And allowing negative votes will foster what? Bitterness, discord and even more feudalism thats all.
It will encourage a Balkanization between forum members. I see nothing positive from allowing people to pick on each other that way.
I occasionally post on GSC and honestly have never felt the need to ‘reward’ a member for a posting. It is his choice to respond to a posting. Look to the origins of the word ‘forum’. A forum was a place to discuss things and formulate a consensus, with the emphasis on DISCUSSION. A discussion implies more than one line of thought.
As regards the point system then I see no good coming from it whether postiive or negative point scoring. The system without strict constant surveillance is open to corruption. Personally, a memeber’s positive or negative score would have no impact on whether I read or responded to a posting from him. My choice is determined by the character I determine the member to be. It does not take long to evaluate any member’s credentials.
To me the overriding decision should be the individual’s decision whether to actually read or ignore a posting. I will restate for the umteenth time, many members here are like those who watch ‘R’ and ‘X’ rated movies simply to complain about the content. Time and time again a member will post how much he dislikes the content of a thread but will habitually return to post further comments. If a thread distresses you then why return time and time again to be further distressed?
Tim, isn’t the Forum where Julius Cesar met his end? (http://www.freerails.com/images/emoticons/wink1.gif)
I thought the end was in Act IV
Hello, all –
I am a newbie to the hobby of large scale garden railroads and a newbie to this forum and to MLS.
For 25 years i worked in the comic book industry. There were DC fanatics and Marvel fanatics and even a few Indie fanatics. Fans who liked certain publsihers or editors or artists regularly had to endure hearing the people whose work they supported called by degrading or mean rhyming or sound-alike names. People who liked certain magazines were derided as fools or even had their sexuality questioned, in public; they were routinely bullied by those who accused them of “drinking the Kool-Aid” for this or that publishing company. I learned how to take all kinds of verbal abuse in the comics industry – and i know how to dish it out, too. I had to learn how, to stay on as a professional in that field for a quarter century.
So … i bought some Bachmann Big Hauler equipment. I want to have a garden railway.
I came here, registered, and found all sorts of trash talk about “Botchman” products. Given my professional history of dealing with brand-fanatics, i am not all that sensitive or easily hurt, but when i saw that, i knew i had entered a social club that was fragmenting into entrenched cliques and was actively repelling newbies.
I did not see anything like that at MLS, so i joined there, but i decided not to activate my membership here, until one member encouraged me to use this forum because it runs better than MLS (which, of course, it does, from a technical point of view).
He was right – this forum is GREAT. I have learned so much! The pictures are stunning and inspirational. There are folks here with eidetic memories for kits and models that i know almost nothing about – and they take time to educate me, for which i am extremely, effusively grateful.
You folks hold decades of cumulative wisdom and expertise that i simply have not got a clue about.
Links are freely shared, leading to great plant nurseries, fantastic videos, and pictures of folks having fun with their families. I love that. I am happy to be here.
If i could select any improvement, it would be to have the moderators delete posts in which folks refer to other folks’ brands of locomotives by child-stupid pseudo-clever put-down names and call one aother “Kool-Aid drinkers” for having brand preferences.
Catherine,
my initial exposure to this site was around ten years ago as a background lurker. My first thought was this site was unlike any other I had visited. I was actually unimpressed with the sentiments and views expressed and the manner the views were expressed.
After finding that other sites were either too heavily moderated retarding true discussion or too standoverish, I frequented here more often, simply reading the many varied postings. I realised that apart from being a ‘weird mob’ as we term it here downunder, they actually made a lot of sense. I then joined the site and have not looked back.
As some have commented, new comers to the site really need to get the feel for the place before getting serious with their postings and forming allegiances if they really feel the need to. They need to get to know the people here. Many come from sites very unlike this one and form an opinion that we are a rude bunch of people, devoid of moderation. Moderators from other sites have joined the site simply to tell us we are an unruly mob and how Bob should moderate the site. Their idea of moderation is a heavy handed approach that keeps everyone in line. Bob has always stood back and allowed the members to self moderate, only stepping in when ‘hot’ topics reach incendiary level and inflame too many wars.
One thing Bob will not do is delete postings. He will lock a thread that has got out of hand but the thread is always there as a reminder to perhaps engender a less fiery discussion in the future. I honestly do not know the exact meaning or history of the term ‘kool-aide’. Perhaps there is a local term that best describes it. I am thinking that it may have the same meaning as a Spanish word that a Japanese company attached to one of its popular four-wheel drive vehicles that city people only drive in the urban suburbs. the Pajero.
Brand preferences will always inflame preference wars as egos are at stake. Enjoy the site for the information it dispenses freely and avoid the cliques that form around individual manufacturer brands.
Hi Catherine
When I first got here I also ran into the cliques you mention, and had some doozie boughts. Eventually I just decided not to bother fighting for what were pretty petty things in reality. I just decided life was too short and ignore the personality differences. Many years later now I consider those same folks friends. Funny how that happens when you just decide to accept people for who they are plain and simple.
