Why I left this community.

[MidnightMage]

Thanks @Lüt you are a legend!

[Dark Pulse]

  On 7/19/2021 at 8:18 PM, printz said:

It's also great because I sorely missed the post signatures from the previous software, but being able to change my custom title (which, BTW, have always been useless for me as you mods chose them!) means I can do self-promotion there.

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Don't worry, printz. I will always remember.

[The BMFG]

  On 7/19/2021 at 8:56 PM, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I look forward to checking the profile of some random member with twelve posts to see that they've changed their title to "Creator of GzDoom" or "Sandy Petersen OFFICIAL" or simply "Forum Legend".

 

I changed mine to "Severed Member".

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"CEO Of ID Todd Hollenshead"

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

  On 7/20/2021 at 7:38 PM, The BMFG said:

Hollenshead

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Sounds painful!

Edited July 20, 2021 by TheMagicMushroomMan

[Lüt]

 

Thanks for all the positive responses everybody, I really appreciate it. I'm surprised this went over with so little controversy, but I'm glad people are enjoying the change. Also thanks for keeping the disagreements civil and reasoned, I appreciate that as well.

 

In particular, I wanted to address these points:

 

  On 7/19/2021 at 8:01 AM, Jello said:

I always felt like a title should be something that should be earned, given, or bestowed upon you. Not something that you give yourself. All nicknames in life aren't the ones that you give yourself, they're the ones that others give you, and you either embrace it, or you hate it.

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  On 7/19/2021 at 8:24 AM, bLOCKbOYgAMES said:

I was thinking the same thing. I really like the idea of a title being earned. Even titles such as "Senior Member" denotes a long term input into the community, and is worthy of acknowledgement.

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This is fine and reasonable, in theory.

 

In practice, however, it's been a long time since staff gave such titles for these kind of things on any regular basis. In fact, I'd say the amount of titles we've given in the last 5 years is barely equivalent to the amount of titles we gave over a single month in the early days of the forum. Back then, titles were used as probationary ranks, as well as for achievements or other "noteworthy" posting habits (usually of the stupid variety). Now we have better and more accessible probationary methods, which when combined with our current general indifference toward giving titles, means that this is pretty much a dead practice. So because we weren't using the feature with any regularity, I decided it was best to turn it over to the people who would actually use it instead.

 

In particular, for whatever concerns the change may have brought about (whether objective or preferential), I found the concerns of the OP to be of higher priority. The issue that was brought up needed to be addressed, and coordinating a mass title-change effort between staff and other members who shared the OP's sentiment would have been a clusterfuck at best, so this was the most adequate and accessible solution. Perhaps if we had avoided the incidents leading to the OP, this wouldn't have been necessary. But we didn't, so it was.

 

And while I do think the idea of having both the title and the post-based rank be displayed is fine, it is unfortunately one of the things we can't do. One overrides the other, and that's all that the software allows.

 

  On 7/19/2021 at 8:18 PM, printz said:

EDIT: aww, I can't turn them into web links, can I? :)

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Yeah no, that's pushing it just a liiiiiiiittle bit too far :P

[Zulk RS]

  On 7/21/2021 at 5:29 AM, Lüt said:

Yeah no, that's pushing it just a liiiiiiiittle bit too far :P

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If links were allowed though, I'd definitely make mine a Rick Roll :P

[Doomkid]

Case in point!

[Kyka]

Thanks @Lüt for the option to give myself godlike and awesome titles, and also for the consideration and thought given to the issue at hand. Much appreciated. Well handled.

[Chezza]

I swear if this doesn't change the OPs mind about our community, I don't know what will.

 

Coming back after so many years just to say "I had a bad time and that's why I left, I probably still won't stick around" and then receives lots of sympathy is a strong sign this is a friendly community. So much so even an administrator changed a rule that deletes a long standing characteristic about this community, the special "unique status" over it. How many other online communities would do that?

 

Was Doom World really that much of a toxic cesspool in the 2000s?

[Liberation]

  On 7/21/2021 at 9:27 AM, Chezza said:

Was Doom World really that much of a toxic cesspool in the 2000s?

