Poll: Has the Escapist community changed? Or is it just me?

[Greni]

Well this thread seems to have deteriorated into an MLP hatefest with trolls and people who didn't like my topic. It's a shame, but on the upside it took about 4 pages to get really bad.

I guess that's what I get for wanting to have a thread with a point.

Indeed. I hope you have learned your lesson.

On a less serious note: This thread though pretty much sums up your points made in the op...

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Well of course its changed, forums always change, especially whens theres such an influx of new members.
Its weird not seeing as many 2008/2009 escapists now, and its even stranger still that in about 2 years im probably going to be considered an older member.
One change I have noticed though is that there is a lot less elitism around, its still there, but not as pronounced as it used to be. I remember when people would constantly refer to this site as "The Last Bastion of Intelligent Discussion" , and you wont believe how incredibly grateful I am that we managed to get that stick out of our asses

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Seems that since the layout changed there are a lot less threads that are actually interesting enough to click on.

 

[anthony87]

I understand you're angry, but posting in all caps doesn't give your argument any more merit.

Yeah, sorry about that.
I didn't actually type that comment in caps (quote me again, or edit your post to see this).
It's actually because of the escapist's new format.
I wanted to make the text big so it didn't get lost in the thread.
The only way of doing this, without the text 'squishing up' (like the suspended posts above), was to use "h1" tags.
Unfortunately, this also converts it into caps.

Once again, I apologise.

Aside from the all caps thing which as you said, wasn't your fault, I agree with what you posted with regards to the holier-than-thou attitudes you see around here.

I don't understand why that post deserved a warning. Are we not allowed say stuff like that anymore?

 

[anthony87]

Been lurking since 2008 and it seems like everything is so repetitive now.
Also I'm often scared to post my opinion on the interesting subjects for fear of being banned.

Right on target. It's hard to disagree any more, more so if your opinion differs from the masses, the masses who think it's their duty to ban those that disagree with them [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.336391-Poll-Has-the-Escapist-community-changed-Or-is-it-just-me?page=3#13587279]

You present your point in an antagonistic way so you shouldn't be surprised when it's met with hostility. Although I will agree that the particular post you linked to seemed rather.....cultish.

 

[bad rider]

It's funny how many times this thread has been repeated. Every couple months like clockwork. I guess this can easily be interpreted as my answer to whether the escapist has changed or not.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Been lurking since 2008 and it seems like everything is so repetitive now.
Also I'm often scared to post my opinion on the interesting subjects for fear of being banned.

Right on target. It's hard to disagree any more, more so if your opinion differs from the masses, the masses who think it's their duty to ban those that disagree with them [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.336391-Poll-Has-the-Escapist-community-changed-Or-is-it-just-me?page=3#13587279]

You present your point in an antagonistic way so you shouldn't be surprised when it's met with hostility. Although I will agree that the particular post you linked to seemed rather.....cultish.

That was me just being a little bit immature and quick to post. I got a warning for it and I wholly deserved it. One of the reasons I made that post was that I just didn't want The Cool Kid to continue with the massive derailing debate that had been going on, and threatening seemed like the only way The Cool Kid could be dealt with. It was also meant to be a warning to the Cool Kid, because he is basically going down the same route as Jimbo and Jimbo has gotten a suspension already.

 

[anthony87]

Been lurking since 2008 and it seems like everything is so repetitive now.
Also I'm often scared to post my opinion on the interesting subjects for fear of being banned.

Right on target. It's hard to disagree any more, more so if your opinion differs from the masses, the masses who think it's their duty to ban those that disagree with them [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.336391-Poll-Has-the-Escapist-community-changed-Or-is-it-just-me?page=3#13587279]

You present your point in an antagonistic way so you shouldn't be surprised when it's met with hostility. Although I will agree that the particular post you linked to seemed rather.....cultish.

