I read the EJ forums. I read the banhammer for a good laugh and to gather M&S specimens for my blog. I read the class forums to learn.
I've never post on that forum. I don't do the complicated testing to have reliable class data, lack the top-end gear to post stats on the level they are interested in (for example soft caps, top trinket procs). I don't have what they want. Of course there are many-many communities where I don't belong, but it's different from the "local firefighter's club" for example where I never was. I do use their resources, I read them, I am there, yet I'm unable to contribute. If it comes to raiding, I am there, but not in the A league and especially not in the top of it.
The banhammer forum is always full with people like me. They are average raiders, they go there to read and they try to contribute. But they can't, so they get infractions, their posts are moved to the banhammer and finally they either leave insulted or banned permanently.
Oh wait, they are not like me, since I have no posts in the banhammer forum. They are not unlike me in knowledge about raiding. They are unlike me in knowing their place. I'm aware that I can't be a contributor in EJ. They don't. While they are aware of the rules they don't think it applies to them (or they don't even bother reading rules, being sure that no rules apply to them anyway). They are special snowflakes and everyone should be happy to have them around.
Well, they are not! They are just another punk whose filth will litter the banhammer. Then they QQ and blame the Elitist Jerk moderator for being elitist jerk, get some more infractions for mod sass and finally get dumped.
Accepting that you are not a "special snowflake", the same rules apply to you as to everyone else is the true test of being rational. It's easy to see victory rationally. It's easy to be rational when things are running smooth. It's easy to be rational when things are crumbling down because of the M&S, pointing out their stupid mistakes. But it's not easy when the rational solution is that "I'm not good enough". It would be much easier to find another social who happily lie (or doesn't know better) that "you are great"! Do that, and be one of them.
PS: you are maybe surprised to see "the same rules apply to you as to everyone else", since I always told to break the rules, don't be nice and helpful and friendly as everyone else. It's not a contradiction. These are irrational, social rules and apply to no one.
I've never post on that forum. I don't do the complicated testing to have reliable class data, lack the top-end gear to post stats on the level they are interested in (for example soft caps, top trinket procs). I don't have what they want. Of course there are many-many communities where I don't belong, but it's different from the "local firefighter's club" for example where I never was. I do use their resources, I read them, I am there, yet I'm unable to contribute. If it comes to raiding, I am there, but not in the A league and especially not in the top of it.
The banhammer forum is always full with people like me. They are average raiders, they go there to read and they try to contribute. But they can't, so they get infractions, their posts are moved to the banhammer and finally they either leave insulted or banned permanently.
Oh wait, they are not like me, since I have no posts in the banhammer forum. They are not unlike me in knowledge about raiding. They are unlike me in knowing their place. I'm aware that I can't be a contributor in EJ. They don't. While they are aware of the rules they don't think it applies to them (or they don't even bother reading rules, being sure that no rules apply to them anyway). They are special snowflakes and everyone should be happy to have them around.
Well, they are not! They are just another punk whose filth will litter the banhammer. Then they QQ and blame the Elitist Jerk moderator for being elitist jerk, get some more infractions for mod sass and finally get dumped.
Accepting that you are not a "special snowflake", the same rules apply to you as to everyone else is the true test of being rational. It's easy to see victory rationally. It's easy to be rational when things are running smooth. It's easy to be rational when things are crumbling down because of the M&S, pointing out their stupid mistakes. But it's not easy when the rational solution is that "I'm not good enough". It would be much easier to find another social who happily lie (or doesn't know better) that "you are great"! Do that, and be one of them.
PS: you are maybe surprised to see "the same rules apply to you as to everyone else", since I always told to break the rules, don't be nice and helpful and friendly as everyone else. It's not a contradiction. These are irrational, social rules and apply to no one.
I disagree, I am a special snowflake. No one else is me. That, however, doesn't mean that I exist outside the rules nor does it mean that I have anything to contribute. I don't believe that I'm not good enough to contribute to EJ, just that I have better things to do with my time then generate the data I would need to support my anecdotes.
