Lots of very sensible stuff being said in this thread; Trollheart about ignoring posts; GB about the conduct of debates are both spot on imo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pedestrian
.... I return from work. I unlace my shoes. I look at my computer, and think to myself. Do I want to log on to MB? No, **** it, I don't need that. I refuse to go online just to be made angry. And then I pick up a novel and put my emotions and energy into that instead.
|
^ This post made me the saddest of all
, although I think duga and some other members may be using rose-coloured specs to look at the MB past. I´ve occasionally dipped into some old threads, and the standard of discussion or response wasn´t noticably better than that of today as far as I could see. So I think AwwSugar makes a good point:-
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arya Stark
...
A couple of years ago there were STILL lounge posts. There were STILL posts about banned members and deleted posts and all that bull****. but you know what? it was taken with a grain of salt! People laughed **** off and moved on....
|
I have no problem with the lounge; to quote Jerry Garcia
,"Believe it if you need it, if you don´t just pass it on..."
Quote:
Originally Posted by misspoptart
... Since I first arrived, I've had the sense that if I didn't respond to lounge posts or participate in the popular threads I wouldn't fit in or might not get noticed....
|
^ I think Miss P makes a very pertinent remark about newbie mentality here. After all, what most newcomers want is a little recognition, and the lounge seems the best place to get that.
I´m sure I´m not the only one to notice the irony that this community-center thread is much hotter than the music forum threads that it intends to promote. We all like to rub shoulders in the same thread occasionally, and that doesn´t often happen in the music forums. You can post in those and be completely ignored, and I´m sure that affects newbie moral more than the ranting and drama they sometimes witness.
So, in a rather rambling post, I´m suggesting:-
i) the lounge and its policing are being done well enough as is.
ii) MB could encourage more action in the music threads. One possibility could be to re-start the weekly genre threads that Pedestrian, I think, was the last to operate. Remember those ? They were good at generating the
frisson of a crowd scene in a music forum. (A variation could also be to nominate a particular forum for attention each week.)
iii) understandably, old-timers (and I don´t exclude myself from this behaviour) sometimes leapfrog newbies´ posts and just reply to their friends posts back up there in the thread somewhere... Perhaps we should be more aware of how demoralizing this may seem to a newbie.