Saturday, September 20, 2003

   Declining Post Quality?

I don't normally use my blog to rant...to just express my annoyance or anger about things. With the exception of maybe one post, I think generally I've had little worthy of complaint. But I'm annoyed. Maybe I'm just in a bad mood because of what my brother did today (he downloaded a bunch of porn stuff while I was away -- stuff that sticks ad bot things all over your computer...I'm going to kill him when he comes home). I thought I'd relax by looking around at people's myOtaku sites -- it's nice to read about different issues and to see how people are going. And so, I came upon terra's blog, as I visit it now and then. I noticed that she quoted Boba Fett's post, where he said he was "beginning a leave of absence from OB". This obviously raises a wider question. Boba Fett claims he's leaving because of a "declining post quality". And terra seems to agree with that, though she does mention that leaving the boards only enhances the problem. Well, I have two things to say about this. Firstly, I see no evidence of a declining post quality. Some people may have you believe that OtakuBoards is going to hell or something. And I find it extremely annoying and misrepresentative. The problem is that some newbies get noticed. And usually, it's the low quality posters who are noticed first, especially when they decide to post a billion threads here and there. That's understandable. Based on that, I can see how anyone would draw a reasonable conclusion that OtakuBoards is going down the toilet. But by the same token, I have noticed double or triple the number of newbies who are doing two things; 1) posting with high quality from the start and 2) staying on OB regularly and participating in various ways. To me, this signals an improvement in OtakuBoards itself and in the community at large. The problem is that these negative behaviors of a small number of members are being focused on. People are throwing up their hands and "leaving" OtakuBoards as a result. And it annoys me. Yes, what terra says about participating is important. It's like when a Moderator complains to me about spam -- Moderators are there to remove and eradicate spam. Why on earth do I need to be told that my boards are spammy, when I hire Moderators to take care of the problem? It makes no sense. And why am I apparently the only one who is even noticing some of the great new members at OB? It's almost like some members are surrounded by this cloud of elitism -- they throw their hands back and expect things to improve. How can anything improve if you take a hands-off attitude toward it? And how do you serve the interests of those who you support? In other words, leaving or not participating is only hurting the high quality members. It's another high quality poster who doesn't enter an RPG. It's one less intelligent thread. It's not a question of spammers taking control and running everything. I just see so many problems with this whole attitude. And I'm so sick and tired of it. There's just such a strong cynicism that surrounds all of this. And this might be one thing that new members have over "oldies" -- they are genuinely trying to have fun and bring something to the table. They're not sitting on some kind of invisible high-horse, going on and on about how things are so terrible and the poor "elite members" are being overrun by lowly spammers. Having said all of the above...I know that I might sound as though I'm making very blanket comments. And I am, it's true. But they need to be made. The attitude I see with some members aggrivates me. It's defeatist...it's cynical...it's elitist...and it's just pointless. If Boba Fett wants to leave, fine. But he shouldn't make out that all of the horrible spammers are forcing his hand. That's ridiculous. If things were that bad, I would have left a long time ago. I don't want to sound too harsh with this, because Boba Fett is truly a great guy. He's a great writer and a valued member. And so is terra, for that matter. I'm a big fan of them both, without doubt. But at some point I've got to step in and clear the water here a little. I'm just sick of this idea that OB is being overrun by spammers...or that people are "jumping ship left and right". What a load of utter rubbish! I know the boards better than anyone else -- and I will tell you right now, without a shadow of doubt, that there isn't any kind of mass exoddus of older members or anything of the sort. A handful have left in recent years...of course. I expect nothing different. It happens on any message board. But I don't see a flood of high quality posters packing their bags. It's just not happening. High quality posters are coming to OtakuBoards, rather than moving away from it. And frankly...those who decide to leave because of "spammers overrunning things" probably should leave anyway. The way I feel right now, I have a very hard time feeling that their departure is any great loss. I would much rather encourage and work with the large array of high quality new posters, rather than humor the minority of older, more cynical members. (Once again...I have to note; I don't intend for any of this to be an attack or insult to Boba or terra. As I said earlier, I value both members greatly...and I'm glad that they are and have been around. My comments are more of a general response to a kind of smog that has been hanging over OtakuBoards in recent times.) EDIT: After reading through Boba Fett's picture thread and then reading Jenna's comment on this post...I posted my own comment to clarify what I meant here. But I also think that I should edit this post. Jenna asked me to read the thread because Boba Fett has specific reasons for leaving. In my comment, I said that I understood that...and that this post itself isn't designed to attack Boba or terra. And that's true -- as I mentioned in my own comment, I'm mostly "attacking" a very dismissive viewpoint, rather than actual individuals. And when I look at Boba's last post now...I don't see how anything I said was actually wrong. What dayday and rich said in that thread was obviously inexcuseable. But here we have Boba Fett saying that things started out nice and that now things aren't the same; that member quality is declining. But that's not right. It's not correct. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong here, but Boba seems to be basing his view of all members on dayday and rich's rudeness. And that's simply not right. As far as I'm concerned, both dayday and rich deserve to be banned. Charles absolutely did the right thing. If they have nothing nice to say, they shouldn't say anything at all. There are obviously limits when it comes to "speaking your mind". Still...my initial point stands. Why should a minority of rude members cast doubt over the majority? In all honesty, I hope that Boba Fett decides to return to OtakuBoards. It's terrible to see people hurt his feelings like that. But I hope that Boba understands that most OBers aren't like that. Most of us want Boba around...and most of us like Boba. I don't want Boba to get the wrong impression based on these two people. And I don't want that impression to somehow grow and become some kind of common thought. I don't know. I've already rambled too much here as it is. I just wanted to be sure that my thoughts on the issue are clear. It's not my intention to attack anybody at all -- I just want to be sure that the situation on OB isn't unfairly blown out of proportion.

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