Methods for Newbies, Revised
Posted: Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:35 am
I’ve been a registered member here since November 7 this year. I have many friends here from similar sites, most long gone. I understood the environment there and knew what to expect to happen when I did something. This place is new to me, and unique in many respects. I’ll attempt to describe it by interpreting what happened to me.
Definitions of Terms.
1. The user base. It has two components. FCs (Fight Club members) come here to fight. They welcome opportunities to pile on other’s fights. PBG’s(Plan B Geezers) are the group emulating grandparents sitting on a park bench talking about diverse matters in a friendly way. Some of the discussions may get heated, but harassment techniques, character assassination, or stalking means that one aspires to FC membership. When they want to admonish someone else in a manner that does not provoke a FC pile on they do so in Private Messages (PMs), a feature of this site. PBGs don’t come here to fight.
2. What is the business reason for this place? It’s not published, it is rude to ask, and it is none of your business. If I threatened to leave at other places there was a small incentive to get me to stay by responding to my requests. They were motivated to keep clients around, including PITAs because it affected their ad revenue, and the price they could get when selling the site. There is no visible New Member recruitment policy in place. Some users have expressed that the present client base is just the right size. Not knowing the business reason means I make errors by assuming this site is similar to most other sites.
3. This place has no visible means of support. Speculation is the only way to get information here. If you publish speculation you will end up under a FC pile on, with no authorized answer. My speculation is that there is a Daddy Warbucks guy in the background who views this place as a fishbowl for his amusement only. The fish have no say in its management. No one wants your money, or support of advertisers, or suggestions.
4. How is user discipline enforced? Indirectly. Aside from FC harassment, you may get a listing of the site rules the first time you open the program. I’ve gotten them at starting up the program twice. I don’t know who put those site rules at that point, or why. It is either harassment from a hacker, or an Admin indirect message. At other web sites I once got a PM from the Admin to the effect of “you are too disruptive. You have one day to say goodbye to everyone, then you are booted (unable to login). There is no negotiation allowed, don’t attempt any. Get lost.” One starts building up conspiracy theories when you get continual harassment that affects others, or occasional posts from the Admin that say, “you sure have a lot of communications with me”. I’ll continue that discussion only in PMs.
5. Where are the terms and conditions statements found? Beats the hell out of me. I think I got one after I first registered, and then two times later for reasons that a conspiracy theory explanation says it was a shot over the bow by the Admin, he doesn’t owe you a PM or and email, or even a post on the problem. That document is a typical boilerplate form. Most of the things you shouldn’t do are done daily here, without any consequences I’ve seen.
6. How are conventions and norms defined? There are several users who will repeatedly tell you when you have violated one of them, what I’ll call Junior Police(JP). They have no official status that I can find, and some hints from one JP may contradict what another says. Some of these unofficial conditions don’t make sense to me, but if I debated each with many posts I’d just get a FC pile on. My new method will be to send them a PM like “Thank you for your interest” and drop the story there. No point arguing in public about other people’s opinions.
7. How are newbies supposed to behave? The unwritten code seems to be “Keep your head down, don’t start a new thread, always be respectful, and react to any attack on you with a brutal response typical of a Fight Club member.” Seems to be inconsistent with itself, and the T&C document.
8. [More to be published later.]
Definitions of Terms.
1. The user base. It has two components. FCs (Fight Club members) come here to fight. They welcome opportunities to pile on other’s fights. PBG’s(Plan B Geezers) are the group emulating grandparents sitting on a park bench talking about diverse matters in a friendly way. Some of the discussions may get heated, but harassment techniques, character assassination, or stalking means that one aspires to FC membership. When they want to admonish someone else in a manner that does not provoke a FC pile on they do so in Private Messages (PMs), a feature of this site. PBGs don’t come here to fight.
2. What is the business reason for this place? It’s not published, it is rude to ask, and it is none of your business. If I threatened to leave at other places there was a small incentive to get me to stay by responding to my requests. They were motivated to keep clients around, including PITAs because it affected their ad revenue, and the price they could get when selling the site. There is no visible New Member recruitment policy in place. Some users have expressed that the present client base is just the right size. Not knowing the business reason means I make errors by assuming this site is similar to most other sites.
3. This place has no visible means of support. Speculation is the only way to get information here. If you publish speculation you will end up under a FC pile on, with no authorized answer. My speculation is that there is a Daddy Warbucks guy in the background who views this place as a fishbowl for his amusement only. The fish have no say in its management. No one wants your money, or support of advertisers, or suggestions.
4. How is user discipline enforced? Indirectly. Aside from FC harassment, you may get a listing of the site rules the first time you open the program. I’ve gotten them at starting up the program twice. I don’t know who put those site rules at that point, or why. It is either harassment from a hacker, or an Admin indirect message. At other web sites I once got a PM from the Admin to the effect of “you are too disruptive. You have one day to say goodbye to everyone, then you are booted (unable to login). There is no negotiation allowed, don’t attempt any. Get lost.” One starts building up conspiracy theories when you get continual harassment that affects others, or occasional posts from the Admin that say, “you sure have a lot of communications with me”. I’ll continue that discussion only in PMs.
5. Where are the terms and conditions statements found? Beats the hell out of me. I think I got one after I first registered, and then two times later for reasons that a conspiracy theory explanation says it was a shot over the bow by the Admin, he doesn’t owe you a PM or and email, or even a post on the problem. That document is a typical boilerplate form. Most of the things you shouldn’t do are done daily here, without any consequences I’ve seen.
6. How are conventions and norms defined? There are several users who will repeatedly tell you when you have violated one of them, what I’ll call Junior Police(JP). They have no official status that I can find, and some hints from one JP may contradict what another says. Some of these unofficial conditions don’t make sense to me, but if I debated each with many posts I’d just get a FC pile on. My new method will be to send them a PM like “Thank you for your interest” and drop the story there. No point arguing in public about other people’s opinions.
7. How are newbies supposed to behave? The unwritten code seems to be “Keep your head down, don’t start a new thread, always be respectful, and react to any attack on you with a brutal response typical of a Fight Club member.” Seems to be inconsistent with itself, and the T&C document.
8. [More to be published later.]