ReplyDeleteDoes it make me a "social" because I honestly believe I could contribute if I set out to do so, or am I an "anti social" because I just take what information I can use from EJ and use it for my benefit?
I found the elitiest jerks website from your blog. I read the rules, I read the ban hammer, I went and read the site. I quickly figured that a) I couldn't contribute and b) I didnt even know enough to ask a meaningful question. It doesnt take a goblin to tell me when I am out of my league, but its interesting you felt the need to warn your other readers. I think as an average player, I know I am not Gods gift to wow, I laugh at the M&S and your stories/philiosophy about them, but its easy to feel superior to them and project yourself higher then where you truely are. Thus doing so turn you into M&S? I guess for the EJ's it does.
ReplyDelete@Zeran: you are just silly. As Einstein said the result is 1% genius and 99% hard work. You do not want to make the effort needed there so you are NOT good enough.
ReplyDeleteThere was a comment saying "EJ simply lack human decency" and I meant to publish it but I'm afraid I pressed the wrong button. If you are the author, please post it again. Thanks.
I have read EJ as well, but I havent read their rules, simply because the posting rules simply stem from the types of posts already existant on their forums.
ReplyDeleteBeing unable to provide a post with an opinion as informed as those already present, I simply abstained myself from posting. Seems like the natural and humanely decent thing to do.
I dont understand why people are saying that EJ lack human decency of stuff like that. Maybe because they are social. What could I possibly post?: "lol duds, is spamming arcane blast gud?? I want imba deeps". The explanations were self sufficient and pretty exhaustive in terms of different rotation and tactics.
Lets think of it another way: On a forums where theoretical physics professors discuss the chances of success and innovations of the M-theory compared to classic String Theory, would you barge in and say: "lol dudes, what do these "ropes" do anyway??? why you ban me nerds... get a life lol" ??
"I do use their resources, I read them, I am there, yet I'm unable to contribute."
ReplyDeleteNot entirely true. While you may be unable to contribute information regarding in-game mechanics, don't forget that you can still contribute to the readibility of the forum topics by reporting crap posts.
You are a special snowflake......just like everybody else.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous above me
ReplyDeletegeneraly? you are right.
In terms of wow hc raiding? Definitely not!
i'm in a similar situation. i read EJ. but except for the old gold making thread i've never considered posting.
ReplyDeletein fact i dont think i have an account there.
which raises what i believe is a design flaw at EJ. which seems surprising.
to search their forums, you have to create an account. why?
to reduce the number of morons posting they have a 24 cooling off period for new members before they can post. makes sense. most morons dont have a 30 minute attention span let alone 24 hours.
if i were them i'd allow easier access to searches.
would there be server bandwith issues i havent considered?
I have read EJ. Made comments. The reason I quit doing so was when an ass there reported a post of mine saying that "I have shown in simcraft that blah blah blah and you still say blah blah blah". I then show him how wrong he was in his simcraft and that he should chill out.
ReplyDeleteThis "chill out" phrase cost me a warning because I was "back-sit moderating"! I then realize that there are 3-4 guys per class that really contribute and some others that trying to by just praise the aforementioned contributors while saying their bullshit.
Wouldn't EJ be better off going to a membership model where you had to prove you knew what you were talking about to the moderators before you were able to post? That would at the very least reduce the volume of crap comments that they would need to wade through, and make the forums cleaner for everybody. Though admittedly less entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI imagine you pay your taxes and can use a phone to report a fire. But that's beside the point.
ReplyDeleteEveryone wants to feel special. Everyone. Even you. Some people can be special in a big way. Some people are special in a small way. The trick is to know how you'll be special and be that. Too many people try to be special in the wrong way and just end up being a lot of fail.
The key to intelligence is knowing what you don't know. The moron does not recognize that he's heading into uncharted territory, so they blunder on in there and make idiotic comments.
