does the TMF try to hide the true face of our community?

[coolman]

before i start, i just want to say that this is in NO way an aggresive post, i just want to see peoples opinions over things i have been casually thinking about. i also decided to post it in general, not tickling, discussion.

quite a few people know about what happens (or happened) in the anarchies of tickling such as AMT. flame wars, constant abuse and disregard for others. we don't get this on the TMF, thank god. what we have is a nice society and i'm not trying to say anything else.

but if it wasn't for the moderators, would the TMF be any better than AMT? their main purpose is to exstinguish the flames and keep everyone happy. is this a dictated peace?

is everyone that uses the TMF as nice as they appear? or do we only appear as a nice community because of the mods? although i've never been on it, people claim others misuse the chatroom, which, of course, is not moderated as vigourasly as the forums.

don't get me wrong: i personally think that the TMF is a great place to be, but do you think that it's a dictated peace, or is everyone as nice as they look?

 

[HeBeGeeBee]

is everyone as nice as they look?

I don't know about everyone else, but I'm as nice as I look. Check out my picture, below...

 

[milagros317]

Because of the Golden Rule and the moderatos who enforce it, nasty people who go online to flame and troll don't stay here long. So the long-time posters here really are nice.

 

[Cyrano]

Yes, I agree. As you stated, if our hearts were truly malicious, there are other forums at which we could post. The Moderators do a fine job at keeping peace and we choose this forum because they do so. We so desire a kind atmosphere, and nothing is stopping us from leaving if we did not.

 

[JoBelle]

I view our mods here much as I do security at a department store or mall. They aren't cops, but they DO deter the criminal element thus creating an environment in which people know they need to behave according to the rules. They might also have to step into a scuffle to prevent it from escalating. Beyond, they are just like us...ticklefreaks!

The childish people who like to hide behind false names and create trouble ar often deterred simply by knowing that anything they say will be deleted. They don't bother in other words. The chatroom is simply an environment in which people cannot be moderated. An easy way to limit the direspectful activity there is to create password access. That would only shrink the problem, not eliminate it.

On another note...

I've met many of the people in our community in person. With the exception of just one, I've never encountered anyone who might fall into the category of persons you talk about in your post. I'd have to say that in my experience, the adults I know here are what you see. Honest, respectful, and fun people who just happen to have tickling in common. That being said...there are a few that are whiners, ego-driven maniacs, and racists...but most people ignore them anyway...lol

Joby

 

[Haltickling]

I view our mods here much as I do security at a department store or mall. They aren't cops, but they DO deter the criminal element thus creating an environment in which people know they need to behave according to the rules. They might also have to step into a scuffle to prevent it from escalating. Beyond, they are just like us...ticklefreaks! (rest snipped)
Joby

Wonderfully said, Joby!

I don't think that the TMF tries to hide the true face of our community. It creates an atmosphere to bring out the best face of its members!

Best foot forward! (...or is it the most ticklish one?)

 

[Alex Warfield]

I'll be a happy camper as long as this doesn't turn into AMT 2

 

[f/f]

?

ima good girl but whats AMT?!?!??!

 

[mabus]

Coolman, you bring up a great point. I agree with everyone here, that most of us are nice people. But tickling causes laughter, and people who enjoy laughter usually are nice people. People who enjoy suffering are obviously not nice, so I'm sure there are fetish communities out there that are not nice places. Of course, any movie are Star Trek forum has more vulgarity in one thread than we have had in the entire history of the TMF.

But I'm glad you brought this up. You've basically defined evil, and the impact on any society, and how important the moderators are. (Boy, that's a big one!)

Here we go - most of us here are nice people. The moderators have weeded out the flamers, because they delete their posts. There may have even been people who come here who no one ever knows, because every single post (ie: hate filled rant) has been deleted, so we never knew they existed.

Now, if they hadn't, those people would hog the place. They would constantly incite anger and hatred and hurt feelings, so they could get thier much craved attention. The problem is, most people, when confronted with that, feel they MUST counter it, they must acknowledge the hatred and answer it.

When that happens, the forum devolves into a person spewing hatred, and everyone else answering them back, which feeds their appetite for anarchy, and they answer each post with even MORE hatred and flames, and the regular people in turn, answer back in flames, on and on and on... Basically, the haters and evil people turn the rest of us into angry people, because we are always answering the initial flames back. After a while, everyone devolves into the lowest common denominator of bad feeling and all around darkness. The ones who have something to contribute that is productive, get sick of the whole thing and leave the forum. They know they can't enter the fray, so don't bother. If they comment, on anything, they will be attacked by all the haters. The haters will win the day, because everyone will be responding to them, and not tickling.

Eventually, we will cease to be a "tickling forum," and become the "answer the flames" forum.

