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Koko Ricky

Does anyone else experience a disconnect with forums?

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I've noticed that not have I only learned about three people's names in the 12 years I've been posting here, but sometimes I end up mistaking someone else's post for mine. I have no information in my head as to what separates one poster from another, which is odd because I don't have beef with anyone here and I enjoy communicating with ya'll about everything under the sun. I've had this problem in every single forum I've ever been a member of.

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I definitely get that, and I feel bad about it, but then too, I realize that every time I start to learn to differentiate people in my head, the group of active posters tends to rotate, so then I have to learn a whole new group of people. I'd compare it to the AGN forums - I joined this place and AGN at around the same time, but these days, AGN is far less active and really only has a small community of active posters these days, almost all of whom have been around since forever, and so I have a much easier time keeping track of who's who there. And even here, like there are a few people I can distinguish in my head, but many of them don't post anymore, so there's that.

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I quit going to "Simon Wai's Sonic 2 Beta Message Board" around 2006, and came back two years later to find it turned into the "Sonic Retro Forums," and with an almost completely different roster. I still occasionally post there, but I just don't quite feel at home there anymore. At least there's some crossover between it and here, Jayextee and Shadow Hog come to mind.

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It's impossible to experience disconnect if you don't know how to connect with people to begin with.

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I don't really connect with people on game forums unless I actually play games with them. As far as DW is concerned, the only users I know I've played with are Fodders and Naked Snake. Lüt friended me on Facebook, though, so sweet.

EDIT: I also followed Clonehunter into a game of TF2 a few weeks ago. Doubt he noticed.

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I'm not sure anyone's name on here really sticks with me like in other forums. Maybe its because the font color is the same on everything.

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Sure. These days I only frequent the EE forum since it is the only one I find any interesting discussions in. The doom discussions all appear to be about the most inane vapid nonsens,or very uninteresting projects.

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kristus said:

The doom discussions all appear to be about the most inane vapid nonsene...

There have been some remarkably dull discussions in General as of late. You can scroll through and go "Just who actually thinks about this shit?" for about 2/3rds of what's there. Projects are a bit more variable.

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I don't feel disconnected from the forums like you do, i don't post that much, i think I've learned the nick and avatars of almost everyone, but when someone changes it's name and avatar i can't recognize who that person used to be.

Also, yes i don't think anyone will forget DarkNation :)

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I think I feel ok connected here. More difficult in larger forums. I have some ideas how the people are here, but can't say I really know anyone here. Easier to get to know people outside.

geo said:

the font color is the same on everything.

I have some experience on this...

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doomgargoyle said:

btw is darkrevived on post hell? PM's to his account dont work.


He's been losered. I don't think that affects viewing PMs, he's probably going on one of his hiatuses before attempting to get un-losered.

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At the end of the day most of us are still nobodies to each other, most of our interactions are just posts in a thread so I am not surprised that you are experiencing some kind of disconnect. Mind you, I have been stumbling upon some people from here elsewhere on the internet but I don't pop in and say hi or anything like that.

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doomgargoyle said:

btw is darkrevived on post hell? PM's to his account dont work.


It's best we ignore his existence for now.

What's that? Who? I don't have the slightest.

Anyways, I've spent a lot of time on chans and Steam chat rooms, and by that I mean one of each so the plurals don't count, and they've been small, knit up communities. And really, forums can be the same way. I have a general idea of most of the people here, and remember some of their odd quirks and posts, though nothing is ever "close" really. But I'd say Doomworld is better than some other big forums where it's easy to get lost and sort of caught up in stuff. JP Legacy for example, a Jurassic Park fan site, has a fairly large community, but I've started to wander out of the Discussion areas into the off-topic areas. There I just talk about what appeals to me in the various threads and sort of ignore the rest of the stuff, as I don't really know any of them and don't find the discussions useful or interesting.

