Why do you think there aren't more new posters getting involved? social board specific chat

this is a really good post

i want to try and call people out more when they’re being shitty like you’re describing, so can you (or anyone else, obv) flag stuff up for me when it happens?

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trouble is, it all comes down to tone doesn’t it? I have no doubt at all that there are some spiteful thoughts/comments flying around, but so hard to separate the ‘ironic’/attempts at humour from the genuinely nasty/mean-spirited. Although I suppose if you’re not familiar with the users that changes from ‘hard’ to ‘impossible’ and everyone just seems like a complete dick.

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yeah sure, and I think someone said upthread that the majority of the time people are joking

so hmmmmmm

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that may be the case, but I have no doubt at all that the board will come across to new users as a bunch of (mostly) male (mostly) white (mostly) bored 20/30-something office workers acting like 12 year olds and referencing loads of shitty in-jokes ad infinitum.

But I like to think that some of us are fairly sound 12 year olds.

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:smiley:
Tone matters, yeah. I think some of this ‘disbelief’ is definitely a hyperbolic piss-take. While other times, yeah, it seems oddly like people really do believe that watching superhero movies is a sign of being a manbaby or something odd like that.

Noob here, from my perspective it’s been pretty welcoming and friendly, but I’ve got to say it does feel like everyone’s known each other forever and it’s hard to break into a conversation when you’re not one of the old regulars. That’s obviously going to happen if you join a forum where people have been getting to know each other online and in person for years, and I definitely don’t think the in-jokes and gentle piss-taking should be toned down just to cater to new people like me, but I think that’s why there might not be so many new people posting. It can be intimidating trying to join in a conversation when everyone’s already pals, and even more so when there’s about three or four threads active that just contain old members saying how great they think other old members are.

I agree that some people might get put off when they see someone else describe stuff they like as being shit or boring, and while that might be one person’s opinion or a joke, or even an in-joke that predates these new boards, if you really like a band and see them getting habitually slated by everyone else then it feels like you probably don’t belong here.

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Fucking bizarre thread

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That said: there haven’t been that many newcomers join in the past year or two, but I’d regard everyone as welcome. People like @casinobay @Fintans_Cat and @Jeremys_Iron are all relatively new and very welcome. You’re new and welcome, too! I probably seem like I’ve been here for years. I have. It’s regrettable.

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Hello! Have to say I was always made to feel welcome here. I guess it might’ve felt fairly impregnable when I first started lurking. Agree about all the self-congratulatory pats on the back threads that are doing the rounds but I’m putting that down to our nice new shiny forum. If I don’t like a thread I’ll just sack it off and find another without feeling the need to gripe about it.

I don’t think this is necessarily true. Have some courage in your convictions, I certainly didn’t care about what a homogenous group of internet people felt about my taste in film or music.

Yeah absolutely, I just reckon that’s one of the reasons there aren’t more people getting involved.

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Apologies, I wasn’t speaking specifically about you with that post, just in general. Completely agree though :+1:

the social boards are basically for people who liked things 10 years ago

It’s nice isn’t it?

I like more things now than I did 10 years ago! 2006 was rubbish!

i’ve always assumed this to be totally tongue in cheek, I might be wrong, but this narrow mindedness seems to apply primarily (exclusively?) to pretty banal subjects (milk with curry etc). I don’t see anywhere nearly so often when any kind of serious subject is bought up, people can be a bit hive mind but i believe as a whole dis is a pretty open place. But yeah, it probably is a bit unwelcoming to new peeps

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I dunno. Have you ever read a Corbyn thread?

#safetywink

Yeah I get this part, I’ve been spending way too much time here for years now but I definitely felt like that when I first joined, and even now to some extent often feel a bit on the outside of certain ‘cliques’ of all the people who’ve met and hung out a lot. But I think most forums are like that (do many forums still exist even?) and you’ll either be put off or you’ll stick around and just dive in anyways.

yeah it’s nearly always a comically overblown reaction to someone not liking strawberries or something. i’m sure there are more serious examples at times which shouldn’t really be tolerated but those seem few and far between to me.

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Probs wouldn’t feel that comfortable mucking in if I was a new user and also wanted Owen Smith to win the Labour leadership contest, much less a tory or Brexit voter. Think those are the only serious examples I can think of (not that I’m looking to attract tories to the boards obvs)

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One weird (to me) thing I’ve noticed over the years is that people who have started a thread on social introducing themselves (e.g. @xylo) have been given a really welcoming reception and become “regulars” almost immediately.

I’m not advocating all new users do that — mostly because I find it all super weird and needy and attention-seeking — but it maybe says something about the forum. Or maybe not.