[swrate]

Why did you ground on MacNN?


I noticed many of you are regulars, as a new member I am curious about why and how you became regulars. The question has probably been asked before, sorry.

For my part: I was wondering about statistics concerning Grozni: evolution of the population, exact humanitarian conditions, and typed in the word, "Grozni" the research gave me one link that day, which I clicked on...
I noticed today more existing links.

-I had misspelled the word and, instead of info about Groznji, capital of Chechnya, the click brought me to this forum “Grozni” happened to be a user’s name.

The setting was attractive and users had clear ways of stating their points I had to stop and read.
I visited MacNN community, read conversations, arguments were sensible. The nick names (a part from one) Troll, Eklipse, Zigzag, Millenium, Spheric and many more had a nice ringing to them. The format of the forum was nicely set and practical.

For about a year, I used to post on a message board -dushkin- where about 12 regulars would share thoughts, half being from USA, the other half from all over. There was lots of bickering especially from the right wing, fervent bush and weapon “ fanatics”.
Two of the US posters “weenies” met lots of opposition because of their well developed thoughts and their perfectly built arguments, and the right wing often resorted to insult them. Any suspicion about being German or French and the poster was torn a part. Gradually, the place became a good coalition for anti-war philosophy.
We used to be keen on each other, and the extreme right wing slowly became a minority.

Earlier this summer, the board suddenly got swamped with vulgar threads, and over the weeks we watched powerless all our past discussions disappear, some in which people had invested lots of time and energy (years of postings).
The discussion board has now been flooded a few months; “Kobe” is still destroying the board, not even letting regulars the chance to post.

I often visit Music/Egyptology/hitorical orientated forums, but I participate very occasionally, and was missing a place to exchange thoughts about politics.
So I was kind of homeless when I landed here.

Out of the many political boards I visited, insults and discrimination against different groups is a regular practice.
In MacNN the conversations stay decent, even when one disagrees, its possible through debate to adjust ones personal thoughts.

I feel guilty at times; I know how some Mac users are crazy about their Macs. I appreciate working with a Mac, but I have to admit not posting from one… (I am aware this may cause discrimination from a few).

Forgive me when my posts seem confused, English is not the language I think in, I have to learn how to switch.

Also I am taking this opportunity to wish all of you good preparations for the Christmas holidays -devoid of the usual stress- and thank you all for the “deepness” and “brilliance” you all put into your posts.

[Spliffdaddy]

It's a long story. How I got here.

Four years ago I registered here as 'TNproud2b' in an effort to poke fun at MacNN's Distributed Computing Team. My team (overclockers-network) was dominating the world and MacNN was the next team we were going to pass. So a couple of us dropped by these forums and attempted to have some fun with the 'Mac-zealots'. We did this to EVERY team at every website along the way. We called it a 'boarding party', in keeping with our piratey theme. Just as you figured, the Mac-users didn't take too kindly to it. Imagine that. While we were, indeed, friendly and full of humor - the moderator on duty here was a complete jerk. I vowed I would never leave. He got canned and my team destroyed Team MacNN much like the thousand other teams that came before.

Strangely, I developed a fondness for a lot of the people here. Sure, they were all my victims, but I didn't hold that against them. They had a LOT of fight.

I'll be the last mofo to leave MacNN. and I've never owned a Mac.


PS, I support the notion of 'self-moderated' discussion forums. If you can't take the heat, go somewhere else. Moderating is another word for censoring. You don't invite the public into your home and then silence the people you don't like - or kick 'em out.

[vmarks]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:

PS, I support the notion of 'self-moderated' discussion forums. If you can't take the heat, go somewhere else. Moderating is another word for censoring. You don't invite the public into your home and then silence the people you don't like - or kick 'em out.

That's a nice notion, but there is legal justification for moderating and policing forums. Online newspaper-owned forums have been successfully litigated for not removing libellous postings, even though the newspaper staff had not made the postings. The legal questions are. 'if something is 'published' on the internet, is it analogous to publishing in print media, and who has jurisdiction over the internet. -- So there's a very real need for moderation and policing. People who have been libelled here on the pages of MacNN Forums (myself and others) depending on jurisdiction, have a case against not only the offending poster but MacNN for keeping such material posted, uncorrected, and archived.

It is only through good fortune and the generosity of those libelled that none of this has come to pass so far.

[christ]

Originally posted by swrate:
Why did you ground on MacNN?

I don't know. I just looked around one day, and here I was.

I came for some info from one of the networking, powermac or powerbook fora, tried to help there for a while, peeked in the lounge, and never left. The Newsfactor NN chaos kept me hooked in my early days, when I might have just browsed and moved on.

I'm aiming to be here to get multi-coloured stars, but it'll take me about 20 years longer than it took for Cipher and Zimph.

