What is your opinion about forum friendliness?
idbruce
Posts: 6,197
Hello Everyone
I have been a forum member here for quite some time, so I can honestly say that I know the forum and personalities fairly well, and in my opinion, over the past couple years the friendliness of the forum has been on a continual decline. Now before anybody jumps to the defense of Parallax or the helpful people within the forum, I am not trying to insinuate that Parallax is at fault or that the forum is filled with unfriendly people. I am just saying that there are several people within the forum that really need to lighten up. Additionally, it appears as though it is group based. When one person in a particular group of people has something bad to say, then the other people within that same group join in to either berate the thread or the original poster. Furthermore, I am certain that it will occur in this thread.
And I know that I am not very popular with this particular group of people, but I don't care My goal with this thread and poll is to make the Parallax forum a more friendly place to visit. So if you are one of that particular group that almost always has something negative to say, let's just see what the majority has to say about negative input.
If you have been a member here for any length of time, I am sure you know that such a group does actually exist, and I am not just being paranoid
Bruce
I have been a forum member here for quite some time, so I can honestly say that I know the forum and personalities fairly well, and in my opinion, over the past couple years the friendliness of the forum has been on a continual decline. Now before anybody jumps to the defense of Parallax or the helpful people within the forum, I am not trying to insinuate that Parallax is at fault or that the forum is filled with unfriendly people. I am just saying that there are several people within the forum that really need to lighten up. Additionally, it appears as though it is group based. When one person in a particular group of people has something bad to say, then the other people within that same group join in to either berate the thread or the original poster. Furthermore, I am certain that it will occur in this thread.
And I know that I am not very popular with this particular group of people, but I don't care My goal with this thread and poll is to make the Parallax forum a more friendly place to visit. So if you are one of that particular group that almost always has something negative to say, let's just see what the majority has to say about negative input.If you have been a member here for any length of time, I am sure you know that such a group does actually exist, and I am not just being paranoid
Bruce
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
What do you expect to accomplish with this thread? Unfriendly responses?
Hmmmm.... Very close to a negative post.
(O) Consider myself of the people who try to provide positive responses at all times.
This isn't bragging, the goal was posted on my desktop for a long time to make sure I wouldn't forget it.
OBC
The majority of people that are active are truly helpful and try to contribute to the good of the community. Some people are positive and have positive things to contribute and there is very little noise to filter. Some people are negative but have a wealth of knowledge and are positive contributors - just turn up the filter a bit for these. Some people are negative for the sake of being negative just as in the real world, I filter them the most.
Just as in any community, groups form and reform with the forum based on common, current interest, personal traits that agree, etc. Some people don't feel threatened by group alignments, some people do and some people don't care. You can't make someone like you, you can make someone dislike you and in the long run, you;re the only person that can make you happy.
Friendly banter is constructive, disagreement is fuel to the creative fires and personal attack is counterproductive.
If you value someone's opinion on professional/technical topics, then you can value their personal opinion of you. If you don't value someone's opinion or knowledge then what they think of you personally shouldn't matter.
Thick skin is healthy skin!
+1 here. (Hey, That looks positive!)
But then again I deal with this kind of thing on a daily basis...
(Much of this letter was snipped to keep you from falling asleep) When I get one of these in my Parallax PM inbox, I might be a little concerned...
-Tommy
When I saw this: "What is your opinion about forum friendliness?" I thought this thread was going to be about how friendly this forum is. Then was surprised to see it was something else.
Perhaps the topics I choose to view are all friendly? So that is why I have had a mostly friendly experience?
Anyway on other forums I visit sometimes there is a LOT of negativity. Or a large number of people will play "forum gang - follow the leader". If you follow along, then you are a member of their gang - I can think on my own and never participate in any of these "high school" antics.
In those situations I go by... "If you don't have anything positive to say, don't say anything at all".
And sometimes there is one person who will try to start arguments with everyone to come along. I don't reply to those. Then they go pick on someone else.
Some people *always* have negative posts. For those, I place them on the "ignore list". I don't have anyone here on that list and don't even know if this forum has an ignore list?
Anyway I visit various forums to learn things. I have learned quite a bit here, so that is why I continue to come back. I just stick to that. And "step over" any "silliness"...
I think you might be confusing disagreement with friendliness. There are several people here who disagree with my point of view, but I know that we disagree, agreeably. Part of the magic behind the Propeller is that is it seen differently by many people.
This is the way I've always considered the Propeller:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant#John_Godfrey_Saxe
OBC
Last night I was saying to my wife. "I wonder why I was so hesitant to ask questions when I first joined the forum?" I soon answered my own question with "Oh, but the forum is much different place now than a few years ago, it's much more friendly now." I went on to explain to my wife (who can never get too much "forum gossip" (or so I assume as she stares at me with her beautiful (but come to think of it, glassy) eyes)) that several years ago newcomers could get some pretty harsh treatment when they asked their "dumb" questions. I continued telling her of the effort Parallax has made to get long time forum members to welcome new forum members. I concluded with summarizing, if I had been getting into electronics now, I'd be much more likely to post my questions on the Parallax forums now than when I was first learning a few years ago.
