| From: | NeoJudas neojudas@******************.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Online Communities (the Drawbacks) |
| Date: | Tue, 31 Oct 2000 05:03:06 -0500 |
There is a drawback to anyone who decides to try and lead one of the online
communities in some manner or form. They are then the figureheads who are
attacked the easiest.
I keep having memories of Dvixen being literally cornered in emails on a
conversational level because those people that were doing so decided that
since she was the most "aggressively vocal of the group", that she should be
the target. I've seen this many times over the last few years. Combine
that with her own natural emotional flare... and you'd have the recipe for
emotional disasters even.
I have seen Dvixen and Adam both take actions in other forums that I'm
fairly certain they'd rather not have had to do so. IRC in particular. But
any and all of those situations they were forced into by other individuals
because those individuals came into the community, didn't take the time to
listen for a bit and just start tearing at things.
Not always, but it has happened.
I've also been in IRC (continuing example) when individuals have come into
that forum and performed things that are just not "socially acceptable
behavior" in the average public location. If those actions had taken place
at a party I was attending for instance, I may have likely thrown the
person(s) out the door myself for their being a shit or worse. I have also
seen however admins in IRC take specific actions based upon nothing more
than the reason of "they were a twonk" and that seemed to be enough.
Guess what. That is still their right to do so. IRC has different degrees
of "netiquette" than ShadowRN or the Forums or Bulldrek. And if a person
comes into that community, and they don't take the time to figure out the
ropes/social mores' then they will suffer the retributions/retaliations of
that community.
I am not saying I agree with it or their actions. But I am saying that they
have the rights to those actions.
People become "leaders" of communities through a variety of means. They are
almost always in some manner "political" in their development. Some people
have naturally high charisma/public expression and convince, coerce,
contrive or simply take the command. Some people are voted into that
position by the current members of the community body. Other people are
assigned by the other "leaders" of the community in question.
The Online Communities that are Shadowrun based are NO different than any
other structures of social organization that already exist. The medium by
which their members interact may be different, but even that excuse is
vanishing with time.
What is sad is when people say "there needs to be a change", but the change
is almost always in some relation to "how it was in the past". Here's a
clue, if I had the "Cluebat" from work, I'd be bapping people quite hard all
over the place. We can't go back to the past. ShadowRN of today will
*NEVER* be like it was last year or three years ago or ten years ago. It is
far larger than it has ever been (a respectable 600+ members counting the
invis and digesters). It is made up of a wide variety of individuals...
obviously the most of whom have decided to simply join the list and "lurk"
(though I personally am unafraid of 1000 posts a day, there are others who
would be... and if the Lurkers all delurked.. it would cause an email
avalanche of nearly epic proportions).
I personally wish more "Lurkers" would come out of "lurk mode" on a
more
daily basis. I wish they would decide to become active members of the
community. Then maybe there would be even more people that I (or someone
else) could try and get involved and/or help them develop their own passion
for the game.
It is what we have in common,yes?
The Game.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
J. Keith Henry ("K" "NeoJudas")
Hoosier Hacker House (www.hoosierhackerhouse.com)
THREEH.COM (www.threeh.com)
