Suggestion: Constructive Criticism

[Wilby]

Hello Forum users,

This thread is not meant to offend anybody and is a simple, polite suggestion (mostly to the more experienced forum users)

I have only been a member here for less than a week and I have found it more difficult than anticipated. I personally have not been offended really or attacked by any forum users but I have noticed many new users being berated for; creativity, punctuation and post responses as examples. I understand new users like myself can be irritating or not perfect when it comes to posting threads or comments on a topic, but could the critiquing be a little less harsh? The harsh critiquing makes people feel kind of unwelcome honestly.

I guess my suggestion is for people to use constructive criticism against new users as it is far more helpful than just plain bombardment of insults and criticisms, please? Personally I am open to criticism if said in the correct manner, please tell me if my threads or posts are not good but instead of plain insulting, why not suggest how that individual could improve themselves?

:bitw:

 

[Crayo]

No offence taken whatsoever. I'm personally in the exact same boat you are. I always encourage positivity when welcoming new users. In fact, there used to be an award dedicated to that (friendly award; still is actually). If you could perhaps point out some examples where users aren't being friendly or welcoming users politely, then that would be great because I would be more than willing to speak to those members causing trouble and set the law straight. If the problem increases then I'll have words with staff to crank down on these users to completely eradicate the problem.

I know users sticking around on internet communities like this can sometimes be completely down to how welcomed they are. As the owner of this community I take full responsibility on how people feel when they sign up, so naturally this issue affects me a lot. Thank you for reporting it. As requested above, please provide examples if you can so I can take action.

 

[Wilby]

I appreciate the understanding and response made.

If I see people being unfriendly I have previously mentioned it and stuck up for new users (I admittedly may not have responded in a perfect manner but I try), I don't want to call people out personally as I don't want to make any enemies as a new user but I may inbox an Administrator or Moderator if I think people are treated unfairly regularly, does this sound ok?

 

[Crayo]

Even better. Thank you .

 

[Coon]

Send all of your community complaints to Xanth, he's our Community Relations Aficionado Person.

There's always a certain bias to any new-comers into a community, mainly from the people who think of themselves as veterans and think crowds of new users will change everything that made them love the site. If someone with a little credibility is berating the new guy, others might also join in, in an attempt to weld bonds. It could also just be bad timing, if they feel dejected themselves over something, they'll feel the need to carry that over to someone else just to get it out of their system.

I'm not going to pretend like I know the ins and outs of the community, but with any community it's always better to take a few days to browse around and get a feel for everyone. Figure out who people look up to (or look down upon), find the trouble makers or the nice guys and set up mental logs of the regulars. That way, even if you get criticised, you'll know if their opinion has any weight or if they're just trying to be a dick.

Also you misused a semicolon in your original post. DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PUNCTUATION? I swear all these new guys come in here trying to change the English language, no creativity.

 

[Tumbas' #1 Fan]

I was actually just gonna call you a smurf for posting this thread but I'm going for that Friendly badge now. Yeah, I totally agree.

 

[Wilby]

Also you misused a semicolon in your original post. DON'T YOU KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PUNCTUATION? I swear all these new guys come in here trying to change the English language, no creativity.

Yeah I'm really sorry dude in the UK we don't have schools...I think a homeless guy once explained what a semi-colon was :shock:

In other news thank you for the advice regarding forum life and who to direct my issues to .

Side note: In the UK (England at least) Coon is a derogatory term for a black person, DON'T YOU OLD-TIMERS KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CULTURAL SENSITIVITY!!?? Kidding (not about coon being derogatory, that's not a joke).

 

[Coon]

Yeah I'm really sorry dude in the UK we don't have schools...I think a homeless guy once explained what a semi-colon was :shock:

In other news thank you for the advice regarding forum life and who to direct my issues to .

Side note: In the UK (England at least) Coon is a derogatory term for a black person, DON'T YOU OLD-TIMERS KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CULTURAL SENSITIVITY!!?? Kidding (not about coon being derogatory, that's not a joke).

I'm from the UK too, but I always thought Coon as a derogatory term was more american than british. When I rejoined this community, I wanted a name that had the potential to offend people, but also have enough charm that they'd have conflicting opinions about me. Then I'd insult them and they'd feel bad, but then I'd be nice to them and they'd like me again. I'm like the euthanasia roller coaster except I usually just stop half way before the end so everyone's just left confu

 

[Jonathan]

I'll point out some of the offensive people here:

Me
Dolph'sZiggler
Aids Johnson
BrockLesnarFanForLife
Emperor Lelouch Britannia

(1st 3 are generally nice, last 2 are just stupid.)

You're welcome :sandow:

See even by being helpful I'm being offensive by calling them out

 

[Wilby]

I'm from the UK too, but I always thought Coon as a derogatory term was more american than british. When I rejoined this community, I wanted a name that had the potential to offend people, but also have enough charm that they'd have conflicting opinions about me. Then I'd insult them and they'd feel bad, but then I'd be nice to them and they'd like me again. I'm like the euthanasia roller coaster except I usually just stop half way before the end so everyone's just left confu

Awesome whereabouts?

I'm pretty sure it's British or maybe it just applies to the South East? Grew up in Kent and it was a term I was definitely aware of. I think your username has the desired effect as it does make me grin when I see it but I understand the underlying meaning, good job sir .

 

[Coon]

Awesome whereabouts?

I'm pretty sure it's British or maybe it just applies to the South East? Grew up in Kent and it was a term I was definitely aware of. I think your username has the desired effect as it does make me grin when I see it but I understand the underlying meaning, good job sir .

Currently in Manchester, but I grew up abroad so that might be why I don't really associate the word with England, since I've not really heard it used all that much over here (which is good I guess, then again there's worse words being used these days).

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I always tell people this. I'm like "fellas, lettuce try to be more welcoming to new users!" but nobody listens to ol D'Z.

 

[Mean Smark Callous]

meh i've taken all the snarkiness with a grain of salt. one of the things i like about this forum is we can all laugh at eachother and not get butthurt about it. well most of us. if someone gets me good, i like the post. alot of it comes down to self policing. if you think it's going to start a flame war, bite your tongue. why wait for admins to get involved?

 

[wils172]

:happy:I hate bullies