And if you're going to report a trolling post, do it silently. Nothing says "I'm going to tell teacher" like a public "Reported" post. The Mods might not like this approach as they may get more flashy lights for the same issue, but that should just encourage them to be stricter on the trolls anyway.

 

Sorry but you've missed interpreted what the "problem" is.

Bit-Tech was an enthusiast forum started and ran by enthusiasts. As it gained popularity and started growing the site became more expensive to run and relied on advertising and needed a corporate face to be able to talk to the hardware manufacturers so they could get products to review. The majority of the staff came from the forum itself and continued to do so while the forum grew. Tim Smalley and Bindi being the last two staff (to my knowledge) who through the quality of their indepth technical knowledge, enthusiasm and quality writing moved from being forum members to being staff. Through out this time the ethos of the original Bit was maintained and Bit really started to die when the connection to the grassroots members was lost when Tim left. The site is now a lot more corporate and since the CPC takeover there has been a marked change. Bit-tech always had a great balance between indepth technical knowledge and good fun. The forum was always light hearted and the mods have done an amazing job of keeping it inclusive and the right balance between fun and technical advice.

Recently there has been an influx of vocal new members who have formed a clique. In of itself there is noting wrong with that but when threads become a series of posts referring to in jokes with in that group it can begins to grate. The group is also making lots of suggestion on how to make Bit "better" which to the original members looks more like taking Bit further away from it's roots.

That is my take on it anyway.

 

I just think less tolerance approach to trolling is a good idea. If your earlier comment was made as a joke, it didn't come across as one, nor did it to a few other members.

If it was made in a harmless tongue in cheek comment, then I apologise. But if not, I apologise for nothing. Let's just leave it at that.

The whole for enthusiasts, by enthusiasts thing is a huge part about what is missing from the site these days. No doubt the staff writers are enthusiastic about what should go on here, but I feel that the people above the people we know are limiting what can be put on bit - making content get saved for the magazines instead of uploaded to a free website ETC.

I've created this thread in feedback with an idea of what could bring back an element of the older days...take a look:

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=222357

 

I've came to the same conclusion like 1~2 years ago unfortunately. Since Dennis acquisition bit tech became "yet another site". It lost its id.

The main problem is for example that the hardware reviews are just too local. Here where I live they are not wide avaiable, and are much more expensive than what is stated in the prices (like 2 times more). So, many are useless for me.

But I guess one needs to pay its bills. And if hard and games reviews are doing their jobs, i can understand why the site is so diferent now.

I am a member of BT since it was a modding site until nowadays that it is basically a games site.
But I still like the foruns.

 

Well didn't this thread go off-course..

 

Mankz, sorry to hear your away.

I've decided it's time to close this thread, goodbye's have been expressed, unfortunately some of the posts are deteriorating into insults.