The Stagnation of the Escapist forums.

[SmartIdiot]

I come here for intelligent discussion and game related news, there always will be foolish people making foolish threads, but why punish them for being themselves?

At least they're not trying to be something they're not, they embrace their foolishness and live with it.

Also, a lot of people who say they think they're smarter than 95% of the people around them are angry with humanity, talking in hyperbole or just in a bad mood.

No I'm not. You just don't understand me because I'm smarter than 95% of everyone here. Actually, 96%.

Crappy, unfunny responses aside the OP has a point. There seems to be a level of detatched discussion in a lot of the thread with many users either skipping a few posts because they're too long or not reading a full post before adding their own response. As a result we get all these one liners, repeat posts and half-assed discussions which, most of the time, result in the two people going "oh yeah you're right, sorry, I was an ignorant prick and I forgot to read the latter half of your post" then "don't worry about it, I am a total douchebag myself" hahaha etc. friends forever.

However that's not to say The Escapist is completely devoid of dicussion, nor full of douchebags and socially incompetent weirdos, most of the time it is just because (and I quote again)

Also, a lot of people who say they think they're smarter than 95% of the people around them are angry with humanity, talking in hyperbole or just in a bad mood.

I've been guilty of this, I'm sure many others have too. Oh crap! We're human!

 

[Mr.Switchblade]

Too many teenagers, sorry kiddies.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I had someone call me a 'dick', and 'gay' the other day, reported it and I see they haven't even been put on probation.

The reason they did was I asked them to be less hyperbolic and aggressive when they posted the following contribution:

'SHIT REVIEW UR WRONG DIE A LOT'

If people get away with this kind of crap, no wonder it becomes less fun for the people who just want to come here to get along.

Here, see for yourself:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.160205

Well thanks for the heads up.
He won't bother anyone anymore.

As a relatively new MOD, let me say that the 'report' button is woefully underused.
And so is the ability to just go ahead and PM a MOD if you see something. We don't mind a PM, and welcome the ability to strike quickly at people who, essentially, ruin the forums for everyone else.

While there are only a select few MODs, we like to think that it's a community effort to keep the forums 'clean'. You guys press the report buttons, you guys send the PMs. I know a bunch of members already PM me all the time with threads or posts that are breaking rules, and that's awesome! And I know for a fact that other MODs appreciate it as well. We're human, and can't be in every thread at once! If this is the place where you guys want to hang out and post threads, that's great! So take some ownership! Hit that report button, PM a MOD, and don't dignify stupid posts or threads with a response.

Cool, that's really good to know, man. Will either PM yourself or NeonBob so?

 

[Neonbob]

I've got a few quick points.
-what often happens when two posters start "conversing" in a thread is that they derail the whole thing.
I know I've been guilty of that in the past.
-Most people come here to be entertained by the words on the screen in front of them. Serious discussions are not always on the list of "stuff ____ wants to do."
So they just come on and try to say something original while still sticking to the topic.
-I'm only closing in on a year, but this kind of complaint seems to happen quite often.
The forum is not dieing. It's okay. If you really want to try and change it, make some original, thought-provoking responses, and ignore the people who come in with snippets of "tl;dr" or the like.

Hit that report button, PM a MOD, and don't dignify stupid posts or threads with a response.

Cool, that's really good to know, man. Will either PM yourself or NeonBob so?

...wait, why are you going to PM me?
It may look like I have some kind of power, but I must say it's only in my head.
And a little in my fingers, but that's beside the point.
I'd stick to PMing BT/Ultra/Labby/other mods.
<color=white>[sup][sup]even thought I'm still e-scared of the others[/sup][/sup]

Is Neonbob still here? I haven't seen him in a while.

*pokes in face*
Hiya. I hear you've missed me somehow.
I'm here to rectify that situation.

 

[Souplex]

The Escapist kind of works in cycles. Right now, I feel we are in a good cycle. You haven't been here long enough to know what you are talking aboot kid.

 

[Mykonos]

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

 

[Lemon Of Life]

I am more intelligent than a alot of people, with an IQ of 130 I'm well above average I don't pretend to be cool and offer my opinion as I see it. quote]

Don't be a fag.

 

[SharPhoe]

The Escapist kind of works in cycles. Right now, I feel we are in a good cycle. You haven't been here long enough to know what you are talking aboot kid.

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

...You two had to have planned that. I mean, I agree and all, but seriously.

 

[Souplex]

The Escapist kind of works in cycles. Right now, I feel we are in a good cycle. You haven't been here long enough to know what you are talking aboot kid.

