People's behavior changing

[Fortunes_Friend]

After having visited the escapist for nearly 4 years now and creating an account for only writing a few comments, I want to make a topic myself which is kind of a big deal for me. For all those years that I have been on the escapist I learned a lot more about gaming, developers... and the internet itself. I have never been active a lot neither in this forum, nor on other sites. Even when I am not contributing much to the escapist's forum and threads, I read a lot of them and enjoy most of them.
But there is one thing that strikes me. It's the impression that (not only on the escapist) more and more users write in a passive aggressive style which means that they explain their points of views in a special manner. It is hard to describe so let me give you an example:

User A: I don't like it so much when I have to shoot people in games.

User B: I don't mind them. Shoot 'em all in the head! Lol

This is a typical example where User B wants to highlight his point of view by provoking with his statement. I don't have a problem with this kind of writing and I have to admit that is not offensive or disrespectful but the attitude of User B is kind of "in your face" towards User A.

I know that for enough people forums, youtube... are only platforms to boast, to provoke and to insult. That makes me sick! It is kind of cowardly when one is behaving in such a manner because in real life I think most of those "trolls" would never speak like that to that many people. I know that's one of the privileges of anonymity on the internet.
What I said here is not the case for the escapist because I enjoy the escapist regarding the really small amount of such people.

But it is the provoking way of answering that has started +/- 2 years ago. I am not blaming someone, maybe I am just to sensible but I think there is shift in behavior.

As I said in my first lines: I don't want to offend somenone and I am not blaming someone. I just wanted to contribute my thoughts.

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

Nah, people here are just far too fragile and have a compulsive need to point out objective and subjective things, it's quite pathetic. Stating your opinion as fact is fine because it's your opinion by default and people shouldn't need to have that pointed out to them by your stating it. Also guys, we get it, everything is subjective.

 

[lechat]

seems more like you are misreading the overempathtic use of Hyperbole common in non serious forums such as theescapist

e.g
"i don't like how you can kill kittens in games"
"fuck the bastards. die kitty die!!"
which really means
"i personally dont see an issue with it myself"

of

"i don't think angelina is that good looking"
"really? fap fap fap"
which really means
"i can see how some ppl find her attractive in fact i think she is ok myself"

 

[omega 616]

I am a user B, I don't intend to insult or offend, I'm just a blunt person.

I am really bad at explaining everything, so to combat it I started being very concise. Unfortunately it went wrong and now I usually come across the totally wrong way. I could say totally something with no bad intentions and to the other person it sound like the worst insult they ever heard.

Also means my threads on this site never go the way I want, even if I change the op to say so.

 

[Bertylicious]

I'd say it has a lot to do with the need to write in a compelling and conversational tone. For instance, I could say "Dark Souls is a hard game" which is a very precise but very boring statement but I would rather say "Dark Souls is harder than french kissing a cobra" which is both fun to read and a Carmageddon reference which will earn me mad kudos.

Furthermore there can be the desire to load the subtext. The Escapist has rules which are enforced and you don't want to overtly call someone a douchebag, even when you think their entire position is a direct result of their being a douchebag. It's for these situations that you need to reach for the good-old passive aggressive techniques that helped Britain build her empire. The insults that let people walk away feeling complimented before they look down and notice all the shit all over their shoes. Then again I'm an Englishman so that might just be the result of me only having a hammer and everything looking like a nail, if you catch my drift.

 

[Angie7F]

I only half heartedly read anything that is on the internet.

I do notice that I tend to write what is on my mind more freely than I do in real life.
But I think that is the same for many people, and that is what is so entertaining about the internet.

 

[JoJo]

Furthermore there can be the desire to load the subtext. The Escapist has rules which are enforced and you don't want to overtly call someone a douchebag, even when you think their entire position is a direct result of their being a douchebag. It's for these situations that you need to reach for the good-old passive aggressive techniques that helped Britain build her empire. The insults that let people walk away feeling complimented before they look down and notice all the shit all over their shoes. Then again I'm an Englishman so that might just be the result of me only having a hammer and everything looking like a nail, if you catch my drift.

Unfortunately it seems to me that passive aggressiveness on the Escapist is rarely that subtle, it's usually something along the lines of "anyone who believes X is an idiot" when the thread is X vs Y and a number of posters are advocating X. The poster doesn't aim the statement at any one user in particular and sadly since the mods only usually have time to see reported posts in isolation they get away with it, although it's intentions are obvious to anyone reading the thread.

