Iwaku's Treatment of New Members

What causes some New Members to have a bad time here?

  • It's the Staff's job. They should educate Newbs before letting them into the Cbox and posting areas

    Votes: 5 25.0%
  • It's the members fault. We're not helping the Staff to make the forum a welcoming place.

    Votes: 12 60.0%
  • It's the fault of Newbs. They shouldn't come here if they're that dumb.

    Votes: 8 40.0%
  • It's the Forum's fault. It's layout is causing a lot of the problems.

    Votes: 1 5.0%

  • Total voters
    20
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You know what happens when you make an assumption? You make an ass out of you and Umption.



I agree that Iwaku is cliquish. However, I think that that is just the nature of any web forum that gains 50+ members. There are a great deal of people who simply do not want to take the time to get to know every single member, unless they are super-social butterflies. It's inevitable that members will naturally gravitate towards other members who share similar interests, or at least if there's a chemistry among them. Also take into account there are some members who will never really cross paths outside of the posted topics because of schedule/timezone differences.

That was a bit of a ramble, but the jist of all that was: I have never been part of any forum where this did not happen.

Breaking that habit of only interacting with your forum buddies will be a hard one, and I am not even going to begin to suggest that we do/don't. I'm just stating the obvious.

Though I was not present for any of this, I did read all the posts and took everyone's opinions to heart in order to reflect on some of my habits to see if I was turning into an asshat troll. Luckily, I don't think that I am, since I only rib the members who know me well enough to know I don't mean it. (Hell, I once apologized to Asmo for calling him a pussy a week after I joined, because I didn't know him well enough to know if that was OK) I would totally call him bad names, now.

Basically, what I got out of this is that it was just a joke that went too far, and everyone got a little too carried away and forgot the proper protocol to handle such situations.


I was TOO a perfect actor! >:[


- Posting in the wrong place.
- Taking offence at racist jokes.
- Getting over-familiar with female members.
- Failing to pick up on sarcasm.
- Asking where to post "the character sheet".
- Not revealing age.
- Bad spelling and grammar.
- Fan-based Username.

In my experience, a Newb can get the shit kicked out of him for exhibiting just ONE of these traits. Just because I did them all at once doesn't mean the experiment was flawed, and with people coming in and out of the Cbox they hardly got to see all the traits at once. They saw one or two and then reacted negatively.

Like I said, assumptions were in play.


*holds Amp's head under the water*

All of those things I can forgive, especially in a new player, because we've all been there. The only thing that I think is WAY NOT COOL is the getting overly familiar with female (or even male) members. I'm probably going to sound fickle on this, but if I am comfortable with you, I will probably make raunchy jokes with you. If I'm not comfortable, I usually say something right away.

I don't do the whole c-box groping thing, ever. I'm sorry, but doing that IR would probably result in an ass-kicking, and just about everyone, even the mouth-breathing-cornfed ones know this. So it's not cool, newbie or not.

That probably could have gone a lot smoother, but anyone who was online at 7AM with me this morning should know why my brain is fried. :D

*prepares for the assault of molestation jokes*
 
I never got the impression that the joke was taken too far. I just had a laugh when Abbadon revealed his "newly made" MSN-address. :D
 
NEWLY MADE!?

DAMMIT! I'm getting madder and madder that I missed this...

*Whimpers, then snuggles Asmo in hopes to be less emo*
 
The c-box can be an eye-opener.

I sometimes notice, after the fact, that I snap at a few members whose taste conflicts with my own. Sometimes it's in direct response to some complaint or disagreement about something I like; at others, I realize later that I'm reacting more to a combination of buildup and assumption. Realizing this makes me feel more patient and sympathetic about the whole thing, but...

Better! We can be better!
 
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Just skip over my long-winded post and read Coffee's. He stated what I was trying to say with fewer paragraphs. -_-
 
There's a reason why I avoid the internet on April 1st...

