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WyldHrt -> RE: Did you have to run the gauntlet? (1/21/2010 12:45:42 AM)
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Good post, Marc!
It always amuses me when people complain about "cliques" here. By definition, a clique is narrow and exclusive, which is pretty much the exact opposite to both my experience when I joined this board, and what I've seen with countless new members who have been warmly welcomed and slid right in like they have always been here. I've been on internet forums for many years, and I can tell ya that this is one of the more welcoming ones. I'm also here to tell ya that every one of the forums I've belonged to has a group of folk that complain about cliques/hazing/treating newbies like shit.
Unsurprisingly, a lot of how one is received on any internet forum depends on how and what xhe posts as a n00b. Some assume that, because this is the internet, normal social situation rules and manners do not apply. Rather than getting to know people and letting them get to know you before getting into the jiggy jiggy, as would be done in a physical get together with a group of strangers as a matter of course, some just dive in headfirst... and then bitch when they hit their head on the bottom.
Really, is the new guy at a munch greeted warmly when all he talks about all night is his foot fetish? Is the new girl welcomed when the first thing out of her mouth (all night long) is to bitch about how there aren't any weal, twue Dominates (grammar error intentional) in the community? Are either of them well received if they choose to "educate" the members of the group about something that is common knowledge? I don't think so, and most folks wouldn't act that way when meeting other folks for the first time in real. What I don't get why it is supposed to be different here. If you walk into a party and your first act is to shit in the punchbowl, people probably aren't going to like you much.
Bottom line: Forum membership has a "getting to know you" period, just like any other social venue.
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