posted
Usually I do too. I mean, it's funny to learn to know other people and know why they are here and try to guess if they will stay or not. And you meet cool people very often, because that's the type of persons that come here. But sometimes there are trolls.
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
You guys have to admit that you are a really tight community and tend to skim over newbie posts.
That newbie will be looking for a response to his/her post and is not going to see anything but emoticons swapped back and forth between insiders.
Then some smart-alek says something like: "listen...did you hear something?" "I didn't hear anything...now what were we talking about?"
So our newbie posts something really outrageous to grab everyone's attention, and then you guys get into a vertical urinating contest with him/her.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:That newbie will be looking for a response to his/her post and is not going to see anything but emoticons swapped back and forth between insiders.
posted
It's hard to get attention here as a newbie because we are a very close community, and (if I may) a community with a high thinking level. But honestly it's worth to. And we are never rude to someone who isn't first. EDIT : PSIT : about the urinating thing, I agree. About not getting attention, it happens, when a newbie starts a thread on a subject we still discussed for exemple. But as I said I never saw a oldie being rude or mean to someone who wasn't first.
[ March 09, 2004, 05:01 PM: Message edited by: Anna ]
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
It's more that newbie's are hyper sensitive to that. For instance, when you first started you joined in a thread that was well rolling and were summarily ignored by just about everyone in it. Not that they were really ignoring you, they were just already involved in a discussion with another member. Most people don't really have the time to respond to everyone who comes in with a question, it's often first come, first serve.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
Frankly, when skillery first posted, he displayed no sign that he had read any of the previous posts in that thread -- and his questions were so obviously leading ones that I just assumed he was a troll and ignored him.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
The other thing is that until a person posts enough that I start to know them, I probably don't respond as much. There are lots of newbies that only post once or twice and then vanish. It would be rediculous to become personally invested in each one. When someone says outrageous we (as a forum) tend call them on it once or twice and give them a chance to shape up. Many newbies do exactly that.
I know I posted at first and not that many people said anything. It took me four or five threads topics (and I think I complained too)before I posted one that generated any conversation. I also realized there is no compulsive need to actually start threads, and only do so when I truly have something randomly interesting to share. I do remember Mackillian and Belle making me feel at home though and helping me work through some personal issues at the time. I took a hiatus for a while because computer access was limited during a move, but came back afterward.
I still try not to post on weekends, but often I fail. <grin>
posted
All of OSC-Fan's posts have been deleted, as far as I can tell . . . even those on dead threads. At least, I looked in the first couple of threads I remember her from, and her posts were gone.
I think (s)he's been found out as a troll and deleted by a mod.
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
Well, sometimes when you are a newbie you have difficulties to catch up with a fast discussion. I had a lot. I try to give benefit of the doubt to each newbie that is not openly rude. Maybe I'm wrong, considering the nature of the internet. *sigh*
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
So I was rude and started a couple of vertical urinating contests when I came on board, and tons of equally rude old-sters came out of the woodwork, and we all got whizzled on.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:I've never seen anything describing what you are speaking of, skillery.
PSI: I don't know if you meant it to be, but this was hilarious.
I do miss Anne Kate and wish she posted more. She's very, very good at oldie/newbie relations. She's the reason I started posting on Hatrack, and the closest I have come to leaving was when she scaled back.
posted
Icarus, wouldn't someone tell us if he has been deleted by a mod ? The only time I can remember this happen, it was Cedrios and quasi-everybody knew about it very fast.
[ March 09, 2004, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: Anna ]
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
no I think you are right Anna. I just was beyond the "benefit of the doubt with OSC-fan". Considering no one blew the whistle before now, (and I was thinking that I probably wasn't the first person but I guess I was) the whole forum showed considerable restraint.
posted
As I said, AJ, I don't suspect you to have been wrong signaling OSC-fan posts. I remember him/her being rude on the other side too, I think. And anyway you are someone to trust. I talked about benefit of doubts about skillery. And maybe it didn't apply to his case either.
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
Boy -- I go away from my computer for a few hours to actually work -- and look what happens while I'm gone! Some really juicy stuff!
(besides the fact that I walked away from my desk to go work in another building for two hours, and when I came back I found my co-worker had just got fired....)
