Many folk like to know beforehand what is to be set on the table; but those who have laboured to prepare the feast like to keep their secret; for wonder makes the words of praise louder.
Age 34, Male
Sacred Defender
Deathless Lands
Joined on 10/9/07
Wait, one other thing.
At the time of writing this comment, there are currently 11, yes, 11 threads all from these whorish users, all sucking up to this one mod, supposedly celebrating her birthday. So, to be successful on the forums, you not only must sell yourself out like a cheap slut, but you must also kiss the feet of each and every mod.
Oh yes, the Eternal Festival of Moderator Fellatio and Cunnilingus. A common forum event which I have observed many times. Now, I respect a lot of the mods, don't get me wrong, but I just don't have the desire to constantly kiss their asses. Maybe on occasion, or when they do something awesome, but not constantly like most users seem to do.
Eh, that's NG for ya, what can we do about it? I read the 3rd link, but I think I might know why people don't respond to things like that. It's probably because we've either gotten new computers, didn't transfer all our old files from the old computer to the new one, don't feel like looking through old sites and findingour old usernames and it just takes too much time.
Overall, I know the feeling. It's like me being back in high school during lunch, I was like a frickin' disease. No one wanted to sit with me, until I managed to meet up with an old friend from elementary school and then that group became my lunch group all freshman year long. I had to do the same thing for my sophomore year, junior, and senior years.
"it just takes too much time"
Guess what? It takes time to be a good poster. It takes time to contribute to discussions. Just like it takes time and practice to be a good Flash animator, or a good audio artist, or simply a decent human being. I was able to find my old e-mail, usernames, and favorites after one Google search. ONE! If a user can't even put that much effort into a post, he should probably be banned.
As for what we can do about it, come with me to General, we'll do things right. Bring along as many as possible. But it'll take more than that. As of now, we can do nothing but wait, and try to set examples. Hopefully eventually there'll be a mod who can and will deal with mass-stupidity, but it'll take the realization by the Fulps that not all 13-to-16-year-olds are as exceptional as they think they were, and that's a long way off.
I never had an experience like that during high school. I've always been so dramatic, so exceptional, that my very presence seemed to please any guy around (sadly, didn't work on the girls). And so, except junior year (I was way too busy sorting out the loose ends from my WWE addiction), I've always been sitting with a whole bunch of people.
The BBS is lame and the only ways to get a thread popular are to imply something sexual in the title or circlejerk hard.
And I think I'm bitching to the right people about the permaban so it might get lifted, but my real life is going to get in the way of coming here much, even after I come back from six weeks of not having an internet connection.
That's very true, but even that's not quite the problem here. The problem is pure hypocrisy on the General forum. There's a lot of users, every day, complaining about how General is nothing but penis jokes and masturbation topics, but guess what catches their eye when they go from /account/news/post to /bbs/forum/1? Penis jokes and masturbation topics! And if they'd just admit it, I'd be fine. I may seek a good community more than anything, and Newgrounds is not it, but it would be fine for releasing stress if there was at least some actual fucking discussion.
And good luck with both the ban removal and that linguistics program in college. I'm going to college myself in fall, and though I know not what I want to do, I smell a computer in my future.
I'm sure if you added "sex", "masturbation" or "porn" to the title, any of those threads would reach ten pages already.
For example, "Blast from the masturbation past" sounds nice and is long enough to be easily noticed.
"Penis" would probably work too, or any other word related to sex or sexuality. Though I honestly don't want to add words that don't belong... I'm too much of a loyalist rulewhore for that.
I did have a good number of my own threads that had the same fate, but none were as undeserving as your three. I noticed that in people. They want so bad for people to take interest in what they do, yet they don't take interest in other people's interests. But it's not necessarily hypocritical when everybody does it.
