Political posting

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by alatar

And by the way, yes, the title of this thread was kind of a ruse to get you here.

Yes. Me too.

But as for the given questions, I have to reply no to both of them, unless inviting people to your WW game counts as this inviting you spoke about. Or at most, when your friends on MSN ask you "what are you doing" and you say "I have just posted a new thread" (not that I'd do it very often anyway. It's more like "I have just posted on XY's thread, I like it, you might check it too, it's really interesting"). In any case, repping people in hope to get some rep back - that's not the way it works. As if all was based just on action-reaction. Yes, it is true that I cannot get rid of the feeling that sometimes, when I get a rep from somebody, I feel a bit like I should rep the person, if I haven't repped him/her for anything for a long time. But then, I am just "Well, as soon as I see a good post from him/her, of course I'll rep it. But not now - I have no reason to do that."

So, what have I just done by this? I just made it clear for the people that they cannot expect me to rep them more if they rep me, so everybody will cease to rep me from now on

Originally Posted by Kitanna

However, half the time Firefox says "no, thou shalt not rep anyone for a month!"

On the other hand, that is something which sounds familiar.

[Thinlómien]

I can remember once repping someone because I wanted them to rep me back... and it never worked. Want to hear more? I repped alatar who had praised my new thread in his first post on it, and I was like "nice that you praise it, but can't you rep it if you like it?" and then I went to rep his post just to give him a nudge. Okay, I was considering repping it anyway, but I might not have repped it had I not had this extra reason. But you see, it did not work, I learnt my lesson.

Admittedly, these days when I rep people for some threads I have also participated on (books discussions, RPGs, ww games, paper telephone, whatever), of course I hope they will rep me in return. But it's not definitely the reason why I rep them. (If getting rep back was my motive for repping, I would not rep people as much as I do. I give out far more rep than I receive, but I don't complain.) And of course there is the psychological basis (I swear I don't intentionally abuse it even though now it must sound like that ) that if you rep someone very often, they are maybe more inclined to consider your posts rep-worthy. I know I rep people who are generous with their reps more generously than those who are not. It's subconscious.

I've also asked or hinted that people should post on some threads, but rather seldom and not forcefully at all. So I'm not sure if it counts.

[The Might]

1. Who really cares about rep in here? Green dots are a nice way of saying someone you like their posts but it doesn't bring you any honour or prestige... at least not in my book.

2. Who really cares about getting a thread of his/hers bumped? If the thread isn't interesting, then too bad, you can of course try and revive it, but if people don't post why shoudl you try...

I really don't see what the big deal is supposed to be really.
It's anyway probably just a trick by alatar to get us to rep him for this thread anyway.

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by The Might

I really don't see what the big deal is supposed to be really.
It's anyway probably just a trick by alatar to get us to rep him for this thread anyway.

Probably.

Originally Posted by TM

1. Who really cares about rep in here? Green dots are a nice way of saying someone you like their posts but it doesn't bring you any honour or prestige... at least not in my book.

Exactly, that's why I like it. It's nice to tell people they have good posts and it's nice to get similar feedback from your own posts. That's why I think people should spread more reputation and not worry too much whether something is "worth repping" or not.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

I can remember once repping someone because I wanted them to rep me back... and it never worked. Want to hear more? I repped alatar who had praised my new thread in his first post on it, and I was like "nice that you praise it, but can't you rep it if you like it?"

Wow! Don't I feel lower than Nameless Things gnawings! But let this be a lesson to others, thinking that somehow alatar has any feelings or sense of fairness. He's a greedy and misery old wizard he is (and Lommy is too generous by half).

But please note that I really would rather get a note than a rep - it used to be that, in the old system, after you got so many reps you could order stuff from the Green Book, much like collecting green stamps of old. Now, I appreciate the rep only as it acknowledges that someone read something I'd written (and in Lommy's case, she must not be reading too closely to be repping me ).

and then I went to rep his post just to give him a nudge. Okay, I was considering repping it anyway, but I might not have repped it had I not had this extra reason. But you see, it did not work, I learnt my lesson.

I've done the same thing, trying to nudge the system with rep or two, but that's the only sins I'm confessin'.

