Discussion 1: Is the EA no longer friendly?

[calmeilles (imported)]

The thing is that in any on-line forum that coheres around a topic there develops a degree of community, people begin to know each other to a degree and have conversations that stray far away from the central topic.

People will talk politics or religion or cat grooming for that matter so the practical choices are providing a place where that can be done without obscuring the central topic or trying to forbid it and necessarily penalise people who contravene da roolz.

As a recent joiner it seems to me that the topic and sub-topic structure works well. It's clear where most things should go and while I tend to read everything it should be possible for people to avoid the topics they don't wish to see as long as posters respect the topic areas and here that seems to be the case.

[Beau Geste (imported)]

I don't know if it would help or not, but some of the message boards I participate in, have a regular set of rules posted, so everybody knows what's okay and what isn't. As far as I can tell, there isn't any set of rules posted as to what types of posts are acceptable on this archive, what kind of behavior is okay in the chatroom, and so on. I don't actually see much difference in tone and in "worthwhileness" between boards on websites with posted rules and message boards on those without them--but maybe a clear set of rules or guidelines would make a difference. As I've commented in other posts, I think civility is one of the more important considerations in building a sense of good will and community. And someone who has a generally civil attitude, shouldn't have to be told how to be nice. But some people do have to be told.

As to how much fun a website is--I don't know, I think a lot of it is what you make of it. One point I might make, and one that stands out especially for someone like myself, who doesn't find the thought of violence against the sex organs to be exciting; is, that, after a while, people must become jaded to that sort of thing. Maybe that's why the Archive isn't as much fun for some as it once was: after you read a certain amount of this stuff, you've seen and vicariously experienced every variety of what can be written and otherwise communicated about castration, and there's nothing further to experience.

For myself, I came here while clicking on links at BME, which I had gone to, to find information about tattoo removal. (I don't have any tattoos, but that's another story.) I found the EA site interesting, simply because it differed so much from most of the websites I access. But what I actually found worthwhile, in an enduring way, was the portions of the archive that aren't specifically castration-related. Of course, these are the sections where the most negative stuff gets posted, but I have spent so many years reading flames and bad-mouth posts, that they all bounce off me any more. To me, anything that is interesting is fun, and the cellar and political sections are fun because of the variety in them. I long ago learned not to get into nasty exchanges, so I usually just ignore negative replies to my posts. And, actually, some of the guys who seem to be quite sensitive and reflective (e.g., Blaise and Dingbat) also appear capable of taking some hard hits and coming back with good posts.

At the same time, this website is a learning site for me, and I have been introduced here to some things I would never have imagined had I not accessed the Archive.

I really haven't been here long enough, and probably haven't been involved enough in the fantasy and "thrill" sections of the board, to assess whether the archive has deteriorated. But I can tell you that there are plenty of other websites where people are more combative than most folks are here.

I don't know if members are given warnings before they are banned, but perhaps some would shape up if they knew they would be booted if they didn't.

[genderless (imported)]

I had to vote a little less friendly. Even though I'm new here, my gut feeling and what I've read so far brought me to this opinion.