quote:

Originally posted by magikb I just wanted to throw the lurker bit in.. cuz I have a friend.. not going to mention any names though (cough, cough..PATRICK..cough, cough) who always just lurks and I am trying to get him to post

The reason it's hard for lurkers to start posting is likely because this place is a lot more personal than any other forum I've visited so far. Everybody here knows everybody. A lot of the threads are dedicated to some person. As a lurker, posting feels a lot like walking into a bar, finding a group of friends you don't know, and then joining in the middle of their conversation. The close-knit community here is great for the existing members, but it's intimidating for new ones.

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I'm the trouble starter, fuckin' instigator.
I'm the fear-addicted, danger illustrated.

quote:

Originally posted by Cosmic Fur The reason it's hard for lurkers to start posting is likely because this place is a lot more personal than any other forum I've visited so far. Everybody here knows everybody. A lot of the threads are dedicated to some person. As a lurker, posting feels a lot like walking into a bar, finding a group of friends you don't know, and then joining in the middle of their conversation. The close-knit community here is great for the existing members, but it's intimidating for new ones.

It is personal.. or it scares them...
And I agree with what you are saying.. but the person I was referring to who lurks knows the TA's.. just doesn't post... LOL





It wasn't that long ago that I was one of those lurkers myself.. so I can't say a word

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quote:

Originally posted by Cosmic Fur The reason it's hard for lurkers to start posting is likely because this place is a lot more personal than any other forum I've visited so far. Everybody here knows everybody. A lot of the threads are dedicated to some person. As a lurker, posting feels a lot like walking into a bar, finding a group of friends you don't know, and then joining in the middle of their conversation. The close-knit community here is great for the existing members, but it's intimidating for new ones.

VERY VERY true!

I noticed the same thing back in January - got the NOOB treatment - totally pissed me off and kept me from posting for 4 months.....TA always can stand a new breath of fresh air and it is the people that lurk and read that can remedy this......there is more than enough room on this board for new personalities. Although clickish - the off-shoot friendships and go-betweens on this board (you know who you are) make TA that much more of an experience for us all (new and old). We all share a common bond and that much is true beyond that there is such diversity to be offered from a difference of opinion and alternate passions....I for one would like to see more people becoming part of the forums....SPICE IT UP SPICE IT UP!!!

Lurkers - take heed and rise to the occasion.....I for one welcome anyone with a passion for good music and knows how to throw it down with others that are like minded....

My 2 cents......



oh yeah - and it is true lately teh internet is sloowwww.........KARIM what have you done???????

LOL!

j/k

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IF YOU GOT TRANCE IN YOUR PANTS WHIP IT OUT!!! IF NOT JUST WHIP IT OUT ANYWAY!!!

Last edited by Sean Cassidy on Aug-13-2005 at 03:02

quote:

Originally posted by Cosmic Fur The reason it's hard for lurkers to start posting is likely because this place is a lot more personal than any other forum I've visited so far. Everybody here knows everybody. A lot of the threads are dedicated to some person. As a lurker, posting feels a lot like walking into a bar, finding a group of friends you don't know, and then joining in the middle of their conversation. The close-knit community here is great for the existing members, but it's intimidating for new ones.

Well said cosmic Fur....there are ppl on here that will make posting miserable in the beginning for noobs and there are ppl that will be friendly and juss plain CHILL!!! I experienced both but none of the bs turned me away or kept me from posting....I have met a lot ppl here and some i have become friends with outside TA but I can relate to the "walking into a bar and finding a group of friends that u don't know and joining their convo" feeling...but it all depends on ur personality.....there are ppl who will throw attitude for no reason just to make u feel like shit but u have to be confident in urself and who u are...mostly ppl need to remember that this is the INTERNET and arguing back and forth is a waste of time trust me i realized that!!lol....thats my two cents!!


P.S Sean Cassidy ur right SPICE IT UP more ppl join TA and SPICE IT UP!!!!!

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From the back to the middle and around again...I'm gonna be there til the end
100% pure love

quote:

Originally posted by iLLnaDa Well said cosmic Fur....there are ppl on here that will make posting miserable in the beginning for noobs and there are ppl that will be friendly and juss plain CHILL!!! I experienced both but none of the bs turned me away or kept me from posting....I have met a lot ppl here and some i have become friends with outside TA but I can relate to the "walking into a bar and finding a group of friends that u don't know and joining their convo" feeling...but it all depends on ur personality.....there are ppl who will throw attitude for no reason just to make u feel like shit but u have to be confident in urself and who u are...mostly ppl need to remember that this is the INTERNET and arguing back and forth is a waste of time trust me i realized that!!lol....thats my two cents!! P.S Sean Cassidy ur right SPICE IT UP more ppl join TA and SPICE IT UP!!!!!

thanks Nada babe!

Your advice was well taken from me in the last few weeks.......UH HUH - You're teh SHIT!!!!

WOOT WOOT !

___________________
IF YOU GOT TRANCE IN YOUR PANTS WHIP IT OUT!!! IF NOT JUST WHIP IT OUT ANYWAY!!!

quote:

Originally posted by iLLnaDa Well said cosmic Fur....there are ppl on here that will make posting miserable in the beginning for noobs and there are ppl that will be friendly and juss plain CHILL!!! I experienced both but none of the bs turned me away or kept me from posting....I have met a lot ppl here and some i have become friends with outside TA but I can relate to the "walking into a bar and finding a group of friends that u don't know and joining their convo" feeling...but it all depends on ur personality.....there are ppl who will throw attitude for no reason just to make u feel like shit but u have to be confident in urself and who u are...mostly ppl need to remember that this is the INTERNET and arguing back and forth is a waste of time trust me i realized that!!lol....thats my two cents!! P.S Sean Cassidy ur right SPICE IT UP more ppl join TA and SPICE IT UP!!!!!

