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Post by mareofnight on Feb 24, 2013 22:26:29 GMT
Hmm. I do wonder if it's possible to use what we know of Tomgeeks to improve other online communities. What differences have we noticed between it and other forums? (I imagine differences in things like structure, subject matter, how new people are brought in, and group norms would be the reason. Over the course of five years, just-so-happening to not attract any non-mellow people or trolls is very unlikely.) I'm also interested in things that seem unrelated but are different - it might just be the relevance isn't very obvious.
I notice the old forum had most of its posts in monstrously long dump threads - "What's on your mind RIGHT NOW?", the photos thread, and the two or three art threads. I'm not really sure how common monster anything-goes threads are for general discussion sections. And art-focused forums typically have everyone make their own sketchbook thread, I think, so we were unusual in that regard.
"What's on your mind" might have also had a group cohesion function - having a thread where you can post anything encourages people complaining about their day, which gave us a chance to establish a norm of trying to cheer each other up. So we feel like we're all friends and don't feel threatened when we try to talk about other things.
If I remember correctly... did that forum also have rules against talking about politics and religion? I know orientation was off limits. (Even though I kinda went and violated that one a few times myself... |'D) And we had the rule against swearing - perhaps that changes the atmosphere of the forum.
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kewdle
Bucaneer
That one chick over there.
Posts: 28
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Post by kewdle on Feb 25, 2013 4:56:35 GMT
Yes. There was sort of a general blanket ban on Big Issue Debates. We did have some fun getting around the swear filter though.
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Post by X'o'Lore on Feb 25, 2013 5:28:01 GMT
I've seen drama come without breaking any rules that Tomgeeks had in place. Also we were basically encouraged to sneak around the filter, so there is that. Don't argue with my mighty beard, dude. I'm like a cross between Brian Blessed and a haystack. The hair on my jowls runs a bit thin, but it's quite nice here on my chin... I wouldn't argue against a beard. Or a pirate. I hear tell that pirates rank 'badass' on the opponent scale. You don't argue with badass.
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Post by Emily on Feb 25, 2013 15:36:10 GMT
on the note of forum rules - because someone asked elsewhere too,
this board does not have any official filters or rules, but I can and will enforce a "be excelllent to each other rule" as I see fit, so uh, no intentional trolling and be generally pleasant and respect others opinions, other than that, try and keep it SFW- you may swear or link to NSFW things if you want -although please link and label them NSFW spare people who may be working rather than embed them in the thread.
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Post by clemon on Feb 25, 2013 19:40:49 GMT
Are these rules listed somewhere else besides buried in a thread about another forum?
Hmm...I don't remember any drama. But that might be selective memory. I'm actually surprised, because I love putting abstract things in boxes and categories, but I like these mellow forums. I think I've seen other forums which have a sort of Random/What's on you mind type thread, but for reason, their threads actually post random things and make it difficult to follow.
I don't know why Tomgeeks was so mellow. If I believed in gender stereotypes, I'd suggest it was because it was a forum for female comic makers and females are generally brought up to be less competitive. But of course I'm not into gender differences unless they can properly studied. It was different from many other webcomic forums, because it was not part of a hosting domain. ... Hmm ... any other ideas?
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Post by Ally on Feb 25, 2013 20:30:47 GMT
It's an interesting question...I've always felt really lucky, because my first two forums (Tomgeeks and one relating to a comic book, which was my only forum for years) have both been really lovely places, with the absolute bare minimum of trolls and unpleasant people. I don't necessarily think it's a gender thing, either (although I do think there is a big social pressure on anyone brought up female to be "nice", even at their own expense) - my other forum is pretty 50/50.
I think it may have more to do with interests/topics, and the kind of personality types that they may attract. For examples - Tomgeeks was about comic creation, and while some writers and artists are loud, brash people, I think it would be fair to say that it's an area that includes a large number of quieter, thoughtful people. My other forum is based around a comic series with themes such as LGBT issues, feminism, non-heteronormative relationships and families, so it seemed to attract people who were already open-minded. (Both those traits apply to both forums, btw). In both cases, it meant people were more likely to talk rather than troll, which makes for a more comfortable environment.
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Post by Margo on Feb 25, 2013 22:25:35 GMT
clemon, I think I recall there being a moderately heated discussion about porn, a few years back. That's about as exciting as it ever got, though.
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Post by Soff on Feb 26, 2013 4:17:22 GMT
And there was some kinda of disagreement between Panda and Mage, I seem to remember...?
I don't know. I'd say we're boring targets for trolls. We've always been a mostly slowly moving forum and we're not much people. The fact we didn't make a group for any particular reason other than... seeing what it was about probably encourages just sharing... ourselves as people, which in turn creates the huge chatty type of threads, since any thread with a theme gets eventually "finished" since there is a limit to what we can say about any given theme. We did get some threads that ended up overlapping and some complaining about how things had already been discussed in the old forum, didn't we? I just remembered that I had a teacher who wrote his thesis about internet forums in the last semester. I'm curious to see that now I remember... I suppose he investigated this kind of stuff. I don't really know much about the thing other than he categorized forums as specific and non specific, so I guess that he considered that important.
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Post by Emily on Feb 26, 2013 13:56:26 GMT
Are these rules listed somewhere else besides buried in a thread about another forum? this board does not have any official filters or rules That's your answer right there...
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Post by clemon on Feb 27, 2013 3:01:22 GMT
I thought you might have official unofficial rules somewhere. ^^;
Well, good thing I have a very selective memory.
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Post by Emily on Feb 27, 2013 9:47:11 GMT
they're... in my head?
anyway, we operate on a system of "we trust you to be good, and if you screw it up we will give you a stern teacherly talking to"
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Zamisk
Pirate
Scourge o' the Cosmos
Posts: 86
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Post by Zamisk on Mar 1, 2013 8:57:03 GMT
And party on, dudes.
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Post by Emily on Mar 2, 2013 20:32:02 GMT
exactly.
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kewdle
Bucaneer
That one chick over there.
Posts: 28
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Post by kewdle on Mar 4, 2013 14:05:55 GMT
Party like it's 1999?
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Post by mareofnight on Mar 4, 2013 14:31:05 GMT
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Post by Emily on Mar 5, 2013 10:09:22 GMT
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kewdle
Bucaneer
That one chick over there.
Posts: 28
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Post by kewdle on Mar 5, 2013 14:31:28 GMT
I'm the only one who remembers that song, aren't I. >_>
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Post by Soff on Mar 5, 2013 16:01:54 GMT
It seems so...
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Post by clemon on Mar 5, 2013 17:38:00 GMT
I remember the ? song. The ??? song, I'd have to listen to...to get it. :I
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Post by X'o'Lore on Mar 5, 2013 18:22:18 GMT
I'm familiar with the phrase "Party like it's 1999" though I admit I wasn't aware it was a song.
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