That was me just being a little bit immature and quick to post. I got a warning for it and I wholly deserved it. One of the reasons I made that post was that I just didn't want The Cool Kid to continue with the massive derailing debate that had been going on, and threatening seemed like the only way The Cool Kid could be dealt with. It was also meant to be a warning to the Cool Kid, because he is basically going down the same route as Jimbo and Jimbo has gotten a suspension already.

Yeah I understand what you mean. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the two of them are the same guy. And perhaps my "cultish" remark was a bit too much.

See Internet? It IS possible!

 

[Suicidejim]

The quality and intelligence brought to the forums are what we, the users, bring to them. I haven't been on here particularly long, so I'm hardly qualified to address the subject of how much the community has changed, but I personally have found this site to be a remarkably sane and intelligent one for the duration of my time here. True, you get some threads or posters who don't do a great deal to further any deep intellectual debate, or even the sense of fun and enjoyment, but there are a lot of intelligent and open-minded people on these forums, and I love reading many of the discussions that go on. It's not perfect (nothing is, or ever should be), but it's still pretty damn good, in my most humble opinion.

On another note, perhaps one reason that a lot of intelligent discussion is slowing down may relate to the fact that people are always called out for threads that have been made before. I understand this practice, and it is certainly justified, but at the same time, you have to wonder how many times the average person is likely to come up with a completely original discussion point that nobody has yet addressed. I mean, realistically speaking, it's likely that the average person doesn't have as much as a single thought that hasn't already occurred to somebody else in the sands of history (or that the few original ones are either ill-informed or not very discussion-worthy). A repost of a thread that has already happened before does have the benefit of revitalizing a conversation that had wound down simply by virtue of the fact that newer discussions had smothered it, and pushed them out of the view of other users. I'm not really advocating a 'don't check the search bar policy,' since that would be chaos, and indeed cause the site to become little more than repetitive nonsense, rather I'm pointing out one reason why well reasoned and intelligent debates are becoming a rarer beast - simply because there are fewer to have.

You don't always have to use big words. It makes it almost as hard to read as if you were bad at english. Obvioisly a good vocabulary is good, but not every word needs to be embellished. Anyways, good post

Trust me, I have tried. This is actually how I talk 90% of the time. And yes, I know it makes me sound like a complete wanker. Still, everyone's got their quirks, and at least it's not as bad as necrophilia or setting cats on fire. Although I do have to drown various dark urges when a person actually says the word 'lol.'

 

[ToastiestZombie]

Been lurking since 2008 and it seems like everything is so repetitive now.
Also I'm often scared to post my opinion on the interesting subjects for fear of being banned.

Right on target. It's hard to disagree any more, more so if your opinion differs from the masses, the masses who think it's their duty to ban those that disagree with them [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.336391-Poll-Has-the-Escapist-community-changed-Or-is-it-just-me?page=3#13587279]

You present your point in an antagonistic way so you shouldn't be surprised when it's met with hostility. Although I will agree that the particular post you linked to seemed rather.....cultish.

That was me just being a little bit immature and quick to post. I got a warning for it and I wholly deserved it. One of the reasons I made that post was that I just didn't want The Cool Kid to continue with the massive derailing debate that had been going on, and threatening seemed like the only way The Cool Kid could be dealt with. It was also meant to be a warning to the Cool Kid, because he is basically going down the same route as Jimbo and Jimbo has gotten a suspension already.

Yeah I understand what you mean. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the two of them are the same guy. And perhaps my "cultish" remark was a bit too much.

See Internet? It IS possible!

Oh yeh didn't I get into an argument with you about MLP a few months ago? I swear I did. I definetly got into an argument with you about something.

Still the internet just needs to learn to put their differences besides them, for science, you monster.

 

[Mariena]

Oh, you kids should have seen the forums when Zero Punctuation joined the site. And you thought Skyrim/BF3/MW3 threads are bad.

 

[crudus]

Yes it has changed, but not in the way you think. We got bigger which means the dynamic almost had to change in return. Search bar pirates can't effectively do their "job" when they have to dig through 100s of threads to find the one they want. There still are intelligent discussions though, but it seems to start to get eclipsed by people just repeating everyone's argument. The only change is the size. People still gripe about the same things, and people still act the same. Size is the only difference.

