There have been long stretches of time when I didn't post at all and yet still visisted Hatrack with some fair amount of regularity.
I'm like that in RL too, interestingly. Generally, I'm more of a listener, and don't feel the need to always inject my two cents - but every once in a while, when the topic shifts to something I'm interested in, I'll suddenly jump into (and try to monopolize) the conversation.
Also, I'm not a fluff-thread type of person, and I even though I read them, I don't post on the personal-stuff threads, and I've long ago been discouraged from posting on the religion/politics threads because the fact is that I'm just not going to convince anyone of my POV, so why bother? It's a bit of an apathetic attitude, I know, but I'm so, so busy now that spending the time it would take to write up a really thoughtful reply to a debate thread would seem like a waste of time. And to top it all off, I am very, very reluctant to reveal any information at all about my real life, which creates a very significant barrier here at hatrack.
Plus, this is not the only forum I post on. My other online presence is much more active.
Posts: 196 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
It's not just /., ever since OSC was announced as the writer on Ultimate Iron Man I've seen his name popping up on all kinds of comics forums. Generally the things associated with him most are 1) Ender's Game and 2) his column on homosexuality, which kicks off a long and often abusive thread about whether or not people want to read his comics if they don't agree with his philosophies.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
And back to the old issue, which Papa Moose stated (and subsequent posts):
Am I regarded as a newbie? 400+ Posts and 3 months online, yet causing some occasional roughness in the forum's steaminfg flow of intelligence... Abrasive, yet commonly accepted as one of the outer Hatrack circle; how am I classified?
I Hope noone dispises me here. If so, I'll give you the Russel Meta-Paradox of apologies!
Posts: 2978 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I think hatrack should randomly shut down registration for a couple months every once in a while. I loved it because even after registration was up again we mostly got people who'd been waiting for a while to join. Trolls don't normally have that much patience. (I'm not trying to be hateful towards newbies. I like quite a lot of you, I just wish there was some way of screening the bad newbies out and keeping the good ones.)
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote: And Lupus, you have been here since May, right? That is not a noob, not to me. I haven't seen a ton of posts from you, but I recognize your name
I guess I just figured that I hadn't been here for a year yet...so I was still thought of as new. Good to see I am recognisable though. Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I think the *good* newbies think of themselves as new long after they actually are. Lol, I still think of myself as a newbie at times, and I really don't qualify anymore I don't think.
quote: We would let in new members whom we had screened by giving them our throwaway names.
Really? It all makes sense now!
I always thought the rule was you are a newbie until you stop feeling like a newbie. If rivka feels like a newbie, I feel justified in my own insecurity- it's hard to feel totally 'old' when there are people so much 'older' than you .
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Yeah Teshi, that's the way I think of it too. Although I have to say that there are some people, like Farmgirl and sndrake that never seemed like newbies at all. They just kind of burst onto the hatrack scene fully formed, if you know what I mean.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Like Athena from the head of Zeus. I stopped considering myself a newbie when I stopped griping about people not replying to my threads and started replying to theirs.
Posts: 666 | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Hm...maybe it was when the 9/11 attacks occurred. I had sworn off Hatrack at that point, and hadn't been on for about 4 months. I had no real intention of coming back. When the attacks were happening, though, my first thought was to make sure that the people I knew here were all okay (I knew that my friends and family in real life were okay).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: I think a Hatrack user logon should be like G-mail; only by invitation.
That's just silly. Most people came here because they were fans of OSC, not because they were fans of hatrackers.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Admittedly, I tend to ignore most newbies until they give me a reason not to. It mostly comes down to stuff like posting "42" whenever a speculative question is raised, and other things done absolutely to death that they could have no knowledge of. Hatrack is all new to them, and expecting them to immediately assimilate a long-standing history is entirely unfair. So, instead of being snarky and impatient, I'm just indifferent.
Then I remember how assertively nice people were to me when I was a newbie, and then I feel guilt. ::wrinkles nose::
Ultimately, I really like newbies. I mean, they do add a new spice to the stew and even if it isn't always to my taste, at least it's different. And then every once in a while a newbie comes along that I feel a particular kinship with and I start to wonder how Hatrack ever did without them. Like Dagonee and ElJay, who make me wonder if they've been here forever and I just forgot. Or something.
And to be completely honest, the times when newbies are jerk-offs and I feel totally justified in being snarky are beautiful moments. I used to be snarky because I felt vicious protective of the 'rack, but now I just do it because it makes me feel warm and squishy inside.
The only way to know that it's a 'rookie mistake' is to have been lurking for three years+ and read the thread that dubbed it as such. And it's not a 'mistake', it's just tired, which is a very different thing.
That was the only one I could think of off the cuff, but there are others. I think sometimes newbies wonder if people have even noticed that they just now made a kickin' reference, because frequently oversaturated references just get shrugged off. But people stay, find their own voice and rely less on references and more on original banter.
posted
Yeah, I hate the idea of invites. Think how many great people we wouldn't know if this place were invite only.
I think that I'm fairly welcoming to newbies. I don't go out of my way to welcome all of them, but if I see somebody new who comes across as either really promising or a little bit lost, I make a point of talking to them a bit. Newbies are our lifeblood--without them we'd stagnate more quickly than you might think. I remember feeling that that was happening during the several months that registration was closed. Even people like Bean Counter, whose purpose seems to be to plump up their own egos at the forum's expense by playing juvenile "look at me I'm so clever" have their place in the forum's overall ecology, I think.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote: Even people like Bean Counter, whose purpose seems to be to plump up their own egos at the forum's expense by playing juvenile "look at me I'm so clever" have their place in the forum's overall ecology, I think.
What's that expression? You've got to take the sand with the sandwiches? ants with the picnic? something like that.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I don't agree that they have 'their place', as in a rightful place in the community. But short of shooting them all you can do is ignore them and hope they go away.
Posts: 7600 | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:Even people like Bean Counter, whose purpose seems to be to plump up their own egos at the forum's expense by playing juvenile "look at me I'm so clever" have their place in the forum's overall ecology, I think
It's like minor exposure to a disease that builds herd resistance for when the European settlers show up offshore.
posted
im a new member but i dont spam or anything, my friend told me about this after i introduced these books to them and he read the whole series. i love these books, but i dont know what the /. thing is would someone please explain it? Posts: 12 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Yeah, everyone else in the room. Look, I couldn't let the Ralphie-luv thang get out, so I had to play cool. Too coo for school. If you want to hang that over my head over a year later, I mean rilly.
Plus a Hatracker's mother was in the room, I could hardly say what I _wanted_ to say. Sheesh, have you no sense of propriety??
quote:Oh, I get it. You already have. In that case, good boy.
Actually, no. I'll tell you what I've done-- I've recoded my Mozilla so that when I feel that I've felt enough pity for one day, I press a button and POOF!
All your posts disappear. And I am free to roam Hatrack, pity-free.
quote: Even people like Bean Counter, whose purpose seems to be to plump up their own egos at the forum's expense by playing juvenile "look at me I'm so clever" have their place in the forum's overall ecology, I think.
Hey! I *am* clever.
Posts: 3956 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Actually, no. I'll tell you what I've done-- I've recoded my Mozilla so that when I feel that I've felt enough pity for one day, I press a button and POOF!
All your posts disappear. And I am free to roam Hatrack, pity-free.
I know it's hard for you - the separation, the constant longing you feel in your heart... But feeling pity for yourself isn't the answer.
However, if it gets to be a burden and you just can't read my words without the longing bursting like a flame in your heart, I would completely understand the recoding. And applaud the strength of your decision.
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