Anywho, I blame members AND staff. And my reasons for each are the same. Remeber: The Staffies are members too. The job of the Staff is to help regulate the threads, make announcements, and change things. Other than that, they have the same duties as a regular member: Make posts, talk, help people, talk, and have fun. We shouldn't tell people to go talk to a Staff Member if they have problems, we should all be able to say, "You have a problem? Let me see if I can help." There are times when there are no staff members around.

And another thing: TOLERANCE! This forum forces NOTHING on you, not even roleplaying. There are members here who post almost soley in the Arts section. I know of members (who will go nameless) who inquire as to whether or not someone is interested in something, and then forms an opinion of that person based on their answer. THIS MUST STOP! If they are into something that you don't like, then IGNORE IT whenever it comes up! I'm not saying we all have to be all PEACE AND LOVE, PEACE AND LOVE hippies, I'm just saying that you shouldn't start ranting or raging when ever things like DnD, or anime, or furries, or other stuff comes up.

Well, I've said more than I planned to, so I'm gonna stop here and go drink some vodka.
 
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Just skip over my long-winded post and read Coffee's. He stated what I was trying to say with fewer paragraphs. -_-
The world has official been turned on its head. 0_o
 
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[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI2COawqMJQ"]YouTube- Scorpions-Rock You Like A Hurricane[/nomedia]
 
I made an account not so long ago, Newb me was relatively well received and liked (cudos to diana and myrn) I don't need to mention my spelling n the cbox so to take the Addadon case in isolation is a mistake (though to be honest he would have received *violence* from me due to the chosen name) Any case taken in isolation if not proof of a pattern.
 
I realize later that I'm reacting more to a combination of buildup and assumption.
A few hours ago, a post in the Board Games forum made me assumed something, too. Add that with my, erm, condition, there was a tremendous build-up of my emotions, like a surge of assumptive thoughts going through my head.

I don't really want to mention of which post is that or by whom that post was made, for the sake of avoiding unnecessary conflict, but I was probably quite close to snapping at someone back there. At the board, at the members. At the staff. But that's just me. I'm a very sensitive guy. But anyway, my point...

See, what I did was, instead of just jumping into conclusions - again - and questioning the member who had seemingly offended me, I shrugged it off, because I knew my judgement was probably wrong, what with my condition and all. I moved on to distract myself with other stuff, and then see things much differently later on, recognizing the supposed offensive post as intended for humor rather than offense.

So, yeah. I guess what I'm trying to say is, just shrug it off. Lose your ego. And then see things from another perspective later on rather than going ahead and jabbing the member just because he/she's seemingly 'trolling' you or the board.

Just so you know, which you probably already do, I have nothing to complain about my first days here, even till now. Probably because my spelling and grammar are not of extremely poor quality, but still, the staff and members treated me - along with my pal, SadisticBeauty, another new member here - really well, and that's something to be noted.
 
I was definitely welcomed to Iwaku after Diannana and Pan recruited me from poor, dying AFTA. I think everyone sometimes has fun with newbie trolls, cause well I hate to say it: THEY ASK FOR THE SHIT THEY GIVE. Often times it's harder than it should be to determine if the new person is generally interested in joining a welcoming chatroom site, or honestly wanting to be a prickface and spam like it's going out of style. I don't have too much to say on the topic, because sure I can be a prickface too at times, but most of the time I never mean anything I say and half the time I barely remember -anything that happened- the next day. Call me thickheaded or just plain crazy, but it works for me and gets me through the day without blowing up. Now on occasion, I have one or two people in Iwaku who intensely express their dislike of having me there, and that's probably because I did something first. So I'm okay and can live with that. The ignore button is really an amazing feature, and it's my own fault that I'm just too stubborn to use that feature when it's called for. But I dislike missing anything, so I just lurk when I feel A: uncomfortable with a topic, B: know I'm getting on others' nerves, C: Don't have any intelligent things to say or contribute. But chatrooms and community places like Iwaku and even AFTA are certainly supposed to be fun, not full of bashing and hate. I will run off now that I said my probably confusing speech. Sorry if I make no sense.
 
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