Ya see, when I started on CSW, it was for fun. I got into a few "tiffs" with folks, the most notable being when I joked that I "pirated boardgames" and 2 guys thought I was serious -- so I played it up, they got embarrassed, and a little online "battle" erupted. We'd go back to my blog and joke about the humor-less ones, and all have a good laugh. But that quickly grew tiresome, and I did my best to mend fences. When I started blog #2, it was to help me with the pain I was feeling over Gypsy's illness, and I only invited friends. Some of them took "shots" at others, but I refrained, as I wanted to be above that kind of nonsense -- if you think someone's a dick, say it to their face. There was an incident where a guy was an ass to me on the Wilderness War folder, so I banned him, and we had a go-round. But I later relented and let him back, choosing to, instead, just ignore his postings. I really was completely fed-up with the bickering and the idiots.
Fast forward to today, and so many places on CSW are just folks bitching about other folks. It's very petty, and the site is getting worse than ever. Now, I have good friends on CSW, including ones I've made because of CSW, and I don't want to lose that. But the site is often hard to take, and that's a shame, for it had the chance to be a wonderful wargaming site -- and in some areas it still is, but in others it's just fallen into being part of the rude, "I can act like a jerk online" 'Net.I'm sorry I was a part of that, even for a short time, and I'm glad I'm not, anymore. I've also fallen out of the "in" group on CSW, something that gives me a good chuckle -- when I was posting more and didn't care if I was abrasive I was somehow more "popular." Now I'm just a voice in the wilderness, and I like it that way.
My hope is that more folders on CSW can be like Peter Bogdasarian's excellent blog -- maybe a pipe-dream, but we can hope now, can't we?
8 comments:
good points, even if I am somewhat guilty at times......
Of course not being in the "in crowd" keeps my blog at low traffic and limited to friends :)
and the random "word verification" word showing is
.... "bytch" .......
Damn, it's supposed to be BIATCH!
:-)
I have to ask...Who's the person edited onto that picture?
I have no idea -- I just thought it was funny looking.
csw doesn't seem that much more hostile or full of jerks than USENET in the 90's, it's all part of the online experience.
Maybe, but that doesn't make it right.
The "jerk-posting" ratio is much lower on BGG.
I used to visit a golf board several years back on a frequent basis, and of the thousands of posters there, only 2 or 3 would I ever classify as jerks.
I think our little hobby has a bad mix for jerks -- many highly educated people who are full of themselves who are also nerds and not good in social situations. A mix that is perfect for a loser to hide behind his anonymity and be, well, a jerk.
many highly educated people who are full of themselves who are also nerds and not good in social situations. A mix that is perfect for a loser to hide behind his anonymity and be, well, a jerk.
Bingo, I'm surprised they don't run Linux.
Thanks for the shout out!
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