What makes a msg board site interesting ?

Interaction between various groups of people, good and bad,
postive comments as well as negative.
Lively debates, humour and even outrage at stupidity or crassness of someone else comments perk peoples interest.
All these things make up the melting pot which keeps people logging on to watch what happens next like a addiction to realtv shows. Humans seem captivated by watching each other interact even if it is by text.

Granted as with everything, moderation is the key.
Too many group hugs and threads with people blowing smoke up eachothers ass bores the shit out of people. Disney just aint interesting.
Too many arguments and it just gets up peoples noses as there always has to be some positive comments and laughs to balance it all out
If you cant poke fun at each other it tends to make for a very bland existance.

Ive seen a few threads today going on how peple left other sites becuase of childish fights abuse etc From what i did see the last time i was there, 90% of it appeared to be drivel including gormless threads on what people had ate that day, who was having some other imaginary persons baby and other such conversations. One might mistake for thinking they were in a kindergarten creche overhearing a few 4 yr olds discuss thier meaningful issues. Any wit or interesting comments seem to have left with a large number of users whohave ceased to use it for various reasons.

Ya see its pretty easy to pick the fuktards on such sites.
All you have to do is start a thread on a proper topic like the war in iraq or something topical and watch how the really retarded folk give it a wide berth as they dont have the brain matter to follow what the others are debating and fear saying anything to show how really ignorant they are. Instead, they head back to the "who has a picture of their ass?" threads to continue interacting at the level they can handle safe in the fact that no one will confuse them with big words or expect an intelligent response.

They also skip anything that contains more than 3 lines of text as they dont have the comprehension of a snail.

People bitch and moan. Humans tend to do that from time to time.
They vent, they discuss, they get pissed off and then vent and argue with each other. Often, unless one has been left dead or handicapped, they then get over it move on and find something else to capture their interest. People will develope friendships and also distain for other users as sites evolve. Often these will swap around quite frequently which is one of the most interesting aspects if you are a keen "people watcher" lol
Such is the nature of the beast.
To imagine some utopian site where everyone gets along and agrees with everyone else is a bit naive and doesnt sound the least bit interesting.
Granted i think we can give the serious staling freakos a big pass but the odd shit fight livens things up as well as the odd bit of gossip. It is what people do .............



Anyone care to comment ?

:wow:

I don't mind disagreements on certain subjects - we're human, we have them. But I think there is a difference between having a 'shit fight' (can I steal that quote?) and personally abusing someone. We have all met, pretty much, and know some personal things about each other, so I think there is a very fine line in being able to keep it off the net. It's human nature to want to hurt if you've been hurt. I think people would need to realise that this is 'just the internet' and concentrate on peoples opinions, not on the people themselves. Does this make sense??

I mean, I could conflict with something you say my dharlin...but I would say it in such a way like 'nah, see, that's YOUR opinion, mine is completely different .. this is what it is *yada yada* and this is why I think that *yada yada*...instead of saying..'nah, you're a fucken moron and you have no idea what you're talking about'. Does that make sense?

I'm all for controversy and differing opinions and bouncing things around but I really don't like personal abuse.

The idea of a disney site does indeed bore me to tears. I'm not interested in being part of a 'family type situation' where there is like the mum and dad and all the rules are their rules - and they will ban for a personal conflict of interest...such as 'oh i just don't like you'. Anyone that has spent anytime on irc knows the nazi ircops that will get rid of people simply because they don't like you - tis simple, chatters just don't go back to that site.

There has to be a level of freedom of speech, there has to be a level where the admins (if they're going to be active users) have to take a bit of flack without resorting to using their 'power' to control situations. I'm sure Ace and Col know what I mean..and Trogg - I'm aware you guys are all old school irc'ers. There is nothing worse than an active admin that can't handle situations and just resorts to banning....

I think I am rambling. I do hope I make sense.

Short answer is yes...I do believe conflicts are necessary to keep a 'spark', to keep a reason for coming back. I won't find anything interesting in a site where everyone blows smoke up everyone elses ass - I'm just not like that. If I don't like what someone is saying - regardless of who it is, then I don't like what they're saying.

I'll stop now. lol

[kall]

Just a little note here, if a post has been edited/moderated in any way, you will see a big, bold [Moderated - Reason] .. so there won't be any changes made without everyone knowing why.

On a related note, I seem to have a couple of issues happening with the database...posts text seem to be going in without a post to be attached to or something...so if a post you put up vanishes without reason..repost it.

ah see what i said about the 3 line rule .. :roll:

pmsl

[kall]

ah see what i said about the 3 line rule  .. :roll:  

pmsl

*looks around for excuse*

Ooh!

'What?! I had a huge post there...the database muct have eaten it....*shakes fist at internet*'

Oh differences in opinion are all good and I think you all make sense...but bugger that means I am agreeing with ya :roll:
i have not had a good belly laugh in ages from reading messageboards and my stomach muscles need it

oh no! agreement you say ?
we cant have that !
screws up the whole system you see ...

I want some fries with that bruce

[styx]

*waits for abridged version* :P

Nah, ok - a couple of comments . . .

I try to avoid the heated controversial topics, as I really can't be bothered with morons who refuse to accept logic, and keep arguing in circles. The pleasure of proving them totally wrong wears off after a while, when they are incapable of seeing reason

As for shit-fights, it depends on your definition. Where a rational debate has degenerated into infantile name-calling and schoolkid abuse, it's a bit of a waste of my time. I'm so far above the level of those poopy-pants people . . .

Anything gets tedious after prolonged exposure, and maybe I'll one day get bored with humourous topics and witty rejoinders, but I hope not

[Sparklechick]

:titflash: ... oh how juvenile of me!

I got caught up in name calling etc, it was juvenile I admit, but it did some good to vent I thought. Sure people probably thought less of me, but it made me feel better.

I'm just being completely honest here.

Anyhow, I won't be doing it any more, unless any of you lot piss me off :shock:

I see your point styx but see difference being, you did actually possess "wit" which was what i was talking about versus the " who wants to see a picture of my asss" threads which, to me seems like the same level of humour we experience in the first few years of primary school.

I am guilty of the getting caught up in the unwinable argument against morns bit.
That dude who used to have like 5 different logins and always come into the maori threads would be a good example. I cant help myself when logic fails it frustrates the hell out of me. When you can debate with someone and they put up logical arguments or have some sense of intelligence I find it rarely startes to dengrate.

[styx]

Oh, I got frustrated too, Col - I just hate being frustrated, so found it easier to give up

I mean, short of shooting the prats, what can you do? :blownaway:

yeh used to shit me to tears
The few times you would actually get a half decent debate going some moron who had been taken down a peg in some other misc thread would just have to wander in and have a crack.
I know full well I am prone to abusing extremely retarded users but i would like to think i also have the smarts to knock em down on logic or debate first given the option. There is also the sheep factor people heading to threads just becuase a reg started them no matter how inane or silly they may be.

The challenge here i think we have is to get the whole mix going attracting users who can stimulate threads on topics that will keep people coming back to read them. Fluff or mindless drivel seems to become very boring very quickly.

[Sparklechick]

*reminds self to remove fluffy threads previously posted*

[styx]

Hard to cater to everyone, but sure, there must be some gerneral-type topics that will make for interesting discussion

Experiment . . . lol

[styx]

*wipes chin and stops drivelling*

[Sparklechick]

I started one on traffic earlier ... I see it has a huge response to it.