Why isn't this in the regular lounge?

[dtriska]

I joined for technical support way back when I was a tech at a school. I hung around the troubleshooting forums, asking and answering questions, and didn't bother even looking in the Lounge.

I left my tech job last year, so it became less vital that I stay up-to-date with troubleshooting, and I started heading to the Lounge for all the fun that was to be had there. The Lounge is now the first place I go.

Eventually, I found the Lounge boring, as threads were recycled and whatnot, so I headed into the Political/War Lounge every couple of days for some insane postings (of which there are many). I'm quite surprised at how civil the arguments can remain, and I find the whole board to be quite fun as there are a lot of characters online here.

[BlackGriffen]

Yeah, some people think that this place went to hell post 9/11/2001 or so. It still isn't as bad as the boards I left. I started out over at Macfixit, learning cool stuff about OSX. Gradually, a minority of posters, religious OS9 fanatics, were allowed to run rough-shod over the whole community. What's more, because the topics were pretty much constrained to OSX related stuff, the recycle rate on the topics was insanely fast - different day, same people, bitching about the same sht. Then, one day, someone posted about a thread on MacNN mocking the "niner whiners" or some such. Being OSX friendly, myself, I came on over. At first, I was an OSX general kinda guy. Then, I slowly migrated to the lounge. I love a good discussion, especially when it's relevant. Hence, I mostly hang out in the political lounge now, because I don't have much else in common with people here to discuss.

Thought I would throw in that my favorite flames involve what I call intellectual judo - where a poster manages to turn the ideas or words of another poster against them.

My flame warrior motto is - "Nothing can hurt more than if it's true." Thus I try to avoid empty name calling and childish retorts (esp. the "I know you are, but what am I?" or "It takes one to know one," variety, unless they're at least cleverly disguised.

BlackGriffen

[Lerkfish]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
Yeah, some people think that this place went to hell post 9/11/2001 or so. It still isn't as bad as the boards I left. I started out over at Macfixit, learning cool stuff about OSX. Gradually, a minority of posters, religious OS9 fanatics, were allowed to run rough-shod over the whole community. What's more, because the topics were pretty much constrained to OSX related stuff, the recycle rate on the topics was insanely fast - different day, same people, bitching about the same sht. Then, one day, someone posted about a thread on MacNN mocking the "niner whiners" or some such. Being OSX friendly, myself, I came on over. At first, I was an OSX general kinda guy. Then, I slowly migrated to the lounge. I love a good discussion, especially when it's relevant. Hence, I mostly hang out in the political lounge now, because I don't have much else in common with people here to discuss.

Thought I would throw in that my favorite flames involve what I call intellectual judo - where a poster manages to turn the ideas or words of another poster against them.

My flame warrior motto is - "Nothing can hurt more than if it's true." Thus I try to avoid empty name calling and childish retorts (esp. the "I know you are, but what am I?" or "It takes one to know one," variety, unless they're at least cleverly disguised.

BlackGriffen

ahhhh yes. The macfixit jihad.

[swrate]

Originally posted by Spliffdaddy:
It's a long story. How I got here.

Four years ago I registered here as 'TNproud2b' in an effort to poke fun at MacNN's Distributed Computing Team. My team (overclockers-network) was dominating the world and MacNN was the next team we were going to pass. So a couple of us dropped by these forums and attempted to have some fun with the 'Mac-zealots'. We did this to EVERY team at every website along the way. We called it a 'boarding party', in keeping with our piratey theme. Just as you figured, the Mac-users didn't take too kindly to it. Imagine that. While we were, indeed, friendly and full of humor - the moderator on duty here was a complete jerk. I vowed I would never leave. He got canned and my team destroyed Team MacNN much like the thousand other teams that came before.

Strangely, I developed a fondness for a lot of the people here. Sure, they were all my victims, but I didn't hold that against them. They had a LOT of fight.

I'll be the last mofo to leave MacNN. and I've never owned a Mac.


PS, I support the notion of 'self-moderated' discussion forums. If you can't take the heat, go somewhere else. Moderating is another word for censoring. You don't invite the public into your home and then silence the people you don't like - or kick 'em out.

Spliff 4 years, that’s along time,
I thought it was a touching story of loyalty, however ironic it may seem.
Victims...
The place had no moderator. Or at least that’s what I had always thought, the format was similar to an open mailing list, not to an actual forum. Average 10 posts a day. The main controversy was over one specific’s poster rationalisations, (his nick asked for it too). Far fetched or partially true the discussion stayed civil, only b lost his temper ,,,,who is hacking? did the (invisible)moderators mess up the discussion board, because their political opinions were different to the majority of posters?
Would the “community” still live, had there been a moderator?
These are unanswered questions.

One has to protect the image one represents, so I understand a moderator cooling the heat when the attacks are obvious, I think the less sanctions, the better, negotiation usually gives good results.

