- Posting Speed
- Speed of Light
- Writing Levels
- Douche
- Preferred Character Gender
- No Preferences
Some of you may know that I pretended to be a new member on April Fools Day.
It was a good joke, but at the same time it raised some concerns.
When I was getting into the "NEWB-MINDSET", I went for straight-out logic and posted a thread in the Welcoming Board and then a thread in each of the genre sections I was interested in. This seemed to make perfect sense to my persona (I didn't want to read the Guide and all of Diana's tutorials - I was here to roleplay, not read War and Peace).
But my "logic" earned me only intolerance. My threads were moved without warning and the whole ordeal only added to my ridicule in the Cbox.
Take a look at the My Iwaku Experience thread. It seems the reason people didn't like Abaddon was because he used "a name from 40K" and had bad spelling and grammar.
These two reasons completely overrode the fact that he was a genuinely nice kid who was trying to get to know people and was offering to join games. When he found out that Torsty was a staff member he treated him with respect and followed his advice.
But then Jinx savaged me, my minunderstandings were used against me, people attacked me with asterisk violence, Darkness was brought in from outside to troll me, and no one really backed Torsty up (except to send me bitchy MSN messages saying "Asmo, we have a jackass in the Cbox, shall we ban him lol?")
I know this is an extreme case and I probably did it at a bad time, but one thing was proved - WE HAVE A LOT OF BUILT-IN ASSUMPTIONS.
Don't get me wrong, assumptions are great shortcuts and we can't function without those shortcuts. But in this case we had three things that caused the problem:
- Members trying to be "insanity lulz".
- Instant dislike for someone with bad grammar and certain username.
- Text-heavy information-overload forum index.
So we need to decide, do we try to find ways to compensate for the above?
Or do we affirm that a Member must have thick skin, basic grammar and patience to sift through information as prerequisites for joining?
Do we help new members to get over the barriers?
Or do we leave new members to prove themselves worthy by getting over those barriers themselves?
I have no bias. I've dallied in both camps. I can't really say how I would have treated Abaddon. Given his name, I would have probably assumed he was a stupid kid trying to play with the big boys and joined in the hazing.
Yay for grey areas. :|
It was a good joke, but at the same time it raised some concerns.
When I was getting into the "NEWB-MINDSET", I went for straight-out logic and posted a thread in the Welcoming Board and then a thread in each of the genre sections I was interested in. This seemed to make perfect sense to my persona (I didn't want to read the Guide and all of Diana's tutorials - I was here to roleplay, not read War and Peace).
But my "logic" earned me only intolerance. My threads were moved without warning and the whole ordeal only added to my ridicule in the Cbox.
Take a look at the My Iwaku Experience thread. It seems the reason people didn't like Abaddon was because he used "a name from 40K" and had bad spelling and grammar.
These two reasons completely overrode the fact that he was a genuinely nice kid who was trying to get to know people and was offering to join games. When he found out that Torsty was a staff member he treated him with respect and followed his advice.
But then Jinx savaged me, my minunderstandings were used against me, people attacked me with asterisk violence, Darkness was brought in from outside to troll me, and no one really backed Torsty up (except to send me bitchy MSN messages saying "Asmo, we have a jackass in the Cbox, shall we ban him lol?")
I know this is an extreme case and I probably did it at a bad time, but one thing was proved - WE HAVE A LOT OF BUILT-IN ASSUMPTIONS.
Don't get me wrong, assumptions are great shortcuts and we can't function without those shortcuts. But in this case we had three things that caused the problem:
- Members trying to be "insanity lulz".
- Instant dislike for someone with bad grammar and certain username.
- Text-heavy information-overload forum index.
So we need to decide, do we try to find ways to compensate for the above?
Or do we affirm that a Member must have thick skin, basic grammar and patience to sift through information as prerequisites for joining?
Do we help new members to get over the barriers?
Or do we leave new members to prove themselves worthy by getting over those barriers themselves?
I have no bias. I've dallied in both camps. I can't really say how I would have treated Abaddon. Given his name, I would have probably assumed he was a stupid kid trying to play with the big boys and joined in the hazing.
Yay for grey areas. :|