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

...You two had to have planned that. I mean, I agree and all, but seriously.

No, people just have the tendency to copy my genius. When people see something great, they need to copy it.

 

[Mykonos]

The Escapist kind of works in cycles. Right now, I feel we are in a good cycle. You haven't been here long enough to know what you are talking aboot kid.

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

...You two had to have planned that. I mean, I agree and all, but seriously.

Not really, folks usually just attempt to mimic my wisdom. When they see something spectacular, they must mimic it.

 

[xDarc]

*sigh*

You've been here for 90 posts so you really don't know the forum well enough to understand it.

What does that matter? You go on to eventually agree with him anyway.

I've been posting on message boards for a long time. Does anyone remember insidetheweb.com? Like 1997. Point is I've gone through countless internet forums and it really doesn't take long to spot the flaws of this one.

I think the OP is spot on about a lot of things. I don't think all the introspection on these forums lately is going to be an overnight catalyst for change... but it is something that is painfully obvious and needs to be said.

I am trying to find a new forum "home." Internet message boards die out. It's a fact of tubez-life.

 

[Disaster Button]

This post reeks of massive hypocrisy.

A lot of the things you pointed out are mainly your own judgements and opinions, not that there's anything wrong with sharing your opinion, but theres a big difference between offering it and claiming its fact and expecting people to treat it as such.

The fact that there are like midned responses to certain threads is due to people actually agreeing with each other or sharing the same opinion. People aren't unique in every way to an extent where every response will be completely unique and different from the last. People do share opinions.

Something I do agree with you on is the amount of people who claim to be psychopaths hoping it'll make them unique and "cool." Some of its funny but a lot of it kinda bugs me. Besides, real psychopaths don't have to announce it, it comes across in the way the speak anyway.

I always seem to get into all kinds of conversations in threads though. But a reason why it might seem that not a lot of conversing goes on is that to converse you actually go off the subject the thread was started for. Doesn't make it any less awesome when it does happen though. And it does happen a lot more than you think it seems to.

 

[JWAN]

Well for the year I've been here the only thing I wish would change would be a program that would hunt down people with repeat threads and break their fingers. I don't really care that every day is bashing Christians or Americans by people who have never even tried to consider things from another point of view (or probably have never even had a full conversation with either outside of the shiny box that sits on a desk that takes magic out of a plug in the wall and turns it into flashy words and porn on a screen) I give them shit just to let them know that I don't take it like the pussy pres.

Really nothing has changed, the slant is still slanty and the internet gutter snipes still are taking random aim at issues they don't fully understand (but yet think they do). The day this changes is the day the internet isn't the internet.

This is the internet.

 

[Disaster Button]

The Escapist kind of works in cycles. Right now, I feel we are in a good cycle. You haven't been here long enough to know what you are talking aboot kid.

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

...You two had to have planned that. I mean, I agree and all, but seriously.

Not really, folks usually just attempt to mimic my wisdom. When they see something spectacular, they must mimic it.

The Escapist kind of works in cycles. Right now, I feel we are in a good cycle. You haven't been here long enough to know what you are talking aboot kid.

Well...The Escapist kind of works in loops. At the moment, I think we're in a good loop. You don't seem to truly know what your talking about boy, you haven't been here that long.

...You two had to have planned that. I mean, I agree and all, but seriously.

No, people just have the tendency to copy my genius. When people see something great, they need to copy it.

This is going to be good.

The level of irony in the fact that this is happening in a "REPEATS ARE BAD LOL" thread is making me drool.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I

Hit that report button, PM a MOD, and don't dignify stupid posts or threads with a response.

Cool, that's really good to know, man. Will either PM yourself or NeonBob so?

...wait, why are you going to PM me?
It may look like I have some kind of power, but I must say it's only in my head.
And a little in my fingers, but that's beside the point.
I'd stick to PMing BT/Ultra/Labby/other mods.
<color=white>[sup][sup]even thought I'm still e-scared of the others[/sup][/sup]

Ah... I got you confused with Ultrajoe, wasn't sure which of you was a mod...

Neonbob
Ultrajoe

You both have a double syllable adjective followed by a single syllable name...

Ok so it's not THAT easy a mistake to make but you can see how someone might... maybe... if they're dumb... like me...

