From avias@ncounty.net Mon Oct 9 15:12:36 2000 Path: news.bu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!nycmny1-snh1.gtei.net!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp2.deja.com!nnrp1.deja.com!not-for-mail From: Avias Newsgroups: alt.toys.transformers Subject: [META] Only You Can Save the Newsgroup! Date: Mon, 09 Oct 2000 09:43:17 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. Lines: 130 Message-ID: <8rs3vl$jmh$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.244.111.28 X-Article-Creation-Date: Mon Oct 09 09:43:17 2000 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/3.04 (Win95; I) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 x55.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 208.244.111.28 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDavias Xref: news.bu.edu alt.toys.transformers:427691 Well, it looks like it's ATT's time of the month, again. People are getting disgruntled, generalizations are being taken personally... you know, the usual. And now that we've had the standard Person Leaving the Group in a Wave of Woe and Dread post, I've got a hankering to make a few suggestions... Some of this *is* directed at certain people, but I'll try my best to keep names out of it, and to keep the tone relatively civil :) +++++ONLY YOU CAN SAVE THE NEWSGROUP!!!!!+++++ (A Public Service Announcement From CM Productions) So, you think ATT's going down the crapper, do ya? Well, just sit back for a moment and think about this: What if, just maybe, IT'S YOUR FAULT. There's two things that could kill this group, Stupidity and Apathy. Stupidity from the foolish, the horribly misinformed, and those who are just plain trollish; and Apathy from the jaded people who would rather moan about such things than actually do anything about it. "But what can I do," you might say. "There's always going to be trolls, morons, and clueless newbies. They're a fact of Usenet life." I'll tell you what you can do. You can set a f'ing EXAMPLE. There is an "ATT Elite." They're the people who constantly and consistently make intelligent, well thought out, polite, ON-TOPIC posts. *That's* the standard we should hold ourselves to. If your posts are missing even one of those qualities, *you're doing something wrong.* If you want to win respect, *real respect*, from the other people in this newsgroup, you have to act respectably. Duh. :) Re-evaluate your posting practices. If someone tells you you're acting like a troll, they might just be right. Think before you post. Don't just type it out and hit send. Re-read it. Make sure you're conveying your message in the most concise manner possible. Be clear and to-the-point. Check your grammar. Hells, USE grammar. On Usenet, the way you type, and I cannot stress this enough, _IS_HOW_YOU_ARE_PERCEIVED_. Punctuation, spelling, capitals, all those little things that they pounded into your head in English class are _IMPORTANT_. It doesn't matter if you have friggin' doctorates in Nuclear Physics and Quantum Mechanics, if you type like and idiot, people will consider you to be an idiot. You are your writing style. Chew on that. To borrow from one of Rob Power's sig's here: This is not a chat room. This is not a message board. And this is certainly not a web page. This is a newsgroup in the Usenet hierarchies, and as such has it's own rules. Binaries are not welcome here. HTML is strictly verboten. And you can leave your deities-damned pictures-and-music HTML signatures at the door. It may impress your rube friends, but it crashes other people's computers. Respect the other people in this group. 'Ere it harms none, do as you will, but do unto others as you would have done unto you. Be polite. Avoid being a jackass. Behave as you would in any other public place. And tone it down a little. I like sexual humor more than the next guy, but keep it out of the subject header. That's just rude. DO NOT start an off-topic thread. And by all that you hold holy, don't contribute to one either. Topic drift is one thing, but this is not the place to ask about your dog's diarrhea. And at least be considerate enough to use the OT tag. If you're going to be a dumbass, be an easily avoided dumbass. :) If you haven't read the FAQ, why the hells not? Here's it's address: http://astro.bu.edu/~srstoneb/tf/index.html Read it. Now. Don't assume there isn't one just because it's not posted here often. You don't have to Quote everything. If you're only replying to parts of someone's post, quote the parts you need and cut the rest. If you're just giving a short, general reply, say in response to a fanfic, don't quote the entire post. But at the same time, try to give some idea of who exactly you're responding to. Wherever people meet in free and open discussion, arguments are inevitable. But that doesn't mean they have to be nasty. People will never have quite the same opinions as you. Agree to disagree, or drive yourself slowly mad over what is, in the grand scheme of things, minutiae. Hostility is never your first option. If someone says something that seems foolish to you, don't berate them for it. They very well may not know everything that you do. The only way to cure ignorance is to inform. If they persist in their foolishness, I wouldn't blame you for dropping any pretense of civility, but bile and venom have no place in a public forum. Learn when to take it to email. Again, think before you post. Ask yourself, "Is this something that the rest of the group needs to see/ would be interested in/ gives a flying f&^k about?" If it's something between you and the other person, it doesn't really belong in a public forum. Don't try to fight someone else's battles. If you stick your nose where it doesn't belong, don't be surprised when it gets bit off. You don't need to "weigh in" on flame wars. They will die out, sooner or later. Going half-cocked into an argument that you know next to nothing about is possibly stupidest thing you could do. Nobody asked you to get involved. And by all the gods, _have fun_! Don't get a stick up your ass over your involvement in a fandom devoted to a _children's_ toyline, TV show, and comic book. Don't take it too seriously. Never lose sight of what brought you here in the first place, your love of Transformers. Only you can make this newsgroup a better place. Don't let your standards slump into the cesspool which the weak and cowardly have declared to be here. Hold yourself to the highest standard. Become the shining beacon to which others are drawn. Be the best damn ATTer you can be. Then see how much you have to complain about. Long Live ATT! (Cheesey fan-fare) (This has been brought to you by CM Productions. "CM Productions. We do... umm, Stuff." With additional funding by: Avias's general annoyance with people. And, what the hell, the letter Q. He's good for it.) -- Avias (Lemon Curry?) Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.