PS. This really did happen last night.
Edit: I remember the context of the above mentioned conversation. I was telling my wife how smart I am (she also can't get enough of this) by knowing that a Ping can not measure distance more precisely than the wavelength of the ultrasound it uses. This came up in response to Bruce's question here. I also pointed out how Phil had saved me a bunch of time by explaining the futility of trying to use an ultrasound transducer at frequencies other than it resonate frequency. I failed to inform her I had no idea what "extremely high Q factor" meant (I didn't want to bore her).
I only have one person on my ignore list.
Too bad the forum software doesn't filter all posts started by people on the ignore list and from the "New Posts" list if they are the last person responding to any thread.
Then you could truly ignore them...
-Phil
Frankly, I think using forums is much like walking down the sidewalk in a major city. There are lots of rude, creepy people walking around, but the mere presence of one or two intelligent, enlightening people seems to make up for all rest (so long as I've had my morning coffee, that is.). As Mindrobots pointed out, it helps to develop a filter of sorts.
I'm just curious, what sort of action items were you planning based on the results of your poll?
Lord, who needs that?
I won't name names, but every time I come across it I think of the Monty Python toupee sketch like.
Hey, it's an anonymous forum.
It's not as if I'm asking you to read some religous literature that makes you feel your privacy or views are at threat. The reason we will always welcome people is because there are many who are intimidated by the forums and don't post questions. I meet people all the time who would like to participate but feel that because their knowledge level is low they'll be welcomed by requests to go back and read a manual, or just be plain embarrassed. Don't you like to be made welcome when you go someplace new? I recognize that people aren't here just for social interaction, but that's no excuse for dumping basic etiquitte.
Duane is proof of my point.
Disagreement is always welcome, and as OBC pointed out it shouldn't be confused with hostility.
Ken Gracey
We all have our pet peeves, I suppose. Mine is threads that begin with "Hello, everyone." But that's just me.
-Phil
Okay Phil, since it annoys you, I will change it just a little bit. How about this salutation instead:
"Hello To Everyone But Phil"
Is that a little better?
-Phil
The only material change I've seen is there is a bit less of a fun factor, maybe just an escalation of more serious projects really. Hard to describe. Not a negative, just a change.
I do not like the question at all. There are just people participating in the forum, and they may do negative things, but I do not wish to validate the assumption that they are, in fact, negative people. Loaded question = not productive question, IMHO.
Would that mean I can't respond?
-Phil
Can you use the specific example of the part where someone has "berate the thread or the original poster"? Berate is a strong word, to me that word means scolding or getting in the person's face and yelling at that person for 5 straight minutes.
Humanoido makes me facepalm, but 1) he's actually posting stuff and generating content. and 2) it would be rude to post my reaction.
Some topics are "hype" based, so I'm the kind of person that likes to cut to the core. To me there has to be a "yeah right show me your math" kind of response. I can remember maybe a year ago a wind-up battery by some graphic design student. The math generally checked out, and there have been crank based generators in the past. I just don't know who would actually sit there winding every battery for 15 minutes, but I didn't actually say it was a stupid idea.
Also, I don't see the hostility towards new people, this was 2-23:
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?138169-New
If someone was fishing for a little acknowledgement of being a new poster, and the thread had zero or one replies, I'd personally reply myself. "Hi" is the easiest thing to say.
That was just an exclusion from the salutation. Perhaps a better one would be:
"Hello To Everyone But Phil/Howdy Phil"
I think it's annoying, too. But I do it because I've been asked to do it, and I want to be polite... or at least project the appearance of being polite...
Okay, okay, I confess. The only reason I do it is because I know it annoys PJ, and every time I do it I delight in knowing that it annoys him, and that he is thankful that I annoy him because that provides him with rationale for getting disgruntled, confirming his suspicions that the human race doesn't stand a chance, a state of mind he finds sublime. You're welcome.
This (and Savage Circuits) is the most friendly, well behaved forum that I've ever been part of.
You're being negative.
Wow. Religious literature? "Privacy", "views", "at threat"? How would that... oh, never mind.
I don't think I've ever replied with "Hey, RTFM", but I have directed many to specific sections of PBASIC Help. PBASIC Help is not The Bible, but it (too?) is a valuable resource much overlooked.
How can a rational person feel embarrassed at posing a question on an anonymous forum? Who should care?
Whenever I choose to help, to answer a question, to provide a schematic, or point to a "chapter and verse" in PBASIC Help, it's purely out of goodwill and that ought to be welcoming and etiquette enough for anyone.