I just got here from GameTrailers, but it doesn't seem angry to me. Certainly it's nothing like Reddit or 4chan, or the average Youtube and Disqus chat. Maybe you're looking for something unrealistic.
Why are so many people here angry?
- Thread starter Mister K
- Start date
Simple. People, some people, just do not find excitement and joy in the things they use to love and are bitter and cynical about everything else that doesnt even need to involve them.
They are also, often times, just full of shit. You are passionate about something, fantastic. That's a great thing. Someone else is passionate about something else, that's even more fantastic. What isn't fantastic? Being pointlessly angry over the bare minimum. A piece of "nothing" that does not and will not change how the world functions. Then using buzzwords in order to rally people into an "Us vs Them" situation, to try and justify their point of nothingness. And yes the obvious point of anger is to do with... well if I say it, something may lose it, but the Gamergate "controversy" was such pointless stupid nonsense that didn't really achieve much and made people involve, both pro and anti, look ridiculously childish. Even mentioning names, AS and ZQ would cause anger. Anger over what? A point of view? An opinion? A personal matter? Really?
Letting out frustrations is good. I have done it many times. You just need to decide whether it's worth making noise about or its just something that is simply pointless. Not everything needs to make noise.
They are also, often times, just full of shit. You are passionate about something, fantastic. That's a great thing. Someone else is passionate about something else, that's even more fantastic. What isn't fantastic? Being pointlessly angry over the bare minimum. A piece of "nothing" that does not and will not change how the world functions. Then using buzzwords in order to rally people into an "Us vs Them" situation, to try and justify their point of nothingness. And yes the obvious point of anger is to do with... well if I say it, something may lose it, but the Gamergate "controversy" was such pointless stupid nonsense that didn't really achieve much and made people involve, both pro and anti, look ridiculously childish. Even mentioning names, AS and ZQ would cause anger. Anger over what? A point of view? An opinion? A personal matter? Really?
Letting out frustrations is good. I have done it many times. You just need to decide whether it's worth making noise about or its just something that is simply pointless. Not everything needs to make noise.
I feel you 100%. I'm still amazed I had so much time and energy to get riled up over arguments on the internet back when I was in college. Now that I have a job and have to pay rent, my list of "things worth arguing about" has shrunken dramatically.DudeistBelieve said:
I think when you get older and have less time / more responsibilities, you necessarily have to prioritize what's actually important to you vs. what's merely a "masturbatory exercise." At least for me, that necessity has given me a great deal of perspective on the things that really matter. And winning arguments on the internet just isn't one of those things!
Though, I'm happy to say I don't recall ever getting particularly angry over an argument, at least. I've always considered letting emotions (and their associated personal attacks) slip into arguments to be...uncivilized.
The_Kodu said:
Are you posting in the correct thread, on the correct planet? Why would you bring that obsession here? All you're going to do is derail it with another tedious GID argument. Show some decency; either keep it on-topic or leave these people in peace.
People have been complaining about passive aggression of certain users and how it's creating an awful environment for the forums.
Unfortunately, these complaints fell of deaf ears and unsurprisingly, most people got tired of it and didn't stick around.
Unfortunately, these complaints fell of deaf ears and unsurprisingly, most people got tired of it and didn't stick around.
Fappy said:
The reason why I see people getting, lets say, passionate online is because forums are geared for replies and some people just can't stop replying. I've seen some truly petty attempts to poke the bear in my brain but I've got that sucker on a short leash and heavily sedated. It is always funny seeing people trying to rile me up using Pokemon against me.
I don't think the problem is the anger. Anger is everywhere. I've been on sites where people are much "worse" than here. I visit 4chan on a daily basis. I know anger and insults very well.
The problem here is the heavy atmosphere. It's exactly as the first post said. The passive-aggressive creative insults meant to walk on the fine line of the rules is what makes this whole forum seem worse than it actually is.
When I'm on 4chan, I know what to expect. People are more honest there. You will get insulted over stupid things, but you will also see their honest opinions as long as you stay away from the popular boards. And even there you can have a somewhat decent discussion if you just ignore the people who are obviously baiting, trolling or being retarded on purpose. Here you can't even call out the obvious troll. But he can trow at you insult after insult as long as it's passive aggressive to circumvent the rules.
I don't know about you, but I don't mind insults. I just dislike the heavy atmosphere where people aren't allowed to insult each other but then find ways to do it in some elaborate way. It feels wore than when someone on 4chan calls me a ******, ******, retard or whatever new insult they come up with.
Don't get me wrong. I like it here as well. The site is my main source of games news, I love yathzee despite disagreeing with his videos more often than not. I enjoy the forum although I post maybe only 1/4th of all the posts I write. Usually I delete them because I decide it's not worth the discussion. And I know I'm also part of the problem. When I get annoyed by someone I resort to the same passive aggressiveness. Bend the rule until they are just about to be broken and stop. But I still think the "go fuck yourself you fucking mongrel" is far nicer than a wall of text that you can tl.dr. into the same shit.
I don't plan on leaving any time soon, but some more loose rules could help. Some actual insults instead of this pseudo-intellectual "look at how smart I am, so much smarter than you, I can insult you without breaking the rules" bullshit.
The problem here is the heavy atmosphere. It's exactly as the first post said. The passive-aggressive creative insults meant to walk on the fine line of the rules is what makes this whole forum seem worse than it actually is.
