Little thoughts
Sep. 11th, 2003 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tugrikOver the last few months I've noticed a severe drop in my LJ posting. I've determined that a good part of this is due to me self-censoring many things as 'too trivial'. Instead of writing for the paper-memory aspect of a journal, I find myself in the "writing for an audience" mode. This is a trap all too easy to fall in to.
Today was the third time I wished I could go back and re-read something I'd thought up a few months ago -- but didn't jot down. This means that it's time to start using the LJ for all the little ideas again too, and not just public-forum type of stuff. Don't worry too much, though... I know how to use cut-tags and friend-filtering to keep from being too spammy. :)
On one of the forums I frequent got properly trolled. In the 'blow off steam here' area, where members openly play-bash each other, someone showed up and made their very first post on the site. It was a very preachy "why can't we just all get along?" message that devolved into a push-my-religion-upon-you session. It was an excellent troll and got folks real riled up; the thread streched on for four days. At the core of his argument was "why must you all use swear words all the time?" He went into great detail on how he loved the trip reports and pictures/stories we posted, but he simply couldn't abide with the harsh language the site's known for.
As it turned out the person was being honest; they weren't actually trolling. They utterly couldn't understand why they got such a hostile reaction. I added my reply to the thread and I wanted to save it here. Something tells me I'll have use for it later.
The best way to promote one's values upon an Internet forum is to demonstrate them.
If you think a site has good trip reports but swears too much then you should upload your own trip reports in the style that you think is best: clean and well-written wording. Demonstrate by doing. Impress folks with top notch pictures and writing. Get them involved in your tale.
The only true way out of a bad signal-to-noise ratio on a forum is to add more Signal. Trying to stop the noise tends to, well, only cause more noise.
My point? Don't lurk. Post. Don't berate or 'preach': practice your beliefs instead and hope others will follow along. If that sounds like it's too ineffective or hopeless a task then you'd best seek another site. Sad, but true.
But then again -- converting the heathen masses wasn't ever supposed to be easy.
Today was the third time I wished I could go back and re-read something I'd thought up a few months ago -- but didn't jot down. This means that it's time to start using the LJ for all the little ideas again too, and not just public-forum type of stuff. Don't worry too much, though... I know how to use cut-tags and friend-filtering to keep from being too spammy. :)
On one of the forums I frequent got properly trolled. In the 'blow off steam here' area, where members openly play-bash each other, someone showed up and made their very first post on the site. It was a very preachy "why can't we just all get along?" message that devolved into a push-my-religion-upon-you session. It was an excellent troll and got folks real riled up; the thread streched on for four days. At the core of his argument was "why must you all use swear words all the time?" He went into great detail on how he loved the trip reports and pictures/stories we posted, but he simply couldn't abide with the harsh language the site's known for.
As it turned out the person was being honest; they weren't actually trolling. They utterly couldn't understand why they got such a hostile reaction. I added my reply to the thread and I wanted to save it here. Something tells me I'll have use for it later.
The best way to promote one's values upon an Internet forum is to demonstrate them.
If you think a site has good trip reports but swears too much then you should upload your own trip reports in the style that you think is best: clean and well-written wording. Demonstrate by doing. Impress folks with top notch pictures and writing. Get them involved in your tale.
The only true way out of a bad signal-to-noise ratio on a forum is to add more Signal. Trying to stop the noise tends to, well, only cause more noise.
My point? Don't lurk. Post. Don't berate or 'preach': practice your beliefs instead and hope others will follow along. If that sounds like it's too ineffective or hopeless a task then you'd best seek another site. Sad, but true.
But then again -- converting the heathen masses wasn't ever supposed to be easy.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-11 04:20 pm (UTC)Not that these two were at all mutually exclusive :D
no subject
Date: 2003-09-11 05:10 pm (UTC)More to the point it was a disclaimer that my live journal really wasn't a whole more than a stream of consiousness that I burb stuff at when the mood strikes me. Thus days when I have four or five posts and whole weeks when I got noth'n.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-12 12:58 pm (UTC)-Traveller.