Oh, boy.
Okay, so first - the reputation system: It wasn't around when I first joined and suddenly appeared when I came in. I think, overall, it's an... okay... system. But I think Verad has a point, it can breed being snarky just for points. I'll give an example of myself. Generally, I try to keep my posts tone neutral in serious discussion - some people still take it for hostility but over all I try my best to make sure my tone is respectful and not too harsh. However, in one thread a while back about Gilgamesh some girl was kind of getting on my nerves and I ended up snarking at her. I remember saying very vividly "I can see why no one likes you." and, while my usual long posts with meaningful discussion warrant me 1 or 2 reputation, I got 20 REP from that ONE POST. I also got warned from the Moderators (50% warning!) and while I should have felt worse about the warning, all them rep points made me feel justified in being a snarky asshole.
THAT being said, over all it's an okay system. I wish there was a way for Mods to watch the rep scores, deleting the scores that were for mean comments and Dick jokes, but then you get into the question of the Mods doing too much and blah blah blah. I go to one forum that has a similar system, EXCEPT it shows on each post who specifically thanked for WHO so they know where those Rep points are coming from exactly. For example (Warning this is a forum dedicated to Japanese pop group factory Hello!Project):
http://jplop.com/viewtopic.php?p=176358#p176358 As you can see, this shows exactly who thanked this low quality post while
http://jplop.com/viewtopic.php?t=5979&p=84760#p84760 you can also see who thanked for this more effort one
(AyuHikaru is me, so I use my terribleness as an example)
The community over at Jplop is ridiculously snarky, more so than here, so that thank system really lets you learn REAL quick who's only thanking people for being assholes and who is actually getting thanked for high quality posts. Something like that, where we can see who is getting thanked for what would be a boon here.
~~~~
OKAY SO ON THE REST:
I'm here on this forum for discussion. Period. I'm not here to play the light hearted "Circlejerk" (As some have called them) games or try to become a giant pillar of the community. I'm here to talk about roleplay as a process, lore as it is, the community as it could be, etc etc. I'm here to have conversations with people who disagree with me and we can talk. Some people on this forum have made me change my mind on some things and I'm glad for that. I always stick my nose into the more serious conversations because that's what I like to talk about. There are some people here who I don't agree with a lot of the time, but their posts are always respectful and I respect their opinion and want to hear more from them. I like really deep conversation about rp as a whole. It's interesting to me to see how other people think and act.
As I stated above, I try my best to keep my tone neutral as possible, though I understand that in and of itself can come off as harsh. I wish more people would ASK what the tone is instead of assuming what the tone is. "Was this intended to be mean?" is just a lot more meaningful then "This post was mean." It would go a long way to get rid of confusion.
I don't want to see this place become a hug box, where if you say something the majority doesn't agree with your spammed with GIFs and Meme's. Where snarky comments are the answer to long thought out posts because somehow it disagreed with someone else's sensibilities. We aren't 4chan, GIFs and Meme's have a place and it's not in a serious discussion. I don't want to see discussion shut down because some people don't like it - yes that includes the "popular" discussion, the "New RPer" discussion, and even White Mage lore. Discussion should be free and open, and those who try to stop it or act aggressively towards it are the ones who should be warned, not the people starting the discussion (Unless of course, they don't come correct and/or start getting all aggressive too. Those who start topics can also be in the wrong!). It's so easy to just ignore something you think you've seen a hundred times, and yet so many people can't seem to bring themselves to do it.
That being said, I've considered taking a step back from the RPC myself. I am always worried that what I say here is destroying my reputation in game. This Lore nazi who takes rp sooo seriously when really I joke about ERP and Shipping 90% of the time. I just like discussion. Hardly any of my FC posts here despite is being fairly large - they feel they may say something "wrong" because most of us are quite opinionated so they don't bother. I will be watching closely what choices the moderators make and that will finalize my decision.
Okay, so first - the reputation system: It wasn't around when I first joined and suddenly appeared when I came in. I think, overall, it's an... okay... system. But I think Verad has a point, it can breed being snarky just for points. I'll give an example of myself. Generally, I try to keep my posts tone neutral in serious discussion - some people still take it for hostility but over all I try my best to make sure my tone is respectful and not too harsh. However, in one thread a while back about Gilgamesh some girl was kind of getting on my nerves and I ended up snarking at her. I remember saying very vividly "I can see why no one likes you." and, while my usual long posts with meaningful discussion warrant me 1 or 2 reputation, I got 20 REP from that ONE POST. I also got warned from the Moderators (50% warning!) and while I should have felt worse about the warning, all them rep points made me feel justified in being a snarky asshole.
THAT being said, over all it's an okay system. I wish there was a way for Mods to watch the rep scores, deleting the scores that were for mean comments and Dick jokes, but then you get into the question of the Mods doing too much and blah blah blah. I go to one forum that has a similar system, EXCEPT it shows on each post who specifically thanked for WHO so they know where those Rep points are coming from exactly. For example (Warning this is a forum dedicated to Japanese pop group factory Hello!Project):
http://jplop.com/viewtopic.php?p=176358#p176358 As you can see, this shows exactly who thanked this low quality post while
http://jplop.com/viewtopic.php?t=5979&p=84760#p84760 you can also see who thanked for this more effort one
(AyuHikaru is me, so I use my terribleness as an example)
The community over at Jplop is ridiculously snarky, more so than here, so that thank system really lets you learn REAL quick who's only thanking people for being assholes and who is actually getting thanked for high quality posts. Something like that, where we can see who is getting thanked for what would be a boon here.
~~~~
OKAY SO ON THE REST:
I'm here on this forum for discussion. Period. I'm not here to play the light hearted "Circlejerk" (As some have called them) games or try to become a giant pillar of the community. I'm here to talk about roleplay as a process, lore as it is, the community as it could be, etc etc. I'm here to have conversations with people who disagree with me and we can talk. Some people on this forum have made me change my mind on some things and I'm glad for that. I always stick my nose into the more serious conversations because that's what I like to talk about. There are some people here who I don't agree with a lot of the time, but their posts are always respectful and I respect their opinion and want to hear more from them. I like really deep conversation about rp as a whole. It's interesting to me to see how other people think and act.
As I stated above, I try my best to keep my tone neutral as possible, though I understand that in and of itself can come off as harsh. I wish more people would ASK what the tone is instead of assuming what the tone is. "Was this intended to be mean?" is just a lot more meaningful then "This post was mean." It would go a long way to get rid of confusion.
I don't want to see this place become a hug box, where if you say something the majority doesn't agree with your spammed with GIFs and Meme's. Where snarky comments are the answer to long thought out posts because somehow it disagreed with someone else's sensibilities. We aren't 4chan, GIFs and Meme's have a place and it's not in a serious discussion. I don't want to see discussion shut down because some people don't like it - yes that includes the "popular" discussion, the "New RPer" discussion, and even White Mage lore. Discussion should be free and open, and those who try to stop it or act aggressively towards it are the ones who should be warned, not the people starting the discussion (Unless of course, they don't come correct and/or start getting all aggressive too. Those who start topics can also be in the wrong!). It's so easy to just ignore something you think you've seen a hundred times, and yet so many people can't seem to bring themselves to do it.
That being said, I've considered taking a step back from the RPC myself. I am always worried that what I say here is destroying my reputation in game. This Lore nazi who takes rp sooo seriously when really I joke about ERP and Shipping 90% of the time. I just like discussion. Hardly any of my FC posts here despite is being fairly large - they feel they may say something "wrong" because most of us are quite opinionated so they don't bother. I will be watching closely what choices the moderators make and that will finalize my decision.