Are we too harsh?

[Ken]

Do you seriously not see how that illustrates my point perfectly?

I'm not saying what you say or feel is wrong, all I'm saying is that the behavior is normal and that this forum is no better or worse than most others I've seen. That is not an attack on anyone, but if you still feel a need to defend the good name of others who such a statement does attack, go for it.

"Forums made up of mostly technically oriented people tend to be harsh", that might not have meant as an attack, still it was a negative comment that I wanted to reply on.

I agree that some behavior might be identical to other forums. Especially when it comes to guidelines about posting: non-technical forums usually don't have proper guidelines and expectations and are usually piling up loads of senseless posts about virtually nothing(I can generalize too :P). When I see technical forums (like this one) the bar is set higher than on non-technical forums and people have expectations when other people start posting. There is a minimum amount of quality demanded.
When people are too lazy to follow the rules (that everyone else is following) or read the obvious stickies, I think it's normal that they get the reactions we get here in the forums (as long as those reactions are written in a normal manner).
This kind of behavior is not harsh to me. People just need a thicker skin if they can't cope with reality (that they don't get everything served on a plate in front of them). I know this might sound harsh, but to me it's just common sense.
Within corporations you find the same mentality: if you don't research something first, don't ask questions. If you do ask questions(with answers already available), people will tell you in your face that you should have looked it up first and they would be absolutely right. And yes, that happens also to me.

But to answer your question:
I don't consider myself as a mob going against you and I'm not trying to beat you up for your point of view. I'm just not agreeing with you. So, no: I don't see how I illustrated your answer perfectly.
When you post something like "people shouldn't be so defensive concerning 'their leaders'!" and I can't tell you that you're wrong, then your comments are not discussable, because *any * reaction against you would be a reaction that you could use as evidence that you're right (whether you're right or not). That was why I made the previous reply. I found it unfair that you just claimed a 'you see! I was right!' as I find that I proved nothing with that post.
It's ok for you to express your own impressions of a community, but just like in many tech-forums, you'll be expected to justify these claims.

Ultimately it doesn't matter since the forum is what it is and the people and personalities in the forum are not going to change.

If a whole forum has a specific personality, why should the forum change and not that one person?
[edit] I'm not saying that a whole forum can't be wrong, I'm just pointing out that it's *likely* that it's a user problem, not a forum problem.

[Knytestorme]

Well this provided more discussion than I expected, but was also good discussion so I'm happy

It's cool too that most people picked up on what I was actually wondering and the responses headed in that direction without it having to be spelt out. My main concern is if our responses to the people that want ezi-mode or for us to do everything for them without them having to do any research or learning were scaring off other new members that had done the research but still had questions.

From some of the responses here by newer members (and listen to me, talking like an old hand..too weird) that put in the effort it seems that hasn't been the case so it's good to know and means that the filtering process is working for the most part. I also agree that having a thick skin is most needed for multiboxing since you'll be copping it a lot harder in game and on the boards from anti-multiboxers than anything that would be felt here, since I think we even go too easy on people that deserve to be laid into...of as has been said.

Many times I tihink we as a coumminity are simply not harsh enough.

[Simulacra]

Can we have something like access levels to the forums? So a new poster can post noob questions to a public general forum and the community can go check the noob posts if they want to. There would be a sticky in the public forum with a good explanation of multiboxing approaches and a link to the wiki. After the noob has stopped asking trivial questions and have demonstrated an understanding of macros etc they are then invited to join the community and then have access to all forums.

If somebody has already suggested this earlier in this thread then my apologies, I had to skip the last 2 pages because I'm at work.

[Kayley]

ITT: people don't talk about WoW.

[Gadzooks]

How many people go "overboard" helping people in game that inquire about multiboxing? Giving them all the details, methods, etc.

I know I do. And when I feel they are truly interested, I direct them here to the forums. I sort of "feel them out" first, to try and stem off the total noobs who still have their parents changing their diapers.
Then I come here, and its the same question every day - that the answer is SUPER easy to find. Or questions that are so subjective that one cannot give an honest answer because there are too many variables? (omg what class should I choose?!)

Honestly? With the huge influx of new people lately, and all the bad PR we get, screw them. The less people doing this the better. All this community needs is some shit stained individual that likes to post on the general forums start multiboxing and giving us all a bad name.

I'm help the people who show they are worth helping. The total jack holes? learn2wiki

If you can't poke around or use the search feature to find out basic info, let's be honest, multi-boxing is NOT for you. It takes a lot of trial and error, experimentation, research, patience, and more trial and error. If you are a typical person who just bellows questions in general without even trying, or hits Thottbot before even trying a quest, you won't get 2 or more characters out of the starting position in the game.

Multi-boxing *should* weed out the lazy, it's not really something they'll enjoy, they just want the pew pew pew factor, not the fun of putting it all together and trying things.

[Tasty]

'Help me help you by helping yourself'

[antishadow]

Since I'm not allowed to simply nuke said retarded posts, posting in them to tell them to learn2search is the next best thing.

I hate to point this out since you did this to me instead of giving a couple pointers or even a helpful search term that might get me what I was after :evil: . All you do here is clutter up the search results. So now someone searching for exactly what someone else posts will just get a thread in their search results that has no answer in it. Just a smartass response. Pretty soon people come and try to do exactly what you say and do searches and get 2-3 pages of "use the search" prompting said user to then just create a new thread asking the same thing.

You... are... my... hero... :thumbup:

[Gadzooks]

Since I'm not allowed to simply nuke said retarded posts, posting in them to tell them to learn2search is the next best thing.

I hate to point this out since you did this to me instead of giving a couple pointers or even a helpful search term that might get me what I was after :evil: . All you do here is clutter up the search results. So now someone searching for exactly what someone else posts will just get a thread in their search results that has no answer in it. Just a smartass response. Pretty soon people come and try to do exactly what you say and do searches and get 2-3 pages of "use the search" prompting said user to then just create a new thread asking the same thing.

You... are... my... hero... :thumbup:

Antishadow, are you under the impression this is a public forum provided as part of a larger service, or a forum you pay to access, thus have rights?

This is a private clubhouse. Them are the house rules. This is not Blizzard. This is run by the people who do it for fun, and owe you no obligations, you are a guest, and should act like one.

[Buzzatronic]

Ultimately it doesn't matter since the forum is what it is and the people and personalities in the forum are not going to change.

If a whole forum has a specific personality, why should the forum change and not that one person?
[edit] I'm not saying that a whole forum can't be wrong, I'm just pointing out that it's *likely* that it's a user problem, not a forum problem.

Where did I say anything needed to change? I simply stated things are the way they are and that's the way they'll stay. I didn't assign blame one way or another yet it appears you are assuming I did. Again, you're reading way more than I'm writing my friend. Relax.

[antishadow]

Antishadow, are you under the impression this is a public forum provided as part of a larger service, or a forum you pay to access, thus have rights?

This is a private clubhouse. Them are the house rules. This is not Blizzard. This is run by the people who do it for fun, and owe you no obligations, you are a guest, and should act like one.

I never stated that or implied that did I? I will only treat people the way I've been treated. I only stated that if people just post use the search without anything else it will clutter up the search results causing more postings that everyone dislikes so much because its harder to find what you're after. Wow. Just... Wow.

I will note that its not the "rude" person that will clutter up the results, its the person who wrote the original thread however if a link or more specific reply was given it would clean up the search results for anyone else who happened to search and got that thread.

But hey - its just a suggestion. Should I not have any interest in helping out a popular forum or site that discusses something that I enjoy?

*edit: my apologies for replying to a comment made on the first page. i didn't realize this topic was 5 pages long. doh!