Here's an example, I've told friends, offline friends, about flash and Newgrounds. I didn't want to persuade 13 and 14 year olds to sign up because that would be immoral of me, and dangerous for them, but I wanted them to really see the greatness that is this little past-time. I love flash with all my heart, I would give anything to see it live longer than my own life so long as it improves and becomes more well known. Just as I would do with video games. But I've been trying to figure out why people don't have their minds blown out when I describe it to them. And when I describe Flash and Newgrounds I pour my heart into at least three long, well written paragraphs that would make Tom proud.
But alas, nobody cares. I could tell them I play Trumpet and I would get the same effect (and my school doesn't follow the cliche of looking down on band kids, they're really nothing special).
I have thought that maybe it's people with uncommon interests that need attention when they're asking for it instead of ones hiding those interests in the shadows, locked in their closets. The next time somebody tells me they have a certain, uncommon hobby that I'm not genuinely pissed at for personal reasons, I'll show them that I think that this very thing is, in fact, cool. Maybe they would return the favor, but that's not the main reason we should all do this. With kids, we NEED encouragement, because otherwise everything to us that isn't done by everybody else is either ghey, stupid, or maybe, uncool. The reason good parents are so supportive of their children is because they know their child DOES need that kind of support. To have that person giving the thumbs up. That's what good friends are for too.
I want to be that nice guy that makes people feel good about themselves, when they have no reason not too. As corny as it sounds.
But back on track, General can't be saved in any way that I can think of. Because there will be a time for everyone where they take their own "Hiatus" from the Forums. It's natural. The Forums are becoming as repetitive as playing the same video game every day. Even if it's new, you will get bored. Even if it's a Super Smash Bros. game. It just takes time. However, General does have better quality threads. I bet I could find three right now.
* * *
Well, I didn't find anything besides the semi-stupid topic that has no replies dealing with said topic. Damnit.
And what the hell is going on with the Cool Story, Bro pictures?
The mainstream does not need Newgrounds. They have their MyAss, their Facefuck, their JewTube (none of which should probably exist, keep the normals off the Internet), and most importantly their real life. I don't have those luxuries. I am forced by a number of things to sit behind my computer, to go on the Internet for contact and discussion. And there are certain benefits to that. Outside the Internet, I've never met anybody who shares any of my interests (especially since they developed to Internet standards). On the Internet, there's a metric fuckton of weirdos like me.
And General rarely gets any discussion in the good topics. They're there, yes, but they're rare, and they disappear quick. Nobody wants to discuss anything, they just want penis jokes! I wish I could find a place for general discussion on different subjects that wasn't either elitist or stupid. But of course, if such a place exists, it's not advertised on a site like NG. When I get 71chan back, it might be that way someday, but that'll only come with a job, hosting, and a domain name.
"Cool story, bro" is a retarded /b/ meme. Don't pay it any attention: the "people" (lmfao) using it have severe Down's Syndrome. Not with just one extra chromosome either, but more like 3 or 4 extras.
Wait, wait, wait, one last thing.
An Imbalance of Power on the Boards.
I have a lot to say about this, and can't fit it all here, but you get the gist, right?
Imbalance of Power? I don't understand. You mean how all the mods stay in General, leaving the other forums to fend for themselves?
No, actually, it's something quite different.
Alright, so here's an example. NG User A, you for example (don't hate me...), is under known, and just an average guy on the boards. User A posts a thread about a pretty good and thoughtful topic, but then it gets very few views due to many people not knowing him. Actually, I have a good example similar to the ones in your news post right here: <a href="http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1014718">http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1 014718</a>. Sure, I did have a mod post in my thread, but besides him and another person, that was pretty much it.
Now, there's also NG User B. You should know what this type of user is (a certain user whose name is a time of day should be a prime example). User B is immensely popular on the boards, having sucked up to all the mods and to other users as well. User B can even be a mod. All B really is, is a circle-jerking tool that wields a type of power. This power can be seen when, User B makes a topic that is either just as thoughtful as the one User A made, or even incredibly stupid, and B's thread gets several pages. This is the imbalance of power on the forums: the ability for a user to subversively control other users through their ill-gotten popularity. These users with too much power are able to sway the forums as they see fit, and even if they screw up, the other potentially brainwashed users will pass it off as if nothing happened.
