The forum hasn’t really changed much overall but there are some very acerbic people who post and once it’s established that you can insult someone with impunity, you’re unlikely to see that stop.
It’s like arguing with wumpus. I mean, sure you could, but why would you? That way lies madness.
And if Zylon started posting in a friendly, non-sarcastic manner that didn’t suggest contempt for everything in this world (except for System Shock, Star Raiders and CRT monitors), I’d think he’d been replaced by a pod person. It just wouldn’t seem right.
Mostly, though, the sniping, name-calling and derision seems a lot more fleeting these days rather than all-consuming. Nearly all of it occurs between willing participants, too. There are few “victims”, as such.
It didn’t fail horribly and die off, but it sure did disappear fast. And it’s still the primary reason PC gaming is what it is today. Microsoft took people from PC gaming and moved them to the Xbox. That was my primary gripe with it and still is.
…and if we could go back and read those threads, we’d probably see that much of what I said has come to pass. Convergence devices anyone?
Those forums would also help confirm the long standing tradition of this board being PC and Xbox-centric which people still try to claim isn’t true, but is glaringly obvious every day.
Anyway, back then people didn’t stick other posters’ names into headers and make it look like someone said something that they didn’t. That’s been happening far more in the last couple years and when you take a look around the board, you realize that many people (especially developers) have left because of it.
I really don’t think that is that common, I can think of only one instance where I’ve noticed it, and yes that would be with your name. Also I think that has nothing to do with developers posting less, if anything I would blame that on stuff outside of the boards themselves with sites like Kotaku often making news stories out of people’s posts to message boards there’s an overall incentive for them to not post to any.
I can only think of a couple of these. One of which was immediately locked and got the poster banned for a few days. The other of which was about Sol Invictus and was something like two years ago. I’m not sure that I would call this frequency ‘common’ in the slightest.
04-25-08. Nearly two years ago. Like I said, not exactly common.
And it’s a completely non-targeted burn. I mean, I’m just over two years old on this forum, so it’s likely I fall into one of those categories. I’m not feeling the heat, but I guess some folks a little more sensitive to these things.
Meh, maybe we’re getting soft. But seriously, the number of immediate “f- you you’re wrong” has spiked, and nothing you say will change my aged perception.
As a fellow who routinely makes a remarkable ass of himself and has yet to notice anybody poking deliberate fun at him, I’d have to say that the forum is remarkably tolerant of my particular brand of crazy idiocy. Hard to believe that it was better back when somebody who was apparently crazier than me (I have not met this Koontz - I suspect I do not want to). Maybe you’ve been spending too much time in P&R?
