Why the 17th Shard is so Awesome

[Adamir]

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but wasn't there a topic two weeks ago titled 'what a fancy forum'? Then again, it was severely lacking in Kobold poetry and was several times as depressing.

[king of nowhere]

Same for me- very well said. I realize I'm likely much younger than the average demographic for this site, but nobody cares. I've found out I've been responding to people twenty years older than me. It's actually pretty cool how so many people of all ages can come together and talk about something we all like.

I come from another world where that happpens, which is the one of chess. chess is not dependant on physical growth, and the kind of brainpower you need for it apparently develops quite early. I've been the strongest in my club since i was around 14, until recently when i lost the title to a couple of 16-yo. so it is a place where you can see adults and adolescents interact as equal. I got the impression that most young adults (say, 14-18,  sometimes extending down to 12 for particularlly smart kids) are actually indistinguishable from adults most of the times. Up until the point when they do something supid and/or immature, and sometimes you'd think they were 8. then they revert to being undistinguishable from adults. But you can't tell until they do something stupid. and most of them will do only under specific circumstances. the one I know better (I've been friend with his parents since I was 8 and they weren't married yet. I consider him and his brother as acquired cousins) becomes  very aggressive when he loses at something, but as long as he's winning (or if you're not playing a game) you could not tell him from an adult.

So, I'm not surprised that there are young people here and I can't tell their age from their posts. And I am in the abit of treating them as near peers until proven otherwise anyway.

 

I have to say, the thing that mostly surprises me about dealing with adolescents is the fact that several adults actually behave much worse, but they get away with it. Something for which a young would be called out, if ddone by an adult will elicit comments like "he's too old to change". or maybe it's just the fact that there's nobody with the autority to send an adult to his room.

[Haelbarde]

#22: The admins engage with the community!

[maxal]

1. There's a downvote system but it's never used.

 

Actually, whereas I do agree this is great forum, I am afraid the downvote system is actively use. I get downvoted on a regular basis. It is my sore point with this forum, the fact you are allowed to downvote someone without giving a justification.

[Kobold King]

Actually, whereas I do agree this is great forum, I am afraid the downvote system is actively use. I get downvoted on a regular basis. It is my sore point with this forum, the fact you are allowed to downvote someone without giving a justification.

 

I've been downvoted on quite a few occasions, on posts that I felt to be legitimately free from any kind of meanness or offense.

 

And the thing is... I don't change my behavior when people downvote things like that. If I'm not given any indication of what I've done that's so offensive, how am I supposed to change? It's like someone randomly rushing up to you on the street and yelling "You suck!" without any kind of explanation. Constructive criticism serves a purpose. Anonymous downvotes just make people feel bad.

 

 

That said, downvote abuse is quite uncommon--the average forum member is far too kind to use it so petulantly. While the downvote feature is my one tiny gripe with this site, the greatness of the 17th Shard far outweighs this minor gripe of mine.

[maxal]

I've been downvoted on quite a few occasions, on posts that I felt to be legitimately free from any kind of meanness or offense.

 

And the thing is... I don't change my behavior when people downvote things like that. If I'm not given any indication of what I've done that's so offensive, how am I supposed to change? It's like someone randomly rushing up to you on the street and yelling "You suck!" without any kind of explanation. Constructive criticism serves a purpose. Anonymous downvotes just make people feel bad.

 

 

That said, downvote abuse is quite uncommon--the average forum member is far too kind to use it so petulantly. While the downvote feature is my one tiny gripe with this site, the greatness of the 17th Shard far outweighs this minor gripe of mine.

 

Amen.

 

I absolutely agree with every single word you have written. I must bow to the master.

[king of nowhere]

I think the majority of downvotes are from people genuinely misclicking. many people use tablets or similar devices where it's hard to press precisely enough. the few cases when it's done intentionally are generally clear. alternatively, if there is only one user who decided to downvote, and your post stands there with a red mark, any user who does not believe you deserved a downvote will generally upvote to cancel it.

heck, I remember a time something I said was mistaken for sexist, and when i was called for it I got pissed because it was really quite light and used mostly in a joking fashion, and I don't like the way some people seem to be overly sensitive over comments that are clearly meant in an innocent way, so I gave a snarky answer. the day after, i was at -7. I realized i had exaggerated, so i apologized and explained that i answered thusly because i felt offended by the implied accusation of sexism. the day after, there were no downvotes on my post. people decided i didn't deserve the downvote anymore and upvoted me to cancel. there were also a couple of posts answering me in tone, and they went through a similar cycle of being upvoted before i made my explanations, downvoted after i made my explanation, and upvoted again after those posters made their explanations too. in the end there were no hard feelings left, and no downvotes. I'd say the voting system worked pretty well.

the only time I see posts consistently downvoted is when they are accidentally ruder or nastier than intended (in which case it's a single post, no harm done). I remember a case of a user who was consistently downvoted and he eventually got banned, because his posts were very assertive and full of stuff like "no sane men could disagree" "no real man would allow that" and stuff like that; it was clear he came from a very sheltered environment where everyone had similar opinions and he never had contact with world visions much different from his own. I think the environment of this forum may have been good for him in the long run.