I *heart* you, you're hawt.

You're a good guy too Sean... too bad you didnt have breasts and were hawt hawt hawt like Nada!

Jem.

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TECHNO IS THE BEST NOISE ON EARTH.
Save Techno - Stop Minimal / Tech-House

leave the lurkers alone. they want to read, not talk. simple.

quote:

Originally posted by Cosmic Fur The reason it's hard for lurkers to start posting is likely because this place is a lot more personal than any other forum I've visited so far. Everybody here knows everybody. A lot of the threads are dedicated to some person. As a lurker, posting feels a lot like walking into a bar, finding a group of friends you don't know, and then joining in the middle of their conversation. The close-knit community here is great for the existing members, but it's intimidating for new ones.

I'll tend to agree with that. The occasional personal comment or inside joke is understandable, but the constant off-topic personal dialogue and/or flirtation makes it hard for a "lurker" to join in. Not to mention, that shit is even annoying to many of the older existing members, who used to come to read up on and talk about the latest events, news, etc., and don't particularly care about the LIFE STORIES of certain members or their collection of pictures with "clever" catch phrases.

The problem seems to be forum etiquette. It's never been observed by ALL the members ALL the time, but it used to be observed by MOST of the members MOST of the time. Lately there have been a lot of n00bs, who are wonderful people to party with, but seem to have no clue of or concern for forum etiquette and virtually NEVER observe it.

You can't force people to show common courtesy, but I'm actually very surprised that there has never been a sticky thread about etiquette. Almost every other forum has one, I think maybe it's time we had one too, not to be strictly enforced but to give clueless people an idea of what's actually polite when you are broadcasting your ideas to hundreds of people at once.

And honestly, guys, I KNOW you know who you are, and just don't care that you're pissing people off and making this an uncomfortable place for the lurkers. Just give it a rest, OK?

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

The reason there aren't any rules posted (beyond sigs/events) is because I don't like rules. Once you sticky an etiquette thread then you're forced to constantly update it because ppl will read that, see something that is not in there and assume its ok which exacerbates the problem. If ppl are clued out they'll learn quickly once ppl reply in their thread (hopefully).

As for the site - it is not a bandwidth issue it is a database queue issue. When long operations are requested (search by user/generic search (i.e. tiesto)) then everything that comes after it is put in queue, so when you click to view a thread or post a reply and sit there forever it is because the server is waiting to get results back to someone who did one of these long operations. The database server (mysql) lacks a function where you can kill off a query if it takes too long (say 10-15 seconds) - so for now there is not much I can do.

The reason it's been bad the past few days is because Google has been on the site 24/7 crawling the forums - which is fine - but it was refreshing some of their old links from previous crawls which included hundreds of the worst kind -> 'Find posts by user x'. I fixed that as soon as I found it.

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"In a world of illusion you only see what you feel"

quote:

Originally posted by Swamper I don't like rules.

^5

quote:

Originally posted by Swamper If ppl are clued out they'll learn quickly once ppl reply in their thread (hopefully).

Yeah, that used to be the case, but surely you can see as well as I can that it's not anymore. When the clueless flood in with large numbers, they see their partners in crime being idiots and assume it's okay for them to do it. Del, you know I've never flamed or complained about new members *just* for being new, but the vast majority of this bullshit behaviour is coming from people who joined no earlier than last March, and since they all respond to each other, the clued out don't get clued in.

I tried to be pretty clear that I wasn't implying "rules". I don't like rules either. I'm just talking about a "how not to be a complete knob" document. In probably about 20 or 30 different forums I've looked at (various types, ranging from talk-about-anything forums to help sites and newsgroups), I've seen almost the exact same set of 5-10 different guidelines. They don't get updated every time somebody does something stupid because the truly clueless won't read the guidelines anyway - the page is just there for otherwise well-meaning people who just don't use forums much. Don't cross-post, keep quoted text to a minimum, use the search button, stay on topic, make sure your posts are legible, consolidate your replies instead of posting in the same thread 4 times in a row - that sort of thing. Simple stuff that is common sense for net-savvy people.

Other forums on Tranceaddict have guidelines, like all the production/promotion forums, and yes you will always get some ass clowns who don't bother to read them or make assumptions like you stated above (that it's okay to be a complete asshole if their specific behaviour isn't on "the list"), but I do believe that it does more to prevent chaos than cause it. Not everybody obeys stop signs or speed limits, but most people do, even when there aren't police around giving tickets.

Anyway, I'm not going to start a whole argument over this. Maybe you're right, maybe it's pointless to have such a thread. I don't know, I don't run any forums, I can only speak from personal experience and observation. Consider it a friendly suggestion - I think we should have a few loose guidelines.

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut or their collection of pictures with "clever" catch phrases. And honestly, guys, I KNOW you know who you are, and just don't care that you're pissing people off and making this an uncomfortable place for the lurkers. Just give it a rest, OK?

I'm not 100% sure if you're aiming this at me, 'cause I don't overuse the macros.

Pissing people off? I don't see anybody being pissed off by the images, and if they're upset by a few pictures, perhaps those people need to re-evaluate themselves.

What you're getting at seems to be forum elitism.