But we need not talk about rep, as that really wasn't my intent. For example, what if you were in a conversation, and suddenly you thought up a killer one-liner, but...but someone had to say something that would allow you to drop this laugh bomb. Would you not try to game the conservation, steering it so that with some probability someone would say the line you needed? And what if, like in the game of Bridge, you had a compatriot, and somehow could get a note to this person to work the line into the conversation?

Now extend this to postings on the Downs. Or isn't everyone else as coldly manipulative as me?

And, though I know what would get people here, there is a political component to our postings. I don't mean politics, as in RL, but here too.

[Rumil]

Hmm, repping,

as a 'not high volume' poster I sometimes forget about reps for months (years?) on end, then suddenly remember and have a rep-fest for posts I've especially liked. Though it is interesting to note the number of 'please spread your rep around before repping xyz again' notices that I get! (You know the usual suspects)

Also I like to rep somebody whose nick I don't recognise if they make a good post, as they might be new and a bit of encouragement must be welcome.

I once got a rep in return for one I'd given to a protagonist in a heated debate, whose position I agreed with and wanted to support without being too inflammatory on said thread. It felt wrong! Undeserved rep is surely unsatisfying.

I guess its only natural that you will rep more on threads to which you have contibuted, as those are the ones you pay most attention to.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by alatar

Now extend this to postings on the Downs. Or isn't everyone else as coldly manipulative as me?

No. Nobody is. How disgraceful!

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

No. Nobody is. How disgraceful!

Looks like I have my work cut out for me.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Sounds like this would be an infinitely more challenging, intriguing, imaginative, and entertaining endeavour, as here on the Downs you can't ply other "members of the conversation" with martinis and cocktails and spritzers--to say nothing of tantalizing appetizers--as you could in a RL conversation.

Exactly. Now I could PM you and ask, "Dearest Bb, wouldst you post on the ____ thread and bring up the following point?" But where's the fun in that? More fun would be trying to steer the conversation into where you need it to go, especially when you're dealing with members like Bb, who lives only to confound.

And just how long does one need to wait before double-posting? There are a few threads hanging now to which I am the last poster. I'm sure that I could find more to say on each, but as no one else seems to care, I have to wait.

Or do I? Is there a way (besides what I'm blatantly doing right now) that I could get those threads restarted yet not double post?

But it certainly would explain having two (just two?) nicks, as you mention in your first post. And oh the problem with plying the other nick with cocktails.

Okay, not to say too much, but we're here on a site in which people discuss a fantasy book, and at times get *way* too worked up over major things like Balrog wings...so what I'm saying is that, possibly for some, courting oneself (or more) seems like a possibility...

And just how much work do you get done in your RL work?

Some of us can multitask, and as alatar posts here while the RL me works in RL, there's more than one person on the job.

[Nogrod]

Oh my!

They say one can lose her virginity / his boyhood only once but this discussion kind of makes me question that statement...

Okay. I'm forty and thence a gaffer in this envirovenment but I have never thought of myself to be a total fool. Yes I know one can show around being anything or anyone in the netlife but that the social-laws and basic human psychology of RL can't be escaped. I know these.

But somehow I have just lulled myself into believing that people on this forum were exceptions to the rule... well most of us. And indeed I'm not sure how exceptional my imaginations would be. I mean go to any popular sites that have tens of thousands of posters everyday and you should meet thousands of imposters and fun-makers. But somehow I though here in the cozy silence and darkness of the Barrow-Downs I actually thought I was discussing with some real people - like on the exclusively scientific web-fora and possibly other non-commercial, subject-based sites. Not all the fora in the net are for personal ego-testing and -tripping (even if one can do that as oneself too! ).

So pointing at the last one in the brackets you ask about the "real people"? A good question. But let's settle with whatever we are here; some of us want to show how bright they are with the Tolkien trivia, others wish to show how much brains they have, some may want to escape their "serious role" in RL here just to have fun, others will be serious here as they are the jokers in the RL, some may have trouble being jovial in the RL and here they are the heartiest of people and vice versa, etc... Yes, that's not unherd of nor improbable. But I have thought people here were being consistent. And the 'Downers I have met they all have quite fitted the image I've had about them online (except they have been a lot nicer and "more worthy of being friends with" I could have ever imagined). Some people just go openly online - and in the best case continue their relationships on RL!

