Honestly, even before 2.0 launched there was plenty of hostility. Maybe a lot of it didn't -openly- appear on the forums, but it was definitely there. It was typically very lightly veiled as joking or sarcasm but there were and continue to be cliques, and new people back then and I have to assume now are being 'warned' against certain individuals based on either the bad experiences the people warning them had, or even more troubling, just the rumors.Â
One individual comes immediately to mind who I won't name but was, at one point, a very active and well known member of the community (there are a lot of those so this in intentionally vague). Someone who doesn't even post on the RPC, who openly denounces it in game that I met through my ooc friend who recently started playing this game, first brought up the name when I asked if they had a linkshell/FC profile listed in the directory here. Then, when I said I didn't know, this individual proceeded to try to incite a smearing conversation with me in regards to this person; someone who wasn't related whatsoever to the topic at hand.
This has happened several times. Over the course of my periodic visits (that were once upon a time pretty frequent) to the RPC, I've had people go out of their way to talk to me about other members that I don't even know and how much they despise them. I usually feel pretty indifferent, but that without a doubt translates into hostile replies to those individual's posts by the people who just do not like them. There's a variety of reasons why they might not like them. Maybe they don't agree with their philosophies. Maybe they personally slighted them. Maybe they feel too intensely about their opinions or are offended by the way someone else words theirs. Maybe they don't like how popular or well-liked someone is. All of this has been more or less covered in this thread, but that's what happens in communities where people become embittered by their own experiences or have been conditioned to become defensive of topics or beliefs or friends.Â
If you want to crack down on hostility, that's grand and all, but it won't stop lonely people from feeling like they're not heard or not worthy of people's attention turning those same sad feelings into aggression towards the objects of popular interest. People are just going to dislike people, and that's how it is. What people need to learn isn't 'Grow a thicker skin; I'm just saying what I think is right' it's -tact-. If you want to be in a community with other people, then EVEN IF ALL THOSE PEOPLE are thick-skinned, filterless, unapologetically close-minded individuals (this is an exaggerated hypothetical, not referring to this coalition or anyone in it) then you SHOULD STILL learn to be tactful and NOT contribute to the bitter back and forths, even if you feel like you're being targeted or that your response is justified. If you have a problem, maybe talk to a moderator and have them try to help you work it out with someone else.Â
So instead of trying to catch hostility in progress, usually after the fact, and thereby try to find a solid definition of what can be considered hostile, why not just point out when people are being harsh instead or when they're being far too strict in their stereotyping and opinions of other people's characters or questions? Why not just soften the tone instead and try to encourage people to give a little more than a half-effort to drop just enough sugary disclaimer onto a post to hide the personal hatred of how other people do things, or how these players are, or why I don't like this thing because this one other thing happened to me and this is how I responded to it--? I honestly don't think anything'll work, but trying to discourage toxicity in any way at all like the ones the leaders have planned is -something-.
And if you have something to say about something you don't like that you can't be open-minded about then maybe make a tumblr and go rant about it there instead of here.
One individual comes immediately to mind who I won't name but was, at one point, a very active and well known member of the community (there are a lot of those so this in intentionally vague). Someone who doesn't even post on the RPC, who openly denounces it in game that I met through my ooc friend who recently started playing this game, first brought up the name when I asked if they had a linkshell/FC profile listed in the directory here. Then, when I said I didn't know, this individual proceeded to try to incite a smearing conversation with me in regards to this person; someone who wasn't related whatsoever to the topic at hand.
This has happened several times. Over the course of my periodic visits (that were once upon a time pretty frequent) to the RPC, I've had people go out of their way to talk to me about other members that I don't even know and how much they despise them. I usually feel pretty indifferent, but that without a doubt translates into hostile replies to those individual's posts by the people who just do not like them. There's a variety of reasons why they might not like them. Maybe they don't agree with their philosophies. Maybe they personally slighted them. Maybe they feel too intensely about their opinions or are offended by the way someone else words theirs. Maybe they don't like how popular or well-liked someone is. All of this has been more or less covered in this thread, but that's what happens in communities where people become embittered by their own experiences or have been conditioned to become defensive of topics or beliefs or friends.Â
If you want to crack down on hostility, that's grand and all, but it won't stop lonely people from feeling like they're not heard or not worthy of people's attention turning those same sad feelings into aggression towards the objects of popular interest. People are just going to dislike people, and that's how it is. What people need to learn isn't 'Grow a thicker skin; I'm just saying what I think is right' it's -tact-. If you want to be in a community with other people, then EVEN IF ALL THOSE PEOPLE are thick-skinned, filterless, unapologetically close-minded individuals (this is an exaggerated hypothetical, not referring to this coalition or anyone in it) then you SHOULD STILL learn to be tactful and NOT contribute to the bitter back and forths, even if you feel like you're being targeted or that your response is justified. If you have a problem, maybe talk to a moderator and have them try to help you work it out with someone else.Â
So instead of trying to catch hostility in progress, usually after the fact, and thereby try to find a solid definition of what can be considered hostile, why not just point out when people are being harsh instead or when they're being far too strict in their stereotyping and opinions of other people's characters or questions? Why not just soften the tone instead and try to encourage people to give a little more than a half-effort to drop just enough sugary disclaimer onto a post to hide the personal hatred of how other people do things, or how these players are, or why I don't like this thing because this one other thing happened to me and this is how I responded to it--? I honestly don't think anything'll work, but trying to discourage toxicity in any way at all like the ones the leaders have planned is -something-.
And if you have something to say about something you don't like that you can't be open-minded about then maybe make a tumblr and go rant about it there instead of here.
