General Talk and Feedback Page
This is the General Talk and Feedback page, where you can introduce yourself (anonymously or not) as an active viewer of my blog or give any sort of comments or feedback, such as article content, blog layout, and the like. You can also feel free to discuss what you like here as long as it is appropriate and (hopefully) relevant to content on the blog (such as gaming in general).
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I don't think I've commented here before; but I've thoroughly enjoyed a lot of your posts. Good work keeping it interesting!
ReplyDeleteWow! What a helpful blog for all of my World of Warcraft playing needs! Indeed, this is the most helpful blog toward making my toon uber powerful that I have yet discovered. It's so interesting, too (lol pun). How do I give you my money?
ReplyDeleteNot really sure if serious...
DeleteI'd support your blog. Is there a way to donate? I'll send you 3 bucks a month, since I'm no longer using my wowhead subscription money. Email me if interested (lol pun again, hilarious).
DeleteI'll think about it. . .
DeleteI do agree there are problems with the forum (not just with Off-Topic/Randomness), but with most boards, but I have to disagree that you were providing any significant sort of assistance. I'll be writing a post at some point that should detail what I find to be the problem, though I won't directly tie said article with the state of Wowhead's forum as the topic discussed is far more of a widespread problem so to speak.
ReplyDeleteRandomness had a thriving and increasing population while the other boards decreased. When people who posted things that other people didn't like were intimidated and banned, other moderate people left as well. The result is a boring board no one wants to join. Even a thread that applaud communism is so unchallenged that it is boring enough to sputter and die. Such a thing never would have happened in the day. By now it would be 100 pages.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if the goal was to make a place that is "nice" they certainly did. No one says anything that hurts anyone's feelings, the rare time anyone says anything at all. A board with relevancy made irrelevant on a website fast becoming itself irrelevant dedicated to a game with growing irrelevancy. Consider that the places on the web that tolerate people such as myself thrive. Most people, deep down, are like me. We have strong opinions, we feel are correct, and want to say so to those that chlenge us, feelings or no. I suspect that under everything interest, so are you. It was my goal, years ago, to get you to open up in an honest and uncalculated fashion. I failed. But, I'll always consider you a friend, if one I never really got a chance to build trust with. If you'rer ever in oregon, look me up, if you so desire. I'd like to sit down to tea and hear all about you. I think you'll find I don't even have horns.
On your second paragraph - that isn't necessarily true. While I don't expect everything to be sunshine and rainbows, behavior that can be perceived as hostile when it could be civil isn't exactly something that should be permitted (at least when it comes to repeat instances or patterns to betray a personality trait of hostility as opposed to something a bit more "normal"). Occasional instances are fine - people have feelings, make mistakes, and just happen to have those outbursts every once in a while for various reasons.
DeleteAs for having strong opinions - those are fine. People are entitled to their opinions, but it shouldn't justify behavior that harms another (physically, mentally, etc) and it certainly doesn't mean that civil discussion should be ignored in favor of attacking others, either in a direct, passive-aggressive, or other manner (which falls in line with the above). I, for instance, have a strong opinion about "toxic" behavior, which means a good chunk of how the classic "elitist jerk" behaves among other things, such as negative treatment of another. While I try my best to keep my hatred for that type of behavior and individuals who are known to express that behavior to such a degree it's more likely to be tied to their personality as opposed to being a "normal human," I won't pretend I don't end up ranting about or even just dwelling on such a topic far more often than I should.
For the record - I don't think you're a terrible person. I doubt you even deserved the ban you got (though to be honest I haven't been too active in the last couple years compared to my activity from before so this is a subjective piece of judgement made with minimal evidence). However, I will admit I find you detestable due to the following. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel you rarely choose to view yourself as the problem or consider your behavior objectively. To put it another way (that's probably stronger than intended, but it might get the point across better) - I find you to be arrogant and that you refuse to believe you're in the wrong (often - not all the time). Regardless of this, were I to travel such a distance, perhaps we could have a drink.
P.S. I'm kind of past the whole "ban everyone who did stuff wrong" phase at this point. I've taken to using Riot's approach towards punishing wrongful behavior since banning doesn't accomplish much in reforming someone's behavior, though I guess the Wowhead team did issue you a ton of warnings and perhaps they had enough.
...I really need to add an edit button to the comments.
I've admitted mistake several times. I did attack peoples ideas with venom, admittedly too much, but I don't remember ever saying "you are x" to anyone. So I may have attacked someone at some point in my thousands of posts, for which I would have been wrong, but it certainly wasn't a habit. We mustn't confuse attacking thoughts and ideas with attacking a person. I don't doubt that you do find me detestable, due to the extreme nature of my positions, and openly confrontational behavior. Uniquely, I don't mind this at all. Other people's opinions of me matter to me less often than I develop negative opinions of other, which is to say, very rarely. I'll always consider you a friend, even if the feeling isn't mutual.
ReplyDeleteAs to my ban from wowhead, it was quite predictable. It had been in the works for a very long time. I was threatened with a permanent ban for arguing with the mods, and "arguing" was being used very loosely. I could tell that that was going to be the pretense to ban me, so I simply stopped responding to mods. Then I was threatened with permanent ban for arguing with users. So, I was polite to everyone. After weeks of feeling like they were waiting for an excuse, I think they finally got tired of waiting. They banned me for saying I don't talk about my feet due to bad experiences with people with foot fetishes. That's it. Have I done things on wowhead worthy of perma ban? You bet. That said, my ban wasn't for any of that. It was personal.
Ironically, like I said, I really don't mind that they kicked me out. I don't mind, and still consider the mods to be people I like. It would be nice to be unbanned to drop by once a month and say hi, but my current life doesn't afford me time to post like I used to. To me, that time is over.
I feel like I did good. Was I a pain? Was I wrong, often? Did I hurt feelings? Yes. But I also challenged people to think, accept that their thoughts and feelings were based on something wrong or false. I wasn't afraid of any societies pretenses, and I refused to accept falsehoods for the sake of etiquette. Most importantly, I learned. I learned so much. Human nature, economics, history, climate, politics, journalism... The list goes on and on. I wouldn't be who I am today, and know what I know, if not for randomness. Call me selfish, and I'd have to say you were right, but I wouldn't trade what I gained for the sake of hurt feelings, or having more friends. I like to think that through all the hurt feelings and lost sleep, others gained knowledge as well. If not, that's entirely their fault. Say what you will about my tact, but I was nothing if not informative.
I doubt I'll ever have any experience like wowhead circa 2010ish. It's a special place, but moreso a special time. Visiting it is akin to visiting a historical figure's tomb, at least for me. I get a picture of what was once there but never have a hope of getting it back. Call me nostalgic. Who knew that mytie was sentimental. I say was because mytie is gone as well. Now it's just clint, with my fears.
In any case, I doubt we'll ever have that tea. It's a shame. I really do think very fondly of you, and all the others.
After all this time, i'm still going back on a regular basis. I like how you write and what you write about.
ReplyDelete