Welcome Catherine, if I failed to mention that before. Won’t take ya long before you figure out where all the nonsense comes from, then it makes it easier to avoid…
Tim,
Thanks for your thoughts. To “drink the Kool-Aid” is, on the surface a reference to a powdery sugar-and fruit-flavoured beverage mix. You add water and it makes a sweet drink, very cheap. Kool-Aid is often used as a generic term – other brands have been Lick-Em-Aid and Flavor-Aid.
However, the actual reference is to the Jonestown mass suicide of 1978. About a thousand followers of a maniacal American self-styled guru named Jim Jones had picked up stakes and moved to the nation of Guyana to live in the Jonestown People’s Temple. They came under investigation for a number of improprieties involving child custody cases, and shot and killed a California congressman who had come down to investigate the situation on behalf of several of his constituents. Jones then ordered his followers to assemble, where assistants passed out Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide. 909 people drank it, even after watching others die. The phrase “to drink the Kool-Aid” thus came to mean “to stick loyally to a doomed leader (or product line) even when you can see that it is destructive to your friends, family, and self.”
Catherine,
yes, I was aware of the history of Jonestown but never made the connection to the poisionous drink the victims took, whether voluntarily or by force. I can well understand the complete indifference one would feel if termed a ‘kool-aide’ drinker. We speak the same language (well almost) but at times we are cultures apart in understanding that same language.
Welcome, catherine. I will second what Ken said. I have learned a lot here, and gotten a lot of encouragement in my modeling efforts. Focus on the positive, it’s more fun. I am concerned that newcomers will get a negative impression of us due to a few bad apples.
Hi Catherine
Welcome aboard!
Coming from a newsroom I too have never been bothered by the bickering. I too have heard a lot worse over the years. Even the worst of those that bicker have always been willing to help.
I can’t believe I’m the first to say this! We want pictures of your layout!
“Pete we just need to get more of the live steam guys over here and posting on the live steam forum”
Interesting point, but the Live Steam forums get the least bickering, in my experience. Maybe they are adults and interested in trains, not posting on websites.
Pete Thornton said:
“Pete we just need to get more of the live steam guys over here and posting on the live steam forum”
Interesting point, but the Live Steam forums get the least bickering, in my experience. Maybe they are adults and interested in trains, not posting on websites.
I hate to say it, but I forget its down there. I’m still waiting on a Butane Fired K-28 to come up at a price I can afford then I will have been bitten.
Jake Smith said:
Pete Thornton said:
“Pete we just need to get more of the live steam guys over here and posting on the live steam forum”
Interesting point, but the Live Steam forums get the least bickering, in my experience. Maybe they are adults and interested in trains, not posting on websites.
I hate to say it, but I forget its down there. I’m still waiting on a Butane Fired K-28 to come up at a price I can afford then I will have been bitten.
I wish the live steam forum was more active. That’s the only reason why I go to the other site. More active live steam forum.
Shawn Viggiano said:
Jake Smith said:
Pete Thornton said:
“Pete we just need to get more of the live steam guys over here and posting on the live steam forum”
Interesting point, but the Live Steam forums get the least bickering, in my experience. Maybe they are adults and interested in trains, not posting on websites.
I hate to say it, but I forget its down there. I’m still waiting on a Butane Fired K-28 to come up at a price I can afford then I will have been bitten.
I wish the live steam forum was more active. That’s the only reason why I go to the other site. More active live steam forum.
Shawn,
With tongue firmly in cheek:
A lot of steam is let off in the most unlikely sections on LSC, not enough left for Live Steam
I think the live steamers are too busy tending to their burned fingers to go after each other.
They also tend to use smaller words, as after each keystroke there is a barely audible “ow” heard…
(Wish I had the budget, actually…)
Joe
Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Shawn Viggiano said:
Jake Smith said:
Pete Thornton said:
“Pete we just need to get more of the live steam guys over here and posting on the live steam forum”
Interesting point, but the Live Steam forums get the least bickering, in my experience. Maybe they are adults and interested in trains, not posting on websites.
I hate to say it, but I forget its down there. I’m still waiting on a Butane Fired K-28 to come up at a price I can afford then I will have been bitten.
I wish the live steam forum was more active. That’s the only reason why I go to the other site. More active live steam forum.
Shawn,
With tongue firmly in cheek:
A lot of steam is let off in the most unlikely sections on LSC, not enough left for Live Steam
LMAO that was good HJ.
g… d… addictions!
it was a mere two weeks and my fingers itch!
but in these two weeks i learned something new. when i had a look at the forum i just skipped over the posts from my “favorite three”.
and - oh wonder! - the rest of the forum is friendly and informative.
but there is one thing positive to say about being less online: the layout evolves much quicker!
i think, i will have to learn, to be much more selective in what i read, and where i participate.
…winking…