ReplyDeleteLike a cat without whiskers who gets stuck behind the refrigerator, they lack the basic apparatus to recognize the situation they get themselves in. They get a couple point infraction (which does nothing to their ability to READ, just POST) and they flip out and get banned permanently.
I love scrolling through the Banhammer forum, because it really does shine the light on the non-college, entitled mouthbreathers who play this game. Parents need to stop telling their kids they are special because quite frankly, they're not.
I used to wonder why guilds have such pain-in-the-ass applications; after reading the EJ Banhammer forum it makes perfect sense.
Meh,
ReplyDelete90% of all rules are just social hacks designed to manage large groups of people efficiently.
The only rules which apply to me are those which I will actively penalised if I break them. And those only apply if the penalty is larger than the reward I gain from breaking them.
So the rules at EJs are not of 'social' nature?
ReplyDeleteAnti:
ReplyDeleteNot bandwidth, but machine load. Searches need to be computed, and the site performs shitty in peak hours already.
But make no mistake: EJ ist not a closed community, it is not their primary goal to make posting as hard as possible. Most content is generated by. So, what they need to do is still attract the good posters (yeah, if you have an affinity towards theory crafting, you will likely get an account by yourself), making them register and post good stuff. Their job would be much easier if they wouldn't need to do that in addition to keeping the morons out. So maybe that is another reason why you need to register.
Contribution is also not too hard, it just needs a lot of dedication. Spotting bugs in Simcraft and backing that up by any sort of evidence for example is not too hard, it just takes usually more time and thinking than most are willing to invest. But that is totally a different discussion, the main point of Gevlon's post can't be argued with.
@Nils: no, because they have consequence: banning from the forum. The "social" rules have no consequence besides people will badmouth about you
ReplyDeleteOne has to remember that Gevlon's use of the term 'social' is different than the standard usage.
ReplyDeleteSo the EJ rules are social (ie governing the social interaction among a specific group) but not 'social' (based on irrational and easily exploited psychological deficiencies).
I don't go to EJ to read opinions, humor or even anything interesting. I read blogs for that.
ReplyDeleteI go to EJ for information. Good, current, researched & verified information.
Posting some random factoid or idea there is like gazing at the stars for a few days and submitting the results to the Journal of Astronomy.
Would you have your feelings hurt if they didn't publish your observations?
On a related note, I just discovered reading applications to progression guilds on their public forums. The conversation back and forth asking applicants to justify their (often wrong) answers is very interesting. Talk about your snowflakes...
Dominik said:
ReplyDeleteWouldn't EJ be better off going to a membership model where you had to prove you knew what you were talking about to the moderators before you were able to post?
If you read the rules on EJ, it is the way it's done : you need 10 (non-hammered) contributions in other people's topics before you're allowed to create topics.
I don't see how it is a lack of human decency to want to provide a worthwhile environment for the productive members of your board by keeping idiots away. This assumes that idiots, trolls, and similar useless spammers have some sort of right to stink up a message board and not have to face any consequences, even after they pressed a button saying "I agree to your rules."
ReplyDeleteThey want a particular type of person on their forum, and they're not shy about enforcing that. Good for them. I will never post there, because I'm not the person they want posting there. I don't take it personally, because it is stupid to do so. Some people simply lack perspective, IMO.
no, because they have consequence: banning from the forum. The "social" rules have no consequence besides people will badmouth about you
ReplyDeleteSo if I tell you that all those WoW money guys freak me out. You are so "lol-leet" and put you on ignore then I follow a non-social rule?
I find you distinction hard to understand.
Similar restraint must be applied to other projects such as Wikipedia. On language-related or scientific subjects, there may occasionally be inconsistencies that the average reader may notice but not be able to correct.
ReplyDeleteFor $10 a year you can become an EJ benefactor. One of the advantages is that you won't get infractions anymore, just warnings. Therefore it's also a business model for them to give out as much infractions as possible to make people pay the protection fee.
ReplyDelete