Whatever happened to the quality? - No Spam

[Mr Sleep]

Whatever happened to the quality, am i the only one who still remembers a time when we had an equal amount of spam, debate and flame. Things were interesting, it wasn't all boring nonsense.

I wonder what is to blame, anyone got any ideas?

Am i the only person of this opinion, does anyone share my derision?

This isn't as a moderator, just as a punter

[Dottie]

You are not the only one. I would much like the nonsense spam to be confined to only a bar thread or so, and the rest of SYM devoted to other topics. Not neccesarily very serious ones, but still topics and not general chat.

Right now i have unfortunatly no suggestions for a skapegoat though.

[Gruntboy]

Hmmm, good point Mr Sleep.

My opinion: debates are forced and highly sensitive (if at all); flames are non-exisitant (a good thing) 'cos the "new" generation of Banshee-goers don't know how to; spam is boring and non-descript. It is spam for spam's sake and not for amusement purposes. There isn''t much that makes me ROFLMAO any more.

Perhaps its "who" is to blame. I'd blame weasel but only as a scapegoat, or sacrificial lamb if you will.

I miss the flames and the laughs.

[Mr Sleep]

Quote:

Originally posted by Gruntboy There isn''t much that makes me ROFLMAO any more. Perhaps its "who" is to blame. I'd blame weasel but only as a scapegoat, or sacrificial lamb if you will. I miss the flames and the laughs.

That is the thing, i just haven't seen anything really funny for ages, good debates have been pretty sketchy to, i realise it is up to us as members to turn back the tide of mediocrity, but there is only so much a select few can do...most of us have done it before and after a while one wonders why they bother.

You did your photo's thread which was excellent, but that was spammed to death as well (addmitadly by myself a little).

[CM]

I would take a guess at it might be you have people of a lower age group.
Mid-teens or late teens.
Just a guess

[Aegis]

I think the main issue is that a lot of the serious discussions are filled up with people like Fable and CE, whose intelligence and knowledge ecompasses such a large area, that it is hard to cover something they haven't. Also, with the speed, and length of growth those threads have, it makes it intimidating for people (and even I have trouble getting into one of those these days)

[C Elegans]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr Sleep Whatever happened to the quality, am i the only one who still remembers a time when we had an equal amount of spam, debate and flame. Things were interesting, it wasn't all boring nonsense. I wonder what is to blame, anyone got any ideas?

Personally I don't notice a major difference in quality since "the good old days", but it also depends of when you mean this good time occured. When I came to SYM, it was a small group who spent a lot of time online that used to have very funny conversations and juoke flame wars going on, but much of this was IMO based on the familiarity that develops when people spend a lot of time on line simultaneously. Since I think part of this was person-based and part of it occation-based, it will IMO be difficult to "force" something similar to happen again - the necessary parameters aren't currently here. I haven't noticed any single user who currently posts as much and is on line as much as some of the former SYM:ers used to do in the beginning.

Regarding serious discussion, I think it's a problem that too few people participate in these discussions. Dynamic development of a discussion requires several members with different views, and it also requires time. I often try to start discussion threads, but it's difficult to find topics that many people are interested in discussion and at the same time aren't totally begging for flame wars. An issue where everybody has an opinion and many people care about, is often also an issue where flaming becomes a problem. A good example was the marriage thread, which was excellent inasmuch as many people posted different opinions, perspectives and arguments, but it also unfortunately contained ad hominems (personal attacks) and general flaming.

Like Dottie, I'm personally most interested in discussion about different topics, serious or less serious. However, I think that we who are interested in this should start and participate in such threads and also, like Aegis points out, realise that we can't spend hours everyday posting here - we should perhaps recognise that more demanding topics should be allowed more time between before being viewed as "dead" threads.

[Vivien]

On reflection, opinion edited out.

[frogus]

I do all I can to start up interesting and serious threads all the time, however, the discussion is either a)about god or b)not about god.
If it is about god, then many people can get angry, and noone feels that their opinion is worse than anyone elses and everybody has a strong view which they are interested in defending, so it's a good discussion...
If it is not about god, then it's just me, fable, CE and a couple of blokes who happen to be interested in this particular subject...There is nothing really to joke about in such threads, and people who aren't in the discussion hardly ever want to get in the discussion, so the low interest kills it. Quite often the serious threads get buried just in the gap between one of the discusers and another being on the forum...

I was not here for the 'golden age' of SYM, when all flames were hilarious, all spam was hilarious and all debates were gentlemanly and fiercely contested, but I imagine it is just because of a coincedental chemistry between the SYMers at the time...and it could well be to do with the age thing as well...before Craig was a real boy wonder cos everyone else on here was a grown man, but now there's thousands of 15-16 year olds...

I think the useless spam level is getting to quite a bad level, but I also think that the constant talking about spam related issues; the good-old-days of spam, weasels spamming abilities, the king and queen of spam etc is a big force for giving newbies the impression that all spam is good spam, a spammer is a loveable rogue and everyone should in general strive towards out-spamming and out-meta-spamming each other...