[swrate]

Originally posted by vmarks:
That's a nice notion, but there is legal justification for moderating and policing forums. Online newspaper-owned forums have been successfully litigated for not removing libellous postings, even though the newspaper staff had not made the postings. The legal questions are. 'if something is 'published' on the internet, is it analogous to publishing in print media, and who has jurisdiction over the internet. -- So there's a very real need for moderation and policing. People who have been libelled here on the pages of MacNN Forums (myself and others) depending on jurisdiction, have a case against not only the offending poster but MacNN for keeping such material posted, uncorrected, and archived.

It is only through good fortune and the generosity of those libelled that none of this has come to pass so far.

Rumours can have devastating consequences.

I mention above a political discussion board, so I would appreciate this thread not go to main. merci

We (as groups individuals) are labelled all the time, we label all the time, without even noticing it. I find it becoming worse, it’s a skill to decide when it is inconvenient. I hope I don’t label too often. One label name here made me shiver, I was ready to click out, when I came across exactly what I was thinking through the message of a moderator.
I know how difficult it can be to say precisely what one mean’s and be equitable.

Comparisons are held; label X or Y, either this bag or in the other bag, for example, compare democrRATS with Saddam, Hillary “supporting him”, religion is another extremely sensitive issue.
Either black or white. Thankfully its not so.
Extremes are bound to bring flames and give head aches, stirring emotions, we as beings identify with.....labels

[swrate]

Originally posted by christ:
I don't know. I just looked around one day, and here I was.

I came for some info from one of the networking, powermac or powerbook fora, tried to help there for a while, peeked in the lounge, and never left. The Newsfactor NN chaos kept me hooked in my early days, when I might have just browsed and moved on.

I'm aiming to be here to get multi-coloured stars, but it'll take me about 20 years longer than it took for Cipher and Zimph.

Why isn't this in the regular lounge?

I mention an experience in a political discussion board, .

qui va piano va sano,
you will get them ***** “patience is the mother of virtues”.

[swrate]

Originally posted by dtriska:
I joined for technical support way back when I was a tech at a school. I hung around the troubleshooting forums, asking and answering questions, and didn't bother even looking in the Lounge.

I left my tech job last year, so it became less vital that I stay up-to-date with troubleshooting, and I started heading to the Lounge for all the fun that was to be had there. The Lounge is now the first place I go.

Eventually, I found the Lounge boring, as threads were recycled and whatnot, so I headed into the Political/War Lounge every couple of days for some insane postings (of which there are many). I'm quite surprised at how civil the arguments can remain, and I find the whole board to be quite fun as there are a lot of characters online here.

Insane and civil, that’s a good combination. The info’s and debates are developed in depth, and I find myself often learning while I read

[swrate]

Originally posted by BlackGriffen:
Yeah, some people think that this place went to hell post 9/11/2001 or so. It still isn't as bad as the boards I left. I started out over at Macfixit, learning cool stuff about OSX. Gradually, a minority of posters, religious OS9 fanatics, were allowed to run rough-shod over the whole community. What's more, because the topics were pretty much constrained to OSX related stuff, the recycle rate on the topics was insanely fast - different day, same people, bitching about the same sht. Then, one day, someone posted about a thread on MacNN mocking the "niner whiners" or some such. Being OSX friendly, myself, I came on over. At first, I was an OSX general kinda guy. Then, I slowly migrated to the lounge. I love a good discussion, especially when it's relevant. Hence, I mostly hang out in the political lounge now, because I don't have much else in common with people here to discuss.

Thought I would throw in that my favorite flames involve what I call intellectual judo - where a poster manages to turn the ideas or words of another poster against them.

My flame warrior motto is - "Nothing can hurt more than if it's true." Thus I try to avoid empty name calling and childish retorts (esp. the "I know you are, but what am I?" or "It takes one to know one," variety, unless they're at least cleverly disguised.

BlackGriffen

I dont know much about software ... amazing how a branch of one same field can mock another branch, just like religion music anything i guess. I would have to do so much reading back. I am ignorant in the niner whiners Seems like a past flame, with word judo involved.
Flames bring interesting arguments.
I find it is difficult to know what is completely true, as we seem to be recollecting only parts of reality, on the web it's even harder. A large part of the planet is not connected, Media pics/texts older then 10 years are not all archived. The range of info is huge. I realize only too well how much I don’t know.
Too many flames ~~~~ and either the acrobats fall or they need water

I like to share with others about our global reality, , to learn about subjects I was unaware of, words and pictures structure my thoughts.

[swrate]

Originally posted by Lerkfish:
ahhhh yes. The macfixit jihad.

Another reason why I like it here, humour, (black?humour) and the cheerful logos.
Your watch caught my eyes.