Then, of course, the spamming will start. Someoen looses an argument, or gets pissed off, so introduces the forum to the "Amazing spy cam," "Credit card with no hassles," and constant hard core porn advertisements.

Think of it in mathematical terms. You start off with 100% of space. 70% gets filled with hate and flames. 29% gets filled with spam. 1% will be the lone ticklee or tickler "Can we talk about tickling, ....anyone...?"

That's what happened to the newsgroups, at least the last time I checked a few years ago. There was, literally, zero tickling on the tickling newsgroups! I started checking the name after a while, and it said tickling, but it was all flames and porn advertisements.

 

[BigJim]

Moderating is a lot more sucessful on these message boards than it is in the chat room. Scooby, EQ, Myr, Dave, the other Dave, Hal, Qjakl and any others I've forgotten do a fine job in here of keeping things mild-ish.

The chat room is a different story.............



For some time time now there has been persistant trolling there, that seems little short of organised. The moderators are largely helpless against it, because someone can cut and paste a screen full of filth and then vanish only to re-appear a minute later with a new IP.

The new chat room which will be password protected is seen by many as at least a partial soloution to the problems. Personally I think it will be the death of chatting live on he TMF. There will be far fewer casual chatters and over time the regulars will start to lose interest. I'm sure you will all be staggered to learn that the person who gave me this opinion was none other than the troll himself/herself. I've spent quite a lot of time talking to the troll, and a lot of what he's/she's said is frighteningly true. It is all too easy to turn the chat room into a mosh pit. It's even go to the extent where the troll will log in under two different names and start an argument with himself/herself just for the purpose of gettin the room inflamed. Before too long the two halves are having a massive slanging match and the whole room is filled with anger.

Oddly enough, the solution to this also came from the troll. The ONLY way to totally destroy any power a troll has is to act as if they're not there. Even if you can't press ignore because they are using multiple log-ins, replynig to them in any way, shape or form gives them more power. I have to admit that this is something I've been more guilty of than most.

The troll's whole gameplan involved forcing the TMF to adopt a password based chat, purely because it would spell the death of it. I want to proved wrong on this like you can never imagine. It took a lot of money and effort on behalf of the TMF to get this new chat room. It's also taken a huge amount of blood sweat and tears on behalf of the chat mods. If I'm only ever proved wrong once more in my lifetime I want it to be now.

To all the casual TMF members who are reading this; soon you won't be able to stop by for a chat in he room unless you're a fully registered member. This will not be difficult for you to do in the slightest. In fact it only takes about 2-3 minutes to do. Please do not let recent events and their outcomes stop you from joining this community and contributing your thoughts and ideas to it. All of us need a constant influx of people coming in, especially in the chat room. It's VERY important people, and it's hardly any bother. Don't let the TMF chat die!

 

[giggledude]

Having felt something in a similar spirit to what led to the original post for this thread, I think perhaps this shows the power of a nasty post - not an outright flame, but something that just shows up some meanness of spirit in the poster, intentional or not. I've become quite depressed from threads containing one or two posts of that sort out of ten or twenty, usually from assuming that the person wants to flame and is merely being polite (or barely civil) out of obligation. (Accordingly, if my own posts generally don't make much sense, it's probably due to my taking so much care not to be nasty - probably not always successfully - that much of the meaning gets diluted out.) But it is an interesting phenomenon, that one should be more depressed and upset by one or two disagreeable people than pleased by the majority who show consideration and concern regardless of agreement or lack thereof.

 

[Flatfoot]

The Mods aren't exactly the Men in Black. When they delete posts, they make it known. Out of the MANY, many threads and posts on this forum, I've not seen too many that say

Last edited by ::mod name here:: on such and such date.

Post deleted due to flames/vulgarity/etc.

This leads me to believe that the majority of these people ARE nice people with good intentions, otherwise we'd see a lot more of these messages. Out of the forums I've visited, I haven't seen a forum as civilized as this one.

 

[areenactor]

i vote...

... that they try and hide our true selves.
i am as controversial as you can get around here, but on the old amt site, i'm "casper-milk-toast". it's good thing too. i have been sensored twice here, once deservedly, once not. but it's cool, i understand why. for this place to work we have to be reined in.
steve

 

[coolman]

thanks for the responses!

thanks, guys, you're all as thought provoking as ever. (or thought satisfying in my case... )

 

[qwertyui]

Not quite. I'm unconditionally evil . Just kidding! I can't believe how well managed this forum is and would like to thank all mods gratefully for their tireless efforts to keep this forum as good as it is. Not many communities out there like this one however, sigh.

 

[coolman]

Not quite. I'm unconditionally evil . Just kidding! I can't believe how well managed this forum is and would like to thank all mods gratefully for their tireless efforts to keep this forum as good as it is. Not many communities out there like this one however, sigh.

i agree. they do a great job.

 

[Daumantas]

Personally, I'm adorable