I can see where you're coming from Oolite, I can understand not everybody finds the humour behind the internet funny, it's often something quite nerdy and 4-chan-like and having friends who find it funny, it has caught on me too. Normally it's people having fun and trying to be relaxed and I think it's good to have 'fun' and 'relaxed' posts - it's a better way of winding tension down instead of having rants and as a result witty or sarcastic posts aren't taken too seriously. I from time to time suffer for sarcasm, hence these days I smother my posts in smilies to make sure people get the picture, one some forums I
still get told to chill out. Perhaps only using 2 smilies is an indication that I'm not amused and 30 smilies means I'm on ecstasy.
But of course, there's 'fun' and then there's being over the top. The forums do lack the serious discussions it once had,
I think Rich tried to reinstate that when he changed "General Chat" to "Geek Culture" in hope of reviving serious "geek" discussions and putting emphasis on that this area isn't meant to get
too general.
Even when we do hit on potentially interesting topics - for example when new tech released by a company, something the games or computing industry has brought us, it becomes subject to 'fanboyism'. It's difficult to say, "Apple's new thing is cool" or "I like what Microsoft has done with that", because somebody might go go on an anti-Apple rage or explain why XBoxes suck. It's those kind of things I tend
not to enjoy on this forum and I think, yes, potentially good discussions have been spoiled, it's just as well Religion and Politics are banned because all it takes is one immature person to spoil it.
However, this is all quite down putting talk and it'd be wrong of me as an optimist. So my argument would be - if 'interesting' discussions are to be had, then interesting discussions are to be made and there's only one thing you need to do that: something to talk about. If you want something to happen, make it happen. I was on a dying forum that complained that they were dying because of the same thing, but the solution was very simple...post. People moaned and left instead, hence it actually died (not the one you might be thinking of
). If only rats knew how to sail ships.
[edit]
There's 2 smilies, by the standard of people who tell me to 'chill out', that means I'm not amused. Tch, it sounds like you may have upset me a little.
Click!