 

[Bertylicious]

Furthermore there can be the desire to load the subtext. The Escapist has rules which are enforced and you don't want to overtly call someone a douchebag, even when you think their entire position is a direct result of their being a douchebag. It's for these situations that you need to reach for the good-old passive aggressive techniques that helped Britain build her empire. The insults that let people walk away feeling complimented before they look down and notice all the shit all over their shoes. Then again I'm an Englishman so that might just be the result of me only having a hammer and everything looking like a nail, if you catch my drift.

Unfortunately it seems to me that passive aggressiveness on the Escapist is rarely that subtle, it's usually something along the lines of "anyone who believes X is an idiot" when the thread is X vs Y and a number of posters are advocating X. The poster doesn't aim the statement at any one user in particular and sadly since the mods only usually have time to see reported posts in isolation they get away with it, although it's intentions are obvious to anyone reading the thread.

Well lets not carried away here; we don't want to castrate the conversation entirely. You still need to be able to have the capacity to have rigorous banter otherwise everyone will be too terrified to post for fear of upsetting someone.

EDIT: Also I think there's a bit of an issue here with the concept of truth. For example, I think Babylon 5 is great. I understand that there are people who do not think so, but that is because they are benighted at best and lying bastards, eye deep in sin and despised by God, living only to destroy what is good in the world by smearing their excremental opinions on anything that is genuinly pure in a crusade launched off from their own wretched need for some form of validation that can never be found in anything true. Such people should be opposed.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

But it is the provoking way of answering that has started +/- 2 years ago. I am not blaming someone, maybe I am just to sensible but I think there is shift in behavior.

As I said in my first lines: I don't want to offend somenone and I am not blaming someone. I just wanted to contribute my thoughts.

I don't mind those answers. Answer them all in the head! Lol!

Really though, I'm no less sarcastic or animated in "real" life, this isn't an "anonymity is my shield" situation where I'm a prick on the internet because I think I can get away with it. I'm just as likely to debate or be cutting face to face. The difference is, face to face you can see my body language, see my facial expressions, see that I'm calm, and understand that it's not personal and we're just having a discussion. Here on the internet I'll get the occasional accusation that I'm flipping my lid because I put one word in all caps for emphasis, and I often find a lot of time gets wasted explaining miscommunications because someone misread tone.

 

[Guffe]

snappedypoopedipoo

Love your avatar man!
I can see you've been here for some time since it's an UnforgottenRealm avatar
Loved the show during its time here, now they aren't really progressing anymore

I think this might be me sometimes (what you are talking about) but I think it has to do with me being a bad writer. I can't write well in any of the three languages I somewhat know. It has always been a problem and especially when argumenting/debating I might come of as pretty agressive even if I mean no harm.

 

[Fortunes_Friend]

Thank you for sharing your opinions. I am very happy with The Escapist because it offers a whole bunch of interesting content and most users are really nice. I just feared that this site could end like ...wait for it... (I don't know if I am allowed to name other sites here, so I will describe it ^_^) a site where you can upload videos and watch them and get most of the time dumb comments and troll wars.

snappedypoopedipoo

I think this might be me sometimes (what you are talking about) but I think it has to do with me being a bad writer. I can't write well in any of the three languages I somewhat know. It has always been a problem and especially when argumenting/debating I might come of as pretty agressive even if I mean no harm.

I don't have a problem with people writing like I told in my first post, but I mentioned my fear with "a site where you can upload videos and watch them and get most of the time dumb comments and troll was" and reading all the answers to my post makes me feel safe again.

*comes back to the playground*

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah... I'm probably guilty of that.

And yeah, I'm probably more in-your-face online then in real life. Although, that's partly because in real life I don't get ten minutes to formulate my thoughts and come up with something sarcastic to say.

Also, in real life people can see me relaxed and grinning like a fool and know that's it's usually not serious. You can't really grin online.

On the other hand, I'm still a huge contrarian in real life conversation. I'm that guy who will argue that Hitler was awesome just for the hell of it. After all, where's the fun in a conversation where everyone agrees? It would just be a whole lot of people nodding and saying, "Yes, yes, quite so. Yes indeed."