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No not at all, it was pretty comparable to any community back then, that's to say pretty cringe and somewhat high brow, low tier at times. I do remember some totally nuts flame wars and some real characters, it was good fun. I wouldn't want to go back to those days, been and gone thankfully, but DW was certainly not a toxic place.

[Doomkid]

Following what Liberation said, DW (and the wider oldschool Doom community) has never been a bad place, imo.

 

Even when it was a bit crazier than it is now, blantant stupidity and outright meanness were pretty much never tolerated as far as I recall. Usually, things like negative custom titles or forced scrollers or whatever were given out as a softer alternative to a ban, and usually stuff like that sprung from political and religious arguments anyway more than anything related to Doom. You gotta keep in mind, this was back when the entire internet wasn't a constant political argument. The pre-Twitter, pre-FaceBook times. Those debates were kind of a novel feature of DW. Now, the lack of that stuff is a novel feature.

 

All the old forum culture stuff was really just a relic of a long gone era of the net in general, and it was never hateful, just a product of young people being on a young internet.

[Zulk RS]

  On 7/21/2021 at 11:59 AM, Doomkid said:

 You gotta keep in mind, this was back when the entire internet wasn't a constant political argument. The pre-Twitter, pre-FaceBook times. Those debates were kind of a novel feature of DW. Now, the lack of that stuff is a novel feature.

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The lack of constant arguments are one of the main reason as to why I love the DW community. Actually that might not be totally accurate. I think the reason why I love this community so much is because everyone seems very civil and reasonable with their arguments. Maybe I just haven't been lurking in the Everything Else subforum much but I feel like even when someone says something controversial or something that most people disagree with, the arguments are always civil and rational. It feels like a person calmly explaining why they think something is wrong rather than screaming "YOU'RE WRONG, YOU IDIOT" over and over again.

[omx32x]

i have no idea what to set as my custom title 

[SLOTH MARINE (CB)]

  On 7/21/2021 at 2:07 PM, omalefico32x said:

i have no idea what to set as my custom title 

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there is a option to in edit profile pretty sure

[omx32x]

  On 7/21/2021 at 2:31 PM, SLOTH MARINE (CB) said:

there is a option to in edit profile pretty sure

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yeah i saw it i just dont know what to put in there lol i think i will keep the generic senior member until something happens

 

i though of one

Edited July 21, 2021 by omalefico32x
typo

[LadyMistDragon]

Speaking as someone who avoided joining Doomworld initially around late 2007/early 2008 when I played my first custom wads because of the heavy 4chan vibe coming from many of the posts I saw, I know fully what dealing with trolls and assholes online feels like. Having a tendency to make an ass of myself on other forums, I was pretty careful to express my thoughts in a proper manner, lest someone take me apart over some minor wording. I'm incredibly gratified to find that those days are long past

[Dark Pulse]

  On 7/22/2021 at 1:43 AM, LadyMistDragon said:

Speaking as someone who avoided joining Doomworld initially around late 2007/early 2008 when I played my first custom wads because of the heavy 4chan vibe coming from many of the posts I saw, I know fully what dealing with trolls and assholes online feels like. Having a tendency to make an ass of myself on other forums, I was pretty careful to express my thoughts in a proper manner, lest someone take me apart over some minor wording. I'm incredibly gratified to find that those days are long past

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I know I'm certainly happy that most of my teenage and early twentysomething idiocy predates the social media era...

[printz]

  On 7/22/2021 at 1:43 AM, LadyMistDragon said:

Speaking as someone who avoided joining Doomworld initially around late 2007/early 2008 when I played my first custom wads because of the heavy 4chan vibe coming from many of the posts I saw

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While it was never that bad, Doomworld did have a definite "boys' club" feel to it. Women (as clearly identified) were extremely rare, it was considered safe to mention someone as "he" until they mentioned the contrary. Most of the 4chan-like jokes were reserved for Post Hell and other low-effort threads however. The forum did have a few unbannable trolls used as attack dogs and bad-cops against low-effort members (who would later get Losered). Sometimes I did get some misogynistic vibes when certain woman posters (rare Doomworld frequenters however) did some wrong in the community (while it was right to criticize them, people would often go along the "this is why women should never be in position of power" crap).