 

[DRADIS C0ntact]

I've been visiting this site since the very beginning, when the weekly issues resembled an actual magazine and had downloadable PDF's to boot. I've been posting on and off of the forums since they went up as well and I have to agree with the OP. Things aren't the same as they used to be. It started with the attitudes and just the rudeness in general. I couldn't make a single post without someone trying to be sarcastic in response. I've lost faith in the moderators. I said I've been here since the start, but you wouldn't know that from my join date because this is my fourth account. The moderators have perma-banned my IP address three times now. And not just the IP at my apartment, but any IP associated with my accounts at all...lucky for me, unlucky for them, I know how to change my cable modem's IP address. It's a bit of a hassle though, so if I get banned again I likely won't come back. I don't post here nearly as often as I used to.

 

[Sedweiler]

This thread has been extremely interesting reading. It has made me vow to try to partipate more in discussions that interest me, rather than lurk. I have recently lurked a lot in all forums that I frequent. It just seems that the level of procnastinating grows year after year.

More OT...
I am still a lot oblivious of the old days, as I have mostly ignored topics that focus on the old topics. But I have seen a bit too many "Bash MW2/Twilight/whatever" -topics. Although I must say that I often enjoy pointless babbling.

 

[Neonbob]

I

Hit that report button, PM a MOD, and don't dignify stupid posts or threads with a response.

Cool, that's really good to know, man. Will either PM yourself or NeonBob so?

...wait, why are you going to PM me?
It may look like I have some kind of power, but I must say it's only in my head.
And a little in my fingers, but that's beside the point.
I'd stick to PMing BT/Ultra/Labby/other mods.
<color=white>[sup][sup]even thought I'm still e-scared of the others[/sup][/sup]

Ah... I got you confused with Ultrajoe, wasn't sure which of you was a mod...

Neonbob
Ultrajoe

You both have a double syllable adjective followed by a single syllable name...

Ok so it's not THAT easy a mistake to make but you can see how someone might... maybe... if they're dumb... like me...

Heh.
*pats on giant robot head*
It's all good.
I had a slight sensation of being important there!
So I must thank you for that.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

That OP didn't really focus on making the forums a better place to hold discussions. It pointed out flaws in the forums on this site discussion wise, but it didn't really say much on how to make these forums 'a better place'.

One thing to remember is that The Escapist, like any company trying to earn money and profit, has a target audience which it tries to sell its product to -- in the case of The Escapist, the main audience is gamers but it also looks at people who are interested in digital culture in general, including gaming, music and the Internet. This means that the majority of users on this site will have generally similar opinions, although they will differ the further away you get from the main topic of gaming. So one of those opinions could easily be that people prefer to speak their own opinion than converse with someone else's, or put their own opinion as a priority instead of someone else's.

Also, you [the OP] mention that the majority of people go to these forums because they're bored, and that we should try to make people want to go to these forums when they're not bored instead, and make them want to come to these boards when they're not bored. But why should we come on here when we're not bored? When you're not bored you're usually doing something that you like doing, or you're about to do something that you like doing. Why should we stop to look at a bunch of words on a screen? Most of us came to these forums as an afterthought from watching Zero Punctuation and then found a thread to pass the time posting in. So essentially, we came to these forums as a way of wasting time because we were bored. I also don't see how lack of discussion links to you [people in general] only coming this site when you're bored. People go on sites mostly when they're bored anyway, even ones with heavy discussion, so what is there to inferr in relation to a lack of discussion?

I find it quite hypocritical that the OP complains/ rants about a lack of discussion on these forums, the legendary 'golden age' and that we should try to make these forums a better place, whilst in the same post calling us all elitists who think we're better than each other and frowning upon us for it.

The reason for a lack of discussion and user interaction isn't because of elitism and ass-hattery on these boards, it's because of the fact that there are simply so many users now in these forums as the site grows that people can't read every post in a single thread anymore before trying to respond to the ones they want to discuss. It's also partially due to the topics chosen for discussion and how big and detailed threads go in discussion. People come here to pass the time generally (as you have already said), not to read a several-mile long post and think deeply about answering it.

Besides, this was the sole reason why user groups were created; as a way of keeping discussion going within a limited amount of users so we can talk as we want with other users and take our time thinking about discussions.

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

I partly blame Yahtzee. All the children from Gamespot and Gametrailers with their Yahtzee avatars keep joining saying "OMG yahtzee totally pwned that game and was so funneh, he's so cewl and I'm definutely not gettin that crappy dum game for my crismas cuz he said so lulz."

And so begin the "Halo sucks/rulez/is overrated" and the "What's the best console?" and the "Well I was wif this gurl and I want her to be my gurlfriend and totally bone her insides but I need advice from random people on the internet lulz" threads.