Forum etiquette - double-posting vs separating ideas?

[KisaiTenshi]

But, you're not looking to debate or discuss ideas rationally, you're just looking for being told that you're right.

Nope. Take a closer look at what I actually said.

Most "western" forums don't have these limits, because western people have an inflated ego, and see "dem's fightin' words" everywhere if everyone isn't praising them.

And if you start moderating them, they cry censorship! Free Speech! Blah blah blah.

But that wasn't enough, because YOU took it as a personal insult first.

.....I think that's a bit rude to make a generalized assumption that everyone who lives on the western side of the hemisphere have inflated egos, especially after you just talked about flamewars and trolls. I mean, it doesn't matter what side of the world you live on, everyone has an ego, just some people make their own more apparent than others.

To which I responded to why that is the case:

I manage/manged 4 or so "big" boards, and there are entire forums dedicated to "forum games" that do nothing but inflate the post count. Trust me, people post, just to be seen.

At least two of these boards date back to 1999. I've seen things. I've also seen how Reddit and 4chan have turned "forums" participants into rage warriors. Twitter and Tumblr have done nothing but drive a wedge between people who would get along if it wasn't for this incessant need for people to "call out" people they disagree with. A not-recent thing is "receipting" which is when people take screenshots of other peoples social media posts, often without their knowledge in a vendetta to try and shut the person up. This is all old drama that I've had front row seats to before.

The fact is, in point form:

1. The people who participate on large forums, feel the need to be seen.

Larger post counts in the case of is seen as a competitive ego challenge. There are entire forums, where there's sub-forums set aside for people to do nothing but ****-post in to keep it out of the General discussion where moderators don't want to keep removing their posts. This 100% true, and I have not seen any exception to this except when a forum is either very small, or has aggressive moderation. The SE forum for all that matters is unmoderated, and only limited by the post count.

If you read something else from that point that isn't "the post count limit is designed to prevent people from ****-posting endlessly" you're reading the wrong thing from it. If the post count didn't exist, the tech forum would be more useful, because as it stands right now, the tech forum allows you to post without the limit, but counts against the global limit, so if you respond 25 times on the tech forum, you will be unable to post anywhere else for two days.

2. When you try to moderate an English Language forum, you will get accused of censorship, hence many forums try to have a light touch as possible to avoid notorious trolls from crying censorship and dividing the community as to if their ban was worth the forum cleanup. In Customer Service situations, everyone can see what you're saying, and some people are intentionally "receipting" behaviors to show they were being mistreated, when in context, they were the instigators.

3. If you really care about what you have to say, start a blog. Nothing says forum participation is more worthless more than carefully researching a post that takes an hour, only to have the usual band of ****-posters latch onto the most generalized part of the post and go "Not everyone..."

Which is what happened here. You've found insult, where none was implied. You took a deliberate gross exaggeration and made it personal. Then others decided to dogpile on that without the context. If only there was a standard for sarcasm on the internet s/ .

So you're expecting a few more folks? Oh, do tell. *grabs notebook* I'm verrrry curious.

*kitten smile*

My Self-fullfilling Prophecy bingo card is almost filled out. What about yours? :P

But you did this very thing but a page ago. So... are you not rude as well. After all, by your own rules, snipping posts is rude.

Deleting everything but what you respond to is not "snipping". Deleting everything from the quoted post and replacing it with "snip" or something like "blahblahblah" is rude. If I remove a part of quoted post, it's because I'm not responding to the rest of it for reasons of either "context" or "focus". As the forum actively prevents double-quoting, the only way to get the complete context for a post is to quote the pieces necessary, and forum software often has a limit to this as well.

Use Google Scholar and look up "Social desirability, anonymity, and internet-based questionnaires", or "Can You See the Real Me? Activation and Expression of the True Self on the Internet"

People, simply put, are uninhibited on the internet when they are anonymous. People who post a lot, want to be seen, or want to be popular. People who are raging trolls on the interent, are bullies, and likely to ignore rules as long as they get what they want.

[HyoMinPark]

But that wasn't enough, because YOU took it as a personal insult first.

.....I think that's a bit rude to make a generalized assumption that everyone who lives on the western side of the hemisphere have inflated egos, especially after you just talked about flamewars and trolls. I mean, it doesn't matter what side of the world you live on, everyone has an ego, just some people make their own more apparent than others.

Where in this post does Sigma give any indication that they took it as a personal insult?