 

Anyway, people either grew up since then, grew away (i.e. left the community due to waning interest) or didn't grow up, their style remained in the 2000s and ended up getting banned for being too spammy, conflictual, aggressive and annoying here. Some fearful people are afraid this means that Doomworld has stopped being cool, but I'd say we're just growing up and getting to know the outside world better.

 

For posting about daily news crap, the forums are bad anyway, because such posts generate heated debates, which result in spammy threads, often in the form of dialogues of unlikely interest to the others. Finding a suitable chatroom (Discord, IRC etc.) is a lot better if you find politics and doomscrolling (not about Doom though) discussion entertaining.

Edited July 22, 2021 by printz

[deus-ex]

  On 7/21/2021 at 2:07 PM, omalefico32x said:

i have no idea what to set as my custom title 

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Well, this.

[deus-ex]

  On 7/21/2021 at 5:35 AM, Zulk RS said:

 

If links were allowed though, I'd definitely make mine a Rick Roll :P

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I don't know. Perhaps you would never give up on it, never let it down.

[Biodegradable]

  On 7/22/2021 at 6:06 AM, Dark Pulse said:

I know I'm certainly happy that most of my teenage and early twentysomething idiocy predates the social media era...

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You and me both, mate. I was the classic 16 year old misanthropic edgelord who thought everyone and everything was shit, so who knows what kind of tactless, cringe-worthy rubbish I would've written online had I joined any forums or networks or whatever was available in the late 2000s.

[HavoX]

  On 7/22/2021 at 6:11 AM, printz said:

Some fearful people are afraid this means that Doomworld has stopped being cool, but I'd say we're just growing up and getting to know the outside world better.

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Remember darknation? He was kinda cool, but he did push things a bit too far... And now he's gone.

[Devalaous]

Ah, now we have custom titles free for use. Kind of a mixed bag, I have no doubt im going to see people sticking political agendas in them and parading around a lot from now on, sigh.

 

Custom titles are an interesting thing on forums. Some places make you earn them, some hand them out off the bat, some like old DW require you to basically do something that a staff member found amusing (I had one on DW once; I successfully baited a staff member into doing it as an experiment. I cackled with glee as I logged in the next day and saw it)

 

My earliest forum, when I was an internet newbie, had a system in place where you needed to have an account for a certain amount of time, AND have a high enough post count, and it made people really think about what their custom title would be. I know I put a lot of effort into mine at first. Its the ideal system for me, personally.

[Redneckerz]

  On 7/22/2021 at 2:39 PM, Devalaous said:

Ah, now we have custom titles free for use. Kind of a mixed bag, I have no doubt im going to see people sticking political agendas in them and parading around a lot from now on, sigh.

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No doubt that titles that have a specific angle will get moderated in the same fashion as regular posts do.

 

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

  On 7/22/2021 at 6:03 PM, Redneckerz said:

No doubt that titles that have a specific angle will get moderated in the same fashion as regular posts do.

 

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Titles with 90⁰ angles are square as hell!

[Liberation]

  On 7/22/2021 at 6:03 PM, Redneckerz said:

No doubt that titles that have a specific angle will get moderated in the same fashion as regular posts do.

 

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Indeed they will.

[dmslr]

  On 7/22/2021 at 6:50 PM, Liberation said:

Indeed they will.

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Even "derailing" is on the line? jk :p

[june gloom]

  On 7/21/2021 at 11:46 AM, Liberation said:

 

No not at all, it was pretty comparable to any community back then

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That's a contradiction. Most communities 15, 20 years ago were shockingly toxic.

 

  On 7/22/2021 at 2:39 PM, Devalaous said:

Ah, now we have custom titles free for use. Kind of a mixed bag, I have no doubt im going to see people sticking political agendas in them and parading around a lot from now on, sigh.

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Give examples.

[Major Arlene]

  On 7/23/2021 at 4:06 PM, june gloom said:

Give examples.

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How about we not.

Titles will be monitored, if we find they're an issue then discipline will be issued appropriately. 

[Liberation]

  On 7/23/2021 at 4:06 PM, june gloom said:

 

That's a contradiction. Most communities 15, 20 years ago were shockingly toxic.

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By today's standard yeah sure, but you exaggerate by using the term "Most".