Anyway -- I always thought OSC-fan was a woman because of the comments she/he made in the thread about single women being single by choice, and the books recommended about keeping your husband happpy, etc. So maybe I just fell for the ruse...
posted
A two reasons I thought O.F. wasn't LDS: the obsession with us "stealing" masonic rites. Of course, all my comments on that line appear to have been deleted too, but I've discussed it quasi-civilly with other members like Fugu before. It's natural for someone to be curious, be O.F. seemed to be faking it.
Also, I don't know many converts who refer to the "constaninian" Bible.
And of course there was O.F.s lack of knowledge about the cultural calendar at BYU Kidding about the third one.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I have no memory of anybody being dismissive of me when I was new. I also have made a point of welcoming people when I see a first post. Frankly, I would say that I have never seen an established member be rude to a newbie who wasn't rude first. I agree that newbies sometimes are over-sensitive. Perhaps they are unused to our dynamics and think that every post gets replied to. I've been here for a couple of years, have probably six thousand posts between my main screen names, and I think most of them are thoughtful ones. And probably half of them go unremarked. And it's not that anybody's rude, but that I said something obvious, or something people agree on but feel no need to expound on, or said something that's been said, or said something that people simply had no opinion on whatsoever. This isn't like a real-life conversation, where politeness requires that you acknowledge everything somebody says. Since this is in print, the belief is that one is less likely to not hear things . . . one can just look up and see it in writing if necessary. Honestly, on issue threads, it's counterintuitive to think that people are going to ignore a compelling post because it's by a newbie. The more likely hypothesis is people didn't respond to you because you didn't say anything particularly compelling. That's not harsh. Half of what I say isn't compelling (at least).
Now, it is true that if I post a thread about, say, an audition that went well, or a bad day I had at work, people will post to celebrate with me or express their sympathies. I might get thirty such posts, whereas Bob would get 5 pages, and yes, that is a status symbol. But honestly, what would you expect? If you have thirty posts and you start a thread telling us you got promoted . . . why is it rude if we don't get all emotional over it?
Interestingly enough, most of the newbies I have ever seen complain about old-timer rudeness are newbies I had already come to consider rude. This has happened three or four times in the last couple of weeks, and I recall commenting on the irony of it once.
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I swear it's not because of that ! Seriously, I've read a lot of things you posted, and I think you are an honnest person. I really think so. There are some people in Hatrack you feel you could trust even in real life, and you are one of these.
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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Though it is true my name is Anna and I am 1/4 French, though I can't speak a word. The old family name was Laurent, and we even have a coat of arms. Moses (Moises?) Laurent, my great-great-great grandfather, came from France and ended up fighting on the side of the Union in the Civil War. My brothers and I are actually the last surviving members of the family through my grandmother. I think it is pretty cool.
posted
Well, I am 1/4 Belgium and can't speak a word Flemmish either. English is better to communicate with a lot of persons anyway.
Posts: 3526 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
You know the *real* newbies have no idea that eslaine really isn't elaine and we talked him into going back to his orignal screen name because we all liked the joke.
posted
Some people just don't stay newbies very long Elaine. You and sndrake just fit the community so well that within a week of your coming it was as though you'd always been here. Mike is the same way, and quite a few of our most recent crop of newbies strike me as being the same way. I don't want to name names on that, because I'm afraid I'd leave someone out, but I'm incredibly impressed by some of the new people that have found their way here.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:You know the *real* newbies have no idea that eslaine really isn't elaine and we talked him into going back to his orignal screen name because we all liked the joke.
I don’t know if I’m ever going to fit in here. Most of what goes on here isn’t even real, at least not on the surface.
When I get home from work today there’s going to be a half-dozen Cub Scouts beating down my door because the Pinewood Derby is coming up next week. Last year I helped a neighbor kid, whose dad doesn’t come home any more. That kid’s Pinewood Derby car smoked all the other cars, and now everybody wants help. That’s real, and I like being in the middle of it.
If anything real came about as a result of my involvement here, I may never know it.
Please, someone point me to the real stories behind this community.
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Please, someone point me to the real stories behind this community.
Skillery,
the real stories are the people. And pieces of their stories get revealed over time. In all kinds of discussions, from silly fluff to political discussions and everything in between.
Kind of like you just did.
At least that's the way it seems to me.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Because I'm feeling generous: eslaine is Erik Slaine. For some reason we all called him elaine. He pointed out that he was male and changed his screen name to Erik Slaine and we all complained that we liked eslaine better, because he'd already become a fixture under that screen name.
Now calling him Elaine is mostly a sign of affection and a way of telling him we like him. He's very good natured about it too.
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