I've just found that sometimes, new groups of people, such as leaving somewhere and coming back to find new people, is sort of intimidating when trying to go to new forums or sites, and more or less I find myself abandoning the place soon after. Right now I basically Rotate Doomworld, JPL, [redacted], and not much anywhere else (Minus aside visits to my old home at Massassi Temple). I've gone to other forums and sites, but never stuck around. I don't know really. It'd be an interesting psychology or sociology study.

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Erm... to be honest I never really gave the matter much thought before. I mostly snoop around the Everything Else/ Wads & Mods sections since that's usually where the cool stuff is at. And I occasionally drop on by Post Hell to uh... take in the atmosphere, if you will.

I'd joke about me having laughed at the posts in that one particular thread, but...

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worst part must be the dudes that drops doom and all its conten,t including this forum.

in threads from like 2008 or older for example I see avatars and names that just never exists in posts in this present time.

in some way in my hearth I feel that such things makes these forums so meaningless, but that is ofc not true, tho it splits the feeling of unity.

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Well, it's certainly not the same community I joined in -98. And of course I miss that. But things change with time. And I doubt I would've liked it to remain the same either.

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I'll be honest, I rather thought this is how forums are. You know what regular users are like, but the group changes with time. I could rattle off a few things I know about quite a few people, from having been here something like 8 years, but I don't know the actual people past what they show here. This isn't meant to be a substitute for having actual friends or whatever - it's a board for discussing Doom and, to a lesser extent, discussing stuff with people who like Doom.

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Here's a different take: I frequent this Czech forum belonging to a gaming magazine for ~15 years. I stopped buying said magazine a decade ago, as did almost everyone else there. The community is stagnant, to say the least. The official subforums are a barren wasteland, the busiest are the ones for reposting funny pics and videos, whining about school or work or life in general. But people have been meeting up, became close friends or even partners, work colleagues or roomates. I 've met a lot of them and by now I know them better than a significant part of my "real life" acquiantances. Quotation marks, because the border has been blurred so much. It's funny and awkward to explain how we know each other to outsiders. Oh and the magazine doesn't even link to the forum from its website anymore, it's run like a Skansen on a remote island for legacy reasons and because they didn't have the heart to pull the plug, heh.

So yeah, disconnected? I wouldn't say so, my experience has taught me differently. I'm usually interested by the people behind the words.

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buttspit said:

He's been losered. I don't think that affects viewing PMs

No, you can't access PMs while losered.

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Ragnor said:

Not even to the forum staff huh? Ouch.

No need to, the losers subforum is one big specialized PM sandbox for all the losers and staffers.

edit: fixed redundancy

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Stygian said:

It's impossible to experience disconnect if you don't know how to connect with people to begin with.


The funny thing is that in real life, I'm very social, with a large web of friends and a friendly demeanor. Online, I far too often let my inner demons out and can't distinguish between people.

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GoatLord said:

The funny thing is that in real life, I'm very social, with a large web of friends and a friendly demeanor. Online, I far too often let my inner demons out and can't distinguish between people.


What is a social life?

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It's something that I wasn't supposed to have, because I have an introverted personality. I chose to be extroverted and thus live with a lot of stress and anxiety, because humans make me nervous. I think it's worth it. Humans are interesting.

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I posted here for about ten straight years and I still have trouble remembering certain people, even people here nearly as long as me or longer. Aside from mostly those I still talk to, I don't really know anyone here anymore. Who the hell are all you people?

There's nothing really wrong with that though. It's just as likely than in real life people will eventually blend together for you. Do you remember all the people you went to school with or work with? Thanks to the Monkey Sphere Principle, if you have an active social life, you're even less likely to remember people you deal with over the internet due to there just being more people in your life that you have to keep track of.

kristus said:

Sure. These days I only frequent the EE forum since it is the only one I find any interesting discussions in. The doom discussions all appear to be about the most inane vapid nonsens,or very uninteresting projects.

Yeah, I stopped posting about Doom-related stuff years ago because it was all the same discussions made over and over again, with some unnecessary community drama thrown in there every once in a while. After posting exclusively on EE and Blogs for several years, it got to the point where even those discussions became boring and repetitive, and so I stopped posting altogether.

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