[Vivien]

I never do listen to my wise reflections


Now I'm feeling like *I'm* one of the contributors of this worthless and obviously not wanted spam. I never take part in the serious discussions because frankly I am intimidated by the 'No Spam' title. I feel that discussions on 'God ' and 'not on God' can encompass such a wide range of topics that I will probably go over the edge and spam unknowingly or just by being friendly (Which is ME, so there is not use trying not to, it's better just not to join in.)




But really, this is a 'Speak your Mind' board off of a gaming site. This is not a political board. This is not a religion board. And, I will not feel bad for posting what comes to mind on a board that was NOT set up for ONLY serious discussions.

[Ned Flanders]

One of the main contributors to this 'degradation' is the number of members of game banshee. When I joined there was 2000 members, now it is almost 7000. I remember when I joined I was intimidated by SYM somewhat. Actually, it was more of a reluctance to post not because I thought I had nothing to contribute, but more because it seemed like SYM was a pretty tight knit band of members. When I did post early on, I found my posts ignored or not responded to.

So Sleep, my point is that with fewer members back in the 'golden age' allowed you to get to know those members a little bit better. Posts and threads were much more tight and consistent.

Age might play some of a role but minor at that. I think most young folks tend to stay to the gaming forums. Again, I say most.

[Xandax]

Well although I am one of the old timers (preSym) I've never been a "high-profile" poster in SYM, but my posting has decressed lately as more people I know in here stops/slows posting.
I was really active about a year ago but many of the people I wrote with has since then dissapered or slowed their postings.

[Rob-hin]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ned Flanders I remember when I joined I was intimidated by SYM somewhat. Actually, it was more of a reluctance to post not because I thought I had nothing to contribute, but more because it seemed like SYM was a pretty tight knit band of members.

Me too, but this I not a bad thing. There is still that "elite" group
that are here longer then others, but this is normal. It creates a form of respect.

Quote:

One of the main contributors to this 'degradation' is the number of members of game banshee. When I joined there was 2000 members, now it is almost 7000.

I recall posting this a long time ago. Like I said back then, if something grows too big, it will fall by it's own succes. Ofcource this is an overstatment, but I do think it can affect quality.


About the quality. I think viv made a good point about this being a games forum.

Sometimes things change, and there is nothing there can be done about it. People tend to remember things used to be better then they are now.
I agree "newcomers" have made things change in here. Even if I'm only here since early december. They aren't just young people but also older people.

If the veterans here think this place is taking a change for the worst, they should contact the mods or even Buck to make this place or controlled. This can however have a bad effect on the atmosfear since "newbies" could be offended by this. But beeing controlled can have a positive effect on people.
However if less people contribute in discussions then there is nothing you can do about it. Perhaps this will pick up later again, who knows.

Just my € 0,02

[Aegis]

Well, I think one of the major causes is the fact that so many pre-SYMers are gone. In a sense, the group has been severed, and we are currently working in a new group of people (Gen X of SYM, if you will).

Moving to the serious deiscussion threads, I would love to get into those things more often, as I feel I have very strong opinions about many things, but like Viv, I feel intimidated by the no spam title. To me it seems like you can't poke small jokes, even if it is on topic. Also, the rate at which people post in them, coupled with the size, it is almost impossible to get into it if it's already 10+ posts in.

[KidD01]

Well after "rotting" here in SYM and read whole reply, I do admit that serious topics sometimes are "too" serious for some members.

As frogus said in his reply :

Quote:

I do all I can to start up interesting and serious threads all the time, however, the discussion is either a)about god or b)not about god. If it is about god, then many people can get angry, and noone feels that their opinion is worse than anyone elses and everybody has a strong view which they are interested in defending, so it's a good discussion... If it is not about god, then it's just me, fable, CE and a couple of blokes who happen to be interested in this particular subject...There is nothing really to joke about in such threads, and people who aren't in the discussion hardly ever want to get in the discussion, so the low interest kills it. Quite often the serious threads get buried just in the gap between one of the discusers and another being on the forum...

IMHO I do admit sometimes the "seriuosness" of a topic killed it - hey, I've tried posting serious topics than what I've done these days - but eventually it's all went down the drain

As for Rob-hin statement :

Quote:

Me too, but this is not a bad thing. There is still that "elite" group that are here longer then others, but this is normal. It creates a form of respect.

I do believe the first gens don't consider themselves as "elite" group. After all we're all members (but sometimes it feels funny feeling old because you registered on the early days)

Quote:

If the veterans here think this place is taking a change for the worst, they should contact the mods or even Buck to make this place or controlled. This can however have a bad effect on the atmosfear since "newbies" could be offended by this. But beeing controlled can have a positive effect on people. However if less people contribute in discussions then there is nothing you can do about it. Perhaps this will pick up later again, who knows.

IIRC when after approx 6 months SYM was created, the topic also degraded as well. I presume it's just a time when everyone in forum become congested. From the SYM history I think everything will be normal again soon

Some thougths for serious topics (perhaps) :
I'm not quite into politics, and from my observation most members are the same. Same thing goes for the "Theology" discussion. But IIRC sports, movies, & some sci-fi topics were highly appreciated.

<EDIT>My compliments to Waverly, not because of his flaming but he also comes up with several good topics i.e. SYM Diplomacy – The Quest for World Domination...