But you're right. This is not so secure one might think. And what you guys say makes me reconsider a lot of things here.
*just imagining whether alatar actually is also the phantom, or whether Saucepanman has not actually left us but continues his career here as Sally, or if I ask for Form to come and visit my house on his trip to Finland and he turns out to be an atheist!*

Woof!

That's hair-raising!

PS. Alatar: I really can't see how much you think about this PM:ing another Downer to make a line so that you could then come up with the stinger... or a punchline. That thought has never occured to me...

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Nogrod

But you're right. This is not so secure one might think. And what you guys say makes me reconsider a lot of things here.

Seriously, you need to be more suspicious and paranoid!

PS. Alatar: I really can't see how much you think about this PM:ing another Downer to make a line so that you could then come up with the stinger... or a punchline. That thought has never occured to me...

Not even as a wish? "If only *someone* would mention X..."

Note that I agree with you about the members here. I'd recently been to another forum - and quit! - as I got too used to people being genuine, sincere, nice, fun, caring, without big-time issues, etc, like we find here, and over there it just wasn't the case.

And also note that, as far as I'm consciously aware, I'm only one nick/member/etc. However, I can't speak for any alternate personality or demonic possession that lives within me...though Hyde knew about Jekyll and vice versa....hmmm...but they didn't have the internet back then...

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Originally Posted by alatar

And just how long does one need to wait before double-posting?

Interestingly, though members hesitate to double-post on the Downs, we have no forum rule against it! If what someone has to say is on-topic, Tolkien-related, and devoid of chattiness (and non-aggressive as well), it can be posted, no matter who wrote the last active post on a thread.

Carrying on conversations with onesself seems rather boring to me*, so I wouldn't advocate it as a rule, but if a renewed post gets a discussion going after a break, go for it!


*A wise person once said, "You ain't learning' nothin' while you're talkin'!"

[davem]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

*A wise person once said, "You ain't learning' nothin' while you're talkin'!"

Hmmm ...a certain wizard might take issue.

"I was talking aloud to myself. A habit of the old: they choose the wisest person present to speak to; the long explanations needed by the young are wearying"

Something I notice more & more

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Estelyn Telcontar

Interestingly, though members hesitate to double-post on the Downs, we have no forum rule against it! If what someone has to say is on-topic, Tolkien-related, and devoid of chattiness (and non-aggressive as well), it can be posted, no matter who wrote the last active post on a thread.

Carrying on conversations with onesself seems rather boring to me*, so I wouldn't advocate it as a rule, but if a renewed post gets a discussion going after a break, go for it!

Though it's not a rule, I try not to double post as, as is obvious, it seems that I am having a discussion with myself, which truly is boring (though therapeutic). That said, sometimes a new thought shows up, and instead of adding it to a pre-existing post (where it would go unnoticed, and that would be shame and a loss for all humanity ), I have to double. This bumps up the thread, and maybe there's someone who hadn't noticed the first hundred times through, and this new poster will add to the thread, in which will be breathed new life, again to the benefit of humanity.

Why not, instead of all of the Machiavellian intrigue, have a 'lonely threads' list where people with terminal boredom can go and elect to restart a thread that has gone past its time?

Oh wait, I think that we already have this in any forum's thread list.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by alatar

But we need not talk about rep, as that really wasn't my intent. For example, what if you were in a conversation, and suddenly you thought up a killer one-liner, but...but someone had to say something that would allow you to drop this laugh bomb. Would you not try to game the conservation, steering it so that with some probability someone would say the line you needed? And what if, like in the game of Bridge, you had a compatriot, and somehow could get a note to this person to work the line into the conversation?

Now extend this to postings on the Downs. Or isn't everyone else as coldly manipulative as me?

A hunt, is it?

Sounds like this would be an infinitely more challenging, intriguing, imaginative, and entertaining endeavour, as here on the Downs you can't ply other "members of the conversation" with martinis and cocktails and spritzers--to say nothing of tantalizing appetizers--as you could in a RL conversation.

Originally Posted by big al, first post

Though at this time I have no evidence - nor will I present any - but once a member had two nicks, and would have the most interesting conservations with himself/herself. Again, I have no proof, but the posting was just too 'in sync' to be posted by more than one brain.

But it certainly would explain having two (just two?) nicks, as you mention in your first post. And oh the problem with plying the other nick with cocktails.

And just how much work do you get done in your RL work?