When I'm on 4chan, I know what to expect. People are more honest there. You will get insulted over stupid things, but you will also see their honest opinions as long as you stay away from the popular boards. And even there you can have a somewhat decent discussion if you just ignore the people who are obviously baiting, trolling or being retarded on purpose. Here you can't even call out the obvious troll. But he can trow at you insult after insult as long as it's passive aggressive to circumvent the rules.
I don't know about you, but I don't mind insults. I just dislike the heavy atmosphere where people aren't allowed to insult each other but then find ways to do it in some elaborate way. It feels wore than when someone on 4chan calls me a ******, ******, retard or whatever new insult they come up with.
Don't get me wrong. I like it here as well. The site is my main source of games news, I love yathzee despite disagreeing with his videos more often than not. I enjoy the forum although I post maybe only 1/4th of all the posts I write. Usually I delete them because I decide it's not worth the discussion. And I know I'm also part of the problem. When I get annoyed by someone I resort to the same passive aggressiveness. Bend the rule until they are just about to be broken and stop. But I still think the "go fuck yourself you fucking mongrel" is far nicer than a wall of text that you can tl.dr. into the same shit.
I don't plan on leaving any time soon, but some more loose rules could help. Some actual insults instead of this pseudo-intellectual "look at how smart I am, so much smarter than you, I can insult you without breaking the rules" bullshit.
It doesn't even need to be an "old school" forum. Other social sites suffer from the same issue with a few members of their respective communities. It's just that there are some folks who thrive on the drama that they create with the safety anonymity provides them.Fappy said:
Specifically to this site, there are some changes that will be made that, hopefully, help reduce the level of tension and passive aggressive behavior from folks who feel they must respond this way to be heard. Of course, it won't solve the issue that certain members only want to act that way.
That's good to hear. Historically, this community has had a lot of issues with passive aggressiveness. The CoC is written in such a way that a clever user can get away with insulting another poster without getting an infraction. I'm honestly not sure what can be done to fix it but I guarantee you'll never stop seeing people complain about it until something changes.n0e said:
Thankfully for you the community schism of 2014-2015 is more or less over (thanks GG :/). You've already seen that there's a lot of left over bad blood around here, but most of the problem users have long since been banned or left the site. I don't think it'll be as much of an issue later down the line.
If I had any advice it would be to keep an eye out for User Group drama. Many small communities within this site have imploded due to increased tensions within and between user groups. The snipes you saw derail the Mod chat a few days ago was likely due to leftover drama from a really ugly user group implosion that happened last year (I was at ground zero, as was a former mod). When these wars flare up it usually involves users "spying" on other groups and screen shotting incriminating posts, usually libeling someone outside the group. From what I have seen in the past, it's best to shut that kind of behavior down right away. It tends to spiral out of control quickly around here. Last time I was around for it all sorts of nastiness happened, including some people getting doxxed and such. Lost a lot of users due to that.
Anyway, don't want to tell you how to do your job. Just offering some insight!
Most of the time they aren't, people often assume that someone using harsh language is angry when it's simply a tool for emphasis.
This should be under basic internet 101 - remember you aren't talking to someone face to face, you may often assume the person is more frustrated or being more offensive than they actually are because you don't know the tone with which they are saying it. Many people add cursewords to there casual vocabulary irl.
This should be under basic internet 101 - remember you aren't talking to someone face to face, you may often assume the person is more frustrated or being more offensive than they actually are because you don't know the tone with which they are saying it. Many people add cursewords to there casual vocabulary irl.
Not just introspection, either. A lot of this could be solved by critical thinking: is this story I'm angry about valid?Cowabungaa said:
Hell, one thing that amazes me is that I'm on the internet. I can investigate a claim without ever once leaving this chair, or even leaving my browser. And I can come back to the topic at hand and say "actually, X is true," and people--also on the internet--will fire back with "you think you're so smart!"
It doesn't matter if I'm smart or dumb. Research is a tool in my toolkit. It's not a superpower. And it's a little troubling the number of people who seem to view intellect as a bad thing. Or that simply employing it is somehow a sign of superiority.
There's a video series I won't name on here because it will cause a shitstorm, but it makes a rather excellent point about inferred judgment calls. There is a tendency to jump on people who, for example, don't eat meat. The inferred notion here is "they don't eat meat, and I do, so they must think I'm a bad person."
I'm pretty sure the same applies here. And now we're back to reflection. I'm tired and in pain and kind of rambling now.
Yeah, well, I am fundamentally and diametrically opposed to everything you believe!Fappy said:
Also, you were much cooler as a cat!
...need some ointment for that burn? >.>
To be honest, I quite enjoy going through a thread where so much vitriol and vinegar has been spilled.
Maybe it's the voyeur in me that gets off by observing senseless drama, since I rarely participate.
My take on the issue is that people tend to take their discussions quite seriously. They leave a piece
of themselves on the internet, a piece which will probably be insulted and derided, but are not prepared
for what might follow.
Maybe it's the voyeur in me that gets off by observing senseless drama, since I rarely participate.
My take on the issue is that people tend to take their discussions quite seriously. They leave a piece
of themselves on the internet, a piece which will probably be insulted and derided, but are not prepared
for what might follow.