I'd like to explain more, and in further detail, but I don't think newspost comments are an efficient way to do this.
Ah, yes. Users like him (I could have swore he was named for some movie though) are rather too powerful on the BBS. Idiocy attracts idiocy, and stupidity is currently rampant in General. I wouldn't use such strong terms as "brainwashing" or "subversive", that's serious business and this is a forum (anyone got a time machine, wanna go explain that to the November/December 2007 model of SoulMaster71?) and plus User B isn't that smart, but most users do overlook the fact that User B is borderline retarded, possibly because he's sucked everyone's dick, but more likely because they aren't that much better. In a land of weightlifters, the strongmen are kings. In a land of entrepreneurs and lawyers, the richest have the most pull. Well, General is a land of idiots, so guess who runs the place?
And if you'd like to explain more, you can go ahead in any way you feel proper.
I feel your pain man, frankly it's the reason I've stopped trying to make threads on
General, intelligent discussion for the most part has fallen by the wayside there.
Yeah, well, all you can do is lead by example. Post in intelligent threads, and make them yourself. Maybe if we set a good example, someone will follow it.
The "weirdos", as you describe them, obviously don't find shame in their lifestyle, and they honestly shouldn't. They're not doing anything wrong, they just have different interests. It's like the group of kids that hang around in corners of the schools talking about anime shows and comics that nobody's heard of. They're not freaks, they just like something that most people stereotype as stupid after never experiencing it.
But you're lifestyle is actually unhealthy for children to follow. At least for children that really have to try if they want to have online and offline friends. I myself live in a different city than every of my friends. It's a hassle to see them outside school. So I've learned to live "Inside" during seventh grade. Video games and sites like Newgrounds were more than enough to give me entertainment and something to do, and still are. I never once showed any interest in living in the Outside again. As a result, my old friends are becoming less and less like me and we grow apart. It would be easy to say I matured without them from intelligent discussion in the Forums (not necessarily General as you'd expect), and accidentally learning everything there is to know about how to have sex, and the many ways of doing so, but that would be pure speculation on my part.
There is nobody in the mainstream like me, and it took me until the end of eigth grade to finally learn that. In the summer before High School now, my mother told me that I should get out more, hang out with friends, and I realized I had no rebuttle for that. No way to argue. Now the only question is, should I give the Outside one more shot, or keep on with my Inside ways wondering what it's like out there?
Oh no, I'm not stupid enough to abandon my life now, I just want to enjoy the Outside world while I still can as a child. Time is ticking. There are some interesting kids out there. Some who could be invaluable friends. Not the mainstream, just everybody else. Screw the mainstream children. They're annoying as all hell and can't tell shit from shite. I shite you not.
And you sir, have given me an idea. I'll make General part of my daily visit. I'll post in the better topics and maybe make some of my own if I come up with one. But for now, I'd just rather go on about how much I hate how people put ice in their soda. Dumbasses.
If there's any way to improve the site that made Gustavos de Idiota something other than a pipe dream, I'll take it.
firemaker60
Essentially, for a topic to get any posts, the OP must be as attention whorish and "Fab" as possible.
For an example of the perfect whore, take a look in the nearly 300 page Stickam Chat thread. Every. Single. One. of them fits the description perfectly.
Honestly, even though I have only been posting in the BBS for about a year, I think it's the need to be a whore that's brought down the quality of especially the General forum.
SoulMaster71
Stickam thread locked as of now, but yeah, attention whoring is a big plus. Same with a massive post count, preferably in 5 digits. And then there's the idea that "wit", in the form of being able to make anything into a joke about the OP and/or male genitalia, is superior to intellect or effort. Then again, isn't that what causes Portal success too? A lot of submissions to your name, and quickie movies based on video game references rather than anything original, that's what leads to success (just ask Egoraptor). It's a major problem with this site.