Quite often new conversations on serious topics pop up in the SF. In fact, one was today, regarding annonymous callers who hung up when you picked up the phone. A few days ago, maybe even less, they were talking about the current state of Liberia and the robbery of Lestat's laptop. The posts are often quite long, depending on who happens to be there. If Kipi is popping on and they have not seen them for some time, then the joking begins.
I've seen a lot of worse threads in my perusal's, so I don't exactly get the post farming remark, and I don't get why you followed up with a remark that no spam is substandard after that, but I am probably missing something along the lines, so no worries. No offence if I did say anything wrong...
I cam through SYM, see all these characters running around, laughing about inside jokes constantly, and then I see this nw thread pop up while I was lurking called the Spam Factory. I jump in, and that's where I learned how SYM works. When The Reaper popped into SYM and asked what the place was, there were three posts instantly telling him how things work, simply, one from Ik himself, all short and to the point, teling him that anything goes, but if the thread seems serious, then they should probably try not to spam it.
I find that SYM is different from many OT sections, in that people here actually have formed real relationships in real life. It is a closer community than most have, where severqal dozen people could respond to the same thread and rarely ever read each others posts. Debates actually happen here, other than a thread popping up and everyone posts there own remarks and forget about it, while never reading each others. Although this makes SYM nicer than many places, it can also lead to some problems for newer people, like myself, to fit in. For over a year the HC has attracted a large number of people to it for reading and the like. Hell, the poll has over 100 votes in it. It was an easier place for someone to simply inroduce themselves onto reaching a strange enviroment, where they are unsure how to post. Many of us were not around in the beginning, so we can't off the bat post as posts have always ghone, and sooner or later enough new people show up that posts and threads take different courses then they once did.
I agree with Aegis that the atmosphere that new posters are met with is not as jovial as it once was. Reading through threads from the 2003-2004 times, I can see many threads, but nothing truly worth remembering overly much, other than a few pubs or bars, but all of it was interesting to read. Now, they are entering somewhere where if they introduce themselves in the wrong place, the embarrasment is overwhelming.
Although posts mean little here, there is something about posting your 250th post and then seeing fable walk through with closing on 21,000, that is sort of daunting. Or seeing Aegis or Bloodstalker post, or dragon wench or Gerogi. Imagine joining a forum having that amount of posts to start with and seeing everyone around you being in the 100,000s and remarking about threads from four years ago in conversations that you can't be a part of.
IMO, although it may seem perfectly understandable to many, those of us who were new were seriously wondering how we could post in a thread regarding BS's love for CM and Sytze? Or the somewhat rampant flirting going on in some threads, like C Elegan's Couch or the House for the Depraved? It is difficult for one to post when the last one involved Happy Happy Joy Joy and being worried about being covered up because you have Gwally on the couch next to you.
To tell you the truth, I spam all threads I can, if I think that I am interested on the topic. I decied that out of politeness I leave some serious threads alone, not because of the No Spam tag. However, these spam tags have been around for years now... threads asking for serious conversations on the first couple of pages left in SYM history that was not purged.
They are even told, to an extent, what to discuss.
Well, if you want, we could change this thread over to political tensions in Libya.
I remember how people originally brought the point across in the Heathen Citadel that a certain type of spamming was looked down upon. You used examples from a time before newer posters arrived in a deliberate attempt to exclude us. That was elitism to me and caused a downturn in my perception of SYM. Before that time, I had a more positive view, as a result I see this thread as partly a continuation of that debate, that a certain type of spamming had fallen out of favour and yet some people would cling to the memory desperately regardless.
Even after respecting these members' opinions and starting a separate thread allowing us to spam in the manner we wished (in accordance to forum rules) there were/are still unhappy people. I see little way of satisfying these people at present, if people choose to visit the SF and spam there, instead of following some example of old times and producing posts of that particular quality, that is their choice.
I can see where Ravager is going here. Reading through the SF, it makes a lot of sense and still has a lot of longer posts than the majority of the threads from 2001. I remember while reading through old threads in 2003 regarding spammers that at the time a postcount of 4000 meant a lot, considering that the posts had a lot more. I always snorted at this, consdering that very few members here, such as BS or VooDooDali had any form of posting that exceeded one short sentence for a lot of the time.
Every so often, new threads would pop up and all members would post longer messages, but it was far in between. Now, two people post the same style in the HC and all the old timers decided that it was not exactly prefered on SYM. Well not all, and they onlt remarked in a passing sort of way, but I don't think that it was worth mentioning, really.
There are constantly arguments regarding another's posts are shorter than another's or the like, but many a time, I read long posts, and they have no content. They are a five minute read of 5000 characters saying something that many could have said in four or five sentences. Many do go against that coment, but I found some that followed this mold.
I still think that the entire thing was blown out of proportion in the HC, IMO.
There is a lot of reminscing going on, typically, it seems, here, even though it has only been four or five years, or even a month, since a particular thread left the front page. Younger members like going back and reading some of the threads, and get a alugh out of entire pages given to polls regarding what your favorite type of nut is. Although I find it funny and I think it could have lead to some... interesting... conversations, I was a little sad when I read that they wanted all the threads to have more substance.
Compared to my last post, this one is totally random ramblings of a newbie.
