Who thinks BBO forums have gone down hill
#21
Posted 2011-August-22, 10:38
So the point is?
#22
Posted 2011-August-22, 11:26
But I would like to vote for the observation that BBF has deterioated since Dwayne got a relationship and Ron became a father.
#23
Posted 2011-August-22, 11:31
#24
Posted 2011-August-22, 13:12
When I joined the forum 2003 the community consisted of only a few active posters and most of them had very high standards in behavior and bridge.
The community has grown since than and it seems logical that a larger community will have a wider range of standards.
IIRC this thread was started when a few active and established poster left because they felt mobbed.
#25
Posted 2011-August-22, 15:32
helene_t, on 2011-August-22, 11:26, said:
in my case, it's coincidental... i became interested in online poker and my partner of many years remembered she was married *sob*... i simply lost a lot of the fire i once had
#26
Posted 2011-August-22, 15:36
luke warm, on 2011-August-22, 15:32, said:
The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists that is why they invented hell. Bertrand Russell
#27
Posted 2011-August-22, 15:37
#28
Posted 2011-August-22, 16:25
luke warm, on 2011-August-22, 15:32, said:
A lesson for us all!
#29
Posted 2011-August-22, 16:33
helene_t, on 2011-August-22, 11:26, said:
In general, internet forums have a life cycle.
At a certain point in time, many of the topics get exhausted. People aren't nearly as interested in discussing them (yet again)
I do think that the Watercooler had an impact on the general tone on the boards.
Prior to the introduction of the watercooler there were individuals that I didn't respect, but none that I actively despised.
#30
Posted 2011-August-22, 17:01
#31
Posted 2011-August-23, 03:10
Also the atmosphere was quite different, I can't remember any flame wars during that time. Where's the time, we didn't even have hand diagrams yet!
These days, we see more play/defense problems and ATB's. We have a lot less bidding problems, while the most valuable contributors all play some form of 2/1. Rarely do we see exotic systems. But does that drag down the quality of the forums? Imo it doesn't. We now have new MVC's who act differently than the previous MVC's. They are younger and don't always hold back to insult someone. We had a period with lots of flame wars, but these have been reduced quite a lot, luckily.
What does drag down the quality is imo the fact that the forums are a lot more advertised these days. It attracts way more new forum members than ever before. Many of them ask questions that have already been answered 100 times, some think they've found a perfect solution to something which isn't even a problem, some want to brag with some silly convention,... We also have newcomers annoying people in every possible way: thinking they're smart, random upvotes, suit symbol abuse, annoying fonts, ordering people around, caps lock, you name it. Many of the regular posters (me included, I admit) react to these things, instead of discussing bridge. It's not a bad thing to attract new members, but perhaps some guidance and a good search function would be helpful.
EDIT: another simple example of why guidance or an introduction is necessary: we get lots of questions about vulnerability in hand diagrams when it's equal vulnerability. Apparently many people don't know/realise that pretty much everything in a hand diagram has a meaning.
#32
Posted 2011-August-23, 03:42
In most of the online communities where I have seen this I was one of the "old guard". I made it clear then that I thought such views were bad for the community and served only to create divisions. I will say that here too, even when my posts carry no such weight of "experience" in this community. My personal impression is that many of the newer posters (Adam for example [Edit: I meant awm here]) are more polite, more tolerant and provide more useful material than some of the older ones who are often quite short with those who they think are "below" them.
#33
Posted 2011-August-23, 13:48
she's my daughter
she's my sister
she's my daughter
she's my sister
she's my daughter
she's my sister
she's my daughter
#34
Posted 2011-August-23, 15:38
kenberg, on 2011-August-22, 16:25, said:
oh i didn't say i learned a lesson from it... i don't regret a minute of the 3+ years
#35
Posted 2011-August-23, 21:38
Zelandakh, on 2011-August-23, 03:42, said:
Adam Meyerson? He is not very new, surely he's been posting here for like 5 years. Or perhaps you meant Adam Kaplan, but he is not very polite
I tend to think that people glorify the older days, in every forum I have ever been a part of this has been true. This also seems true when people talk about older generations of sports or games players (even bridge!). I think it is natural to remember the good things and forget the bad ones. I was not one of the originals on BBF, but I came within a year I think, and I do not remember everyone being polite and nice to each other. I mean, hrothgar and the hog were regular posters already
I do think the quality of posting was substantially higher as a whole, but perhaps I am guilty of what I said in the previous paragraph. I think when a forum is less well known it is generally going to have higher quality posts because it will be hardcore members who are likely very into the game and very into discussing it since it was hard to find. Those people will also post more often to keep the forum alive. Eventually, it becomes more well known and there are more casual users. This is of course good for a forum, but it causes there to be more fights, lower quality posts (but more volume), etc. Unfortunately I think all of this caused a lot of the posters to leave and not that many people have come to replace them. For a small forum, high volume posters make up a large portion of the posts. I could be wrong but I think there are LESS posts now on BBF than a few years ago (but far more than in the beginning). I think this is an anomaly of what people would play bridge and what people would posts on an internet forum (usually those are conflicting demographics).
A lot of the high volume posters did become largely water cooler only posters when it was created, which also impacted the bridge forums.
#36
Posted 2011-August-23, 21:41
#37
Posted 2011-August-24, 03:28
#38
Posted 2011-August-24, 14:18
Never tell the same lie twice. - Elim Garek on the real moral of "The boy who cried wolf"
#39
Posted 2011-August-24, 16:46
#40
Posted 2011-August-24, 17:16