Noraboo
8,800 Points
-
0
-
0
-
0
Lately I've noticed a few users with the following image in their sig:
Now, first off, I don't know who has made it. I don't know if has a petition associated with it, or how many people share the sentiment. However since I don't really care, but I find the sentiment expressed interesting, here we go.
I'd say to ED users not to take this too personally, but I know that's impossible since everyone thinks you're talking about them, because people are self centered like that.
I've looked over this sig few times and thought about it, and felt the urge to point out what's wrong with it, and what's wrong the mentality behind it, and explain why I think that this mentality is having a negative effect on ED, or is in part contributing to further problems in the extended discussion
And since I adore this forum because it lets me wax poetic about other forums, something I love to do when procrastinating, which I do often, here we are.
So the image asks the question:
And the answer is yes. Yes it is wrong.
Why is it wrong?
Two big reasons, the first really obvious.
1) Extended Discussion is a bloody discussion forum. This is pretty clear from the name, the description, and the guidelines to using the forum.
So then it is naturally quite incorrect to make a non discussion thread in a forum intended for discussion. The forum is not called 'smart people talk here' but rather 'have discussions here'. This is key for reason #2.
Now that we have the painfully obvious out of the way, reason #2.
2) The sig assumes that ED has a larger percentage of intelligent people than other forums on Gaia.
*bzzt*
Wrong.
Sorry folks. We should have stopped deluding ourselves about that back in december of 2003.
Having discussions does not make one intelligent or intellectual. Talking about serious issues does not make one intelligent or intellectual. It is only how you do so that reflects intelligence or intellectual ability.
And yet, somehow the two have become so intrinsicly associated together in the minds of many ED users that ED is considered the 'smart' or 'intelligent' forum, thus giving users who post there a false sense of self importance over those who might choose to spend their time on Gaia posting in other areas and on other topics.
And this might once have been true. When Gaia had 40,000 accounts and most active ED posters were over the age of 18 and could type a complete sentence without using netspeak.*
But guess what? Things change. ED has not just changed, Gaia has changed.
There are a lot of different kinds of people on Gaia who come here for lots of different reasons. The large majority are young teenagers.* This has not always been the case, but it is the case now.
And this demographic change has in general been reflected in all forums on Gaia.
There are smart people and dumb people spread all over Gaia. The thing that seperates ED from GD or CB are the types of threads in the forum, not the user base.
If it were the user base, there would never be a non-punctuated, one line reply to an ED thread ever. But there are. There weren't always, or they were lower in frequency, but now there are lots and lots more, because more and more there are users in ED who are not up to the 'standard', whatever that is, of what ED users want to think of themselves as.
And this is natural. Because ED is not in a vacuum. It is part of a larger forum on Gaia, and Gaia is a forum that, depending on how nice you want to be, either is welcoming to everyone, or caters to the lowest common denominator. So a user is welcome to spam their heart out for gold in CB and then trot over to ED to spew forth their opinion on abortion. And they do just this, because that is the sort of forum Gaia is intended to be.
The more time you spend out of ED and in other forums, the more you realize that there are quite a few pretty bright, interesting people who've never set foot in ED because they've no interest in doing so. A good deal of that lack of interest is drawn from ED's self cultivated reputation as pseudo-intellectual assholes.
In conclusion:
ED isn't the smart people's forum. The average ED poster isn't any brighter than your average GDer or music forum regular.
Get the ******** over yourselves.
*If you flame me or get pissy at me for implying that the older you are the smarter you are, you can go bugger off now. Like it or not, age correlates positively to knowledge, skill, and experience. There will always be exceptions, so I am not saying all teenagers are dumb or cannot have intelligent discussions. Far from. What I am saying is that in general, an older, college age demographic will be better able and more inclined to have an intelligent, informed, rational discussion and so the overall age of the people who frequent a forum determines the quality of discussion contained within it.
Now, first off, I don't know who has made it. I don't know if has a petition associated with it, or how many people share the sentiment. However since I don't really care, but I find the sentiment expressed interesting, here we go.
I'd say to ED users not to take this too personally, but I know that's impossible since everyone thinks you're talking about them, because people are self centered like that.
I've looked over this sig few times and thought about it, and felt the urge to point out what's wrong with it, and what's wrong the mentality behind it, and explain why I think that this mentality is having a negative effect on ED, or is in part contributing to further problems in the extended discussion
And since I adore this forum because it lets me wax poetic about other forums, something I love to do when procrastinating, which I do often, here we are.
So the image asks the question:
Quote:
Is it wrong to post something in ED, even if it doesn't really count as discussion simply because you want intelligent people to see it?
And the answer is yes. Yes it is wrong.
Why is it wrong?
Two big reasons, the first really obvious.
1) Extended Discussion is a bloody discussion forum. This is pretty clear from the name, the description, and the guidelines to using the forum.
So then it is naturally quite incorrect to make a non discussion thread in a forum intended for discussion. The forum is not called 'smart people talk here' but rather 'have discussions here'. This is key for reason #2.
Now that we have the painfully obvious out of the way, reason #2.
2) The sig assumes that ED has a larger percentage of intelligent people than other forums on Gaia.
*bzzt*
Wrong.
Sorry folks. We should have stopped deluding ourselves about that back in december of 2003.
Having discussions does not make one intelligent or intellectual. Talking about serious issues does not make one intelligent or intellectual. It is only how you do so that reflects intelligence or intellectual ability.
And yet, somehow the two have become so intrinsicly associated together in the minds of many ED users that ED is considered the 'smart' or 'intelligent' forum, thus giving users who post there a false sense of self importance over those who might choose to spend their time on Gaia posting in other areas and on other topics.
And this might once have been true. When Gaia had 40,000 accounts and most active ED posters were over the age of 18 and could type a complete sentence without using netspeak.*
But guess what? Things change. ED has not just changed, Gaia has changed.
There are a lot of different kinds of people on Gaia who come here for lots of different reasons. The large majority are young teenagers.* This has not always been the case, but it is the case now.
And this demographic change has in general been reflected in all forums on Gaia.
There are smart people and dumb people spread all over Gaia. The thing that seperates ED from GD or CB are the types of threads in the forum, not the user base.
If it were the user base, there would never be a non-punctuated, one line reply to an ED thread ever. But there are. There weren't always, or they were lower in frequency, but now there are lots and lots more, because more and more there are users in ED who are not up to the 'standard', whatever that is, of what ED users want to think of themselves as.
And this is natural. Because ED is not in a vacuum. It is part of a larger forum on Gaia, and Gaia is a forum that, depending on how nice you want to be, either is welcoming to everyone, or caters to the lowest common denominator. So a user is welcome to spam their heart out for gold in CB and then trot over to ED to spew forth their opinion on abortion. And they do just this, because that is the sort of forum Gaia is intended to be.
The more time you spend out of ED and in other forums, the more you realize that there are quite a few pretty bright, interesting people who've never set foot in ED because they've no interest in doing so. A good deal of that lack of interest is drawn from ED's self cultivated reputation as pseudo-intellectual assholes.
In conclusion:
ED isn't the smart people's forum. The average ED poster isn't any brighter than your average GDer or music forum regular.
Get the ******** over yourselves.
*If you flame me or get pissy at me for implying that the older you are the smarter you are, you can go bugger off now. Like it or not, age correlates positively to knowledge, skill, and experience. There will always be exceptions, so I am not saying all teenagers are dumb or cannot have intelligent discussions. Far from. What I am saying is that in general, an older, college age demographic will be better able and more inclined to have an intelligent, informed, rational discussion and so the overall age of the people who frequent a forum determines the quality of discussion contained within it.