They’re pointing out that it’s rude to make sweeping generalizations against people that you don’t know, and that you have still not provided any evidence on to actually back up as fact. The two studies you posted earlier had zero to do “westerners have inflated egos”; they didn’t prove that in the least. All they said were people were less inhibited on online communities, which, again, nobody was even talking about. Nobody even said otherwise. They said that it is wrong for you to be making blanket assumptions.

Everyone in every corner of the world has ego; it’s not just limited to one half of it.

There is no taking personal insult to your post; you’re just assuming things to try and further your own argument. Assumptions don’t make for good evidence for arguments.

The fact is, in point form:

1. The people who participate on large forums, feel the need to be seen.

Larger post counts in the case of is seen as a competitive ego challenge. There are entire forums, where there's sub-forums set aside for people to do nothing but ****-post in to keep it out of the General discussion where moderators don't want to keep removing their posts. This 100% true, and I have not seen any exception to this except when a forum is either very small, or has aggressive moderation. The SE forum for all that matters is unmoderated, and only limited by the post count.

Do you have any factual evidence of this? Sorry, I cannot take your word for fact. Please post something that is actually relevant to the conversation and not a tangent.

Which is what happened here. You've found insult, where none was implied. You took a deliberate gross exaggeration and made it personal.

So was this deliberate, gross exaggeration supposed to be nice and friendly?

[Sigma-Astra]

But that wasn't enough, because YOU took it as a personal insult first.

How would you know if I took it as a personal insult? Do you have any significant proof that I live on the western side of the hemisphere? Do you have any proof at all besides your own assumptions what kind of nationality that I might be? Do you live next door to me?

I manage/manged 4 or so "big" boards, and there are entire forums dedicated to "forum games" that do nothing but inflate the post count. Trust me, people post, just to be seen.

Your self-proclaimed responsibilities of managing several online messaging communities does not mean you're some world-traveled philosopher with a P.h.D in human behavioral studies. I don't see why that's even relevant towards the conversation when making blanket statements generalizing and condemning a large group of people in a negative viewpoint is justifiable on any sort of level. That's called discrimination, which is basically what you're advocating here.

Most "western" forums don't have these limits, because western people have an inflated ego, and see "dem's fightin' words" everywhere if everyone isn't praising them.

Which is what happened here. You've found insult, where none was implied. You took a deliberate gross exaggeration and made it personal. Then others decided to dogpile on that without the context. If only there was a standard for sarcasm on the internet s/ .

If you weren't implying on insulting the entire western half of the world, then why did you say something so ignorant and arrogant only to flop after several people catch you in the act? That's not even a gross exaggeration, that's a deliberate flame against a laaaarge chunk of people. I don't want to start throwing the "r" word around, but...

I've never met a person who tries to justify being so rude and hateful with non-relevant examples as if managing a forum somehow gives you a degree in human psychology or a right to just bash a variety of people from different cultures and backgrounds freely. This is just...mind boggling on all levels.

[KaivaC]

My Self-fullfilling Prophecy bingo card is almost filled out. What about yours? :P

A "self-fulfilling prophecy" that's really just bait. *thumbs up*

[Tridus]

My Self-fullfilling Prophecy bingo card is almost filled out. What about yours? :P

This was a highly insightful comment and not at all someone posting just to be seen, right?

[Miste]

carefully researching a post that takes an hour, only to have the usual band of ****-posters latch onto the most generalized part of the post and go "Not everyone..."

Or....

Novel idea, but....

Have some personal responsibility for what you decide to post in a public forum instead of trying to shift the blame to others.

If you post something that can be considered inappropriate or unnecessarily rude then you may get called out on it. Instead of reflecting on why you maybe shouldn't have posted an unnecessarily rude generalization you turn around and blame other posters for disagreeing with you about it.

If you can't take the heat then get out of the kitchen.

Disagreeing /=/ bleep posting.

If you avoid posting inappropriate and/or combative things the less likely you'll get called out for being rude. This is a simple concept.

Also just fyi, if you dig through my post history I always call out people, if I see it, for making massive generalizations about cultures; be it western, eastern, or generalizations about NA, EU, or JP.

They aren't necessary and I really dislike when people throw others into stereotypes or generalizations based on where they might live or what culture they are. You can easily have a discussion or a debate without that nonsense.

Which is what happened here. You've found insult, where none was implied. You took a deliberate gross exaggeration and made it personal.

No one has said they are personally insulted or personally offended by you at all so you might be putting too much stock in your assumptions again, but a lot of us seem to disagree with your attitude that is for sure.