That said, dipping your toes into the forums, like any preexisting community means there is some culture you have to learn and adjust to. Certain debates have raged for literally over a decade at this point and sides become entrenched and expect all to have heard the same arguments time and time again. People can therefore be abrupt and without patience for newcomers.
However, some people are also just jerks. Or are looking to score some forum PvP points, or bring an in-game feud here. Some are autists or pendants, and a small few are quite probably really mentally ill.
I guess the trick is to grow a thicker skin, and not take things too personally. The block button also works well when someone is clearly targeting you to make you upset. And don’t stoop to their level - be polite! Also, walk away and take a break if you find yourself rage posting.
But that passion also means that some people aren’t going to stick around. I don’t think that can be helped, but if you want the forum culture to change, participate and lead by example. Things aren’t static and you can have an influence.
Not really, this forums is an extension of the video game, which is why there is a roleplaying subforums and why we discuss the game here. We even engage in scamming on the forums, too.
Thing is, anyone can make an account here, and naturally, youre gonna get good and bad people. Nice, honest people, like me, and despicable, dishonest liars like the Naarian Group.
I dont mind discussions and debates, our words are our antimatter here on the forums.
But at the same time, ridiculous ideas are deserving of ridicule, and some people just need to be told that they are stupid, otherwise they will continue to bring the average IQ of the forums down a point or two.
Im a nice, honest guy, so I dont really do that a lot.
My mother had me tested too, but it came up positive. She didnt tell me until i was 40. It was her birthday present to me. Unless your mother told you the outcome, theres a chance you are crazy.
The quality tends to rise when there is something to actively discuss such as the Blackout or the Wardec changes. Debate takes a more considered tone, different voices are heard and there seems to be less casual invective thrown around.
The base state is one of forum PvP so you can stick around for the lulz , hate-reading or try the New York Review of Books instead.
You have to keep in mind the type of person that EVE advertisements, social buzz, and game design attracts.
Then you boil that population down for a while to leave only the ones who stick around long enough, due to their getting something they need from the game they can’t get elsewhere, to be visible and noticeable.
Now from that brew, you skim off the small percent who bother with things like the forums. And you end up with a fraction of the player base made of commentators, critics, hoping-for-improvements posters, debaters, and of course, the inevitable toxic trolls who are literally only here to be obnoxious. EVE advertises to the obnoxious, it says “Come here and be a bastard this game is made for it!”, it caters to those who have so little agency in their own lives that they crave the ability to be nasty and abusive towards other people in order to validate their own importance.
Don’t confuse a few dozen regularly toxic and argue-for-the-sake-of-arguing types with ‘the EVE community’. The surprise isn’t that they’re here. The surprise is that there aren’t ten times more of them.
Of course, any other forum would have moderated them into oblivion long before now. For now, it’s best just to learn which names you can simply scroll past without even reading. Sometimes you can scroll past a couple hundred posts in a thread that way. Saves a ton of time.
As for the moderation, like the game the rules are somewhat lax; I’ve certainly posted in far stricter environments. That said I’ve posted in far worse ones too.
Consider the role of “Social Sexual Hierarchy” in this matter and you would understand what the “problem” is with some people around here and why it’s not going to be solved in any adult manner or such manner as “among men”.
Just do an experiment to check the friendly discussion. Make a thread which, probably, will interfere with interests of another community group, referred to: balancing, ganking, protection, pvp, pve or whatever. I did it near two years ago, if I remember it correctly
