Re: Some things I have realized in my time on this forum
Interestingly enough, back in 2005 when I first joined the forum, it was far smaller and there was little to no drama.
Moderation practices began as the forum grew larger, and as the online climate generally grew rather more factional and prone to disagreements, indeed prior to 2012 it was rare to have to hand out a warning, let alone a ban, and contrary to some opinions, it was never something I enjoyed doing or did too lightly.
On the plus side, I will say the drama seems to have been managed very well over the passed year or so, likely due to having more people on the case and a unified front, though of course I probably would say that, given that I no longer have to open up my browser in the morning and deal with god knows how many reports of drama from the previous night, (which to be honest I really wouldn't want to do in my life at the moment anyway).
Apart from the hole climate of things these days though feeling much more confrontational over all, one of the intrinsic problems with drama, is that those who cause the most drama, are also those least likely to listen to calls to stop.
Sometimes this is because they are decent individuals who have just got carried away in the emotion of the moment, often however, it is because they have an almost pathological inability to understand that they themselves have actually caused said drama in the first place, or an inability to see why said drama they cause is actually afecting others, or the environment as a hole negatively.
If it is the former occurrence we can hope that the person will come to their senses after a reminder or two. If it is the latter occurrence however, as unfortunately increasingly seems to be the case, the problem will generally continue until the person gets themselves banned, whereupon they will complain bitterly about the ban, since they do not perceive the reason for it.
another problem with drama, is that drama is infexious, once the flame wagon gets a rollin' everyone wants to ride, and so you then have far more of the first sort of case I mentioned above.
Jack might be a pathological arsehole, and Jill generally a decent person, but Jill can also dip into arsehole tereirtory, even when expressing her justified annoyance at Jack, whereupon Peter starts defending Jill, mary tries to make peace, Paul agrees with Mary but states Jack should get a break, then Jo comes in and is an equal arsehole, and so the hole thing snowballs, and even if Jack was the instigator, working out who was stirring the pot, who got carried away and over all who needs reminding of what becomes an unholy mess, particularly because nobody involved was in a position to recognise that they were causing trouble in the first place.
after all, few people set out to cause drama (I have seen a few but they're comparatively rare), most people just get swept up in emotion, which as I said is also I suspect why drama is more prevalent at the moment, since we're in an age when being swept up in emotion is sort of the norm, rather than the exception.
And to quote Douglas Adams, to summarise the summary of the summary, people are a problem .
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