1.Skyrim (For the love of god, I don't care what hundreth skillpoint you used or how you're a hipster because you don't like Skyrim. I've seen enough)

I have a feeling it is going the way of Portal really damn quick. Oh wait, it is heading that way already.

 

[Something Amyss]

Change scares and confuses me. Therefore, it is all bad.

 

[Jedamethis]

Yeah it's changed. I suppose I could be convinced to give a small fuck. I still have fun, so I'm not fussed.

 

[Toasty Virus]

I've been lurking since about 2007, and yeah, It really has changed for the worse.

I don't feel like posting in threads now, and I miss the old faces like Furburt or Hublib (however they were spelt, it's been that long!)

I just stick to usergroups and lurking now, it's sad

 

[Westaway]

The quality and intelligence brought to the forums are what we, the users, bring to them. I haven't been on here particularly long, so I'm hardly qualified to address the subject of how much the community has changed, but I personally have found this site to be a remarkably sane and intelligent one for the duration of my time here. True, you get some threads or posters who don't do a great deal to further any deep intellectual debate, or even the sense of fun and enjoyment, but there are a lot of intelligent and open-minded people on these forums, and I love reading many of the discussions that go on. It's not perfect (nothing is, or ever should be), but it's still pretty damn good, in my most humble opinion.

On another note, perhaps one reason that a lot of intelligent discussion is slowing down may relate to the fact that people are always called out for threads that have been made before. I understand this practice, and it is certainly justified, but at the same time, you have to wonder how many times the average person is likely to come up with a completely original discussion point that nobody has yet addressed. I mean, realistically speaking, it's likely that the average person doesn't have as much as a single thought that hasn't already occurred to somebody else in the sands of history (or that the few original ones are either ill-informed or not very discussion-worthy). A repost of a thread that has already happened before does have the benefit of revitalizing a conversation that had wound down simply by virtue of the fact that newer discussions had smothered it, and pushed them out of the view of other users. I'm not really advocating a 'don't check the search bar policy,' since that would be chaos, and indeed cause the site to become little more than repetitive nonsense, rather I'm pointing out one reason why well reasoned and intelligent debates are becoming a rarer beast - simply because there are fewer to have.

You don't always have to use big words. It makes it almost as hard to read as if you were bad at english. Obvioisly a good vocabulary is good, but not every word needs to be embellished. Anyways, good post

Trust me, I have tried. This is actually how I talk 90% of the time. And yes, I know it makes me sound like a complete wanker. Still, everyone's got their quirks, and at least it's not as bad as necrophilia or setting cats on fire. Although I do have to drown various dark urges when a person actually says the word 'lol.'

Fair enough. For a moment I thought you were doing it to look smart or something, but that's obviously not the case. I hold my tongue next time...

 

[I-Protest-I]

Happens to every forum eventually, people feel... unhappy at the way a site is and move on leaving some to question why it can't always be like it was but that's just what happens. Forums attract new people with new ideas and it changes with them.

 

[not_the_dm]

Communities always change, people come and go. Scde2 arrived and made about 10K posts in 6 months, Demented Teddy got banned for "being a constant nuisance" (I think that's what the reason was), Furburt and the guys left and started a leprechaun themed forum, I got distracted from forum games by tedious things like work. Got back to find that forum games had been declared redundant (but still going strong) and the most off topic thread of all time had been abandoned not once, but twice. Last time I was there I was a green velvet armchair (infinate improbibility drive, I think...). But hey, that's life. (mmmmff...)

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/for...p-beside-the-above-Escapists-avatar?page=1158

There are infact two threads inspired by the original premise of Sevre's, one of which now has more pages. And this thread too has descended into off-topicness.

EDIT: Oooo! The code of conduct has changed...

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Of course it has. People leave, and people arrive. It is undoubtedly going to change.