Rant about this site...

Post Reply New Topic

It's a specific rant...

One reason I came here was to talk to other Aspies about Aspie topics, but another reason I came here was to talk to people in in depth fashion about things.

I like to be silly once in a while for no reason. I like to post about random stuff now and again. It's a chance to cut loose, joke around, and not be so serious all the time, which I don't think is healthy. So I'm glad there's a randomness forum.

I know that "Aspie" doesn't mean you never like to cut loose. But I also know that most Aspies don't care much for "small talk."

I'm into music. I mean really into it. I was glad to find an Art/Writing/Music forum.

I was, at first, but the more I visit it, the more annoyed I get. I thought for sure, this being a forum full of Aspies who for the most part don't care for meaningless small talk, that that particular forum would be full of serious conversations about music. And yes, there are a lot in there, but if you watch that forum, and look for the little icons that tell you what the most active topics are, they are mostly small talk!

What kind of music do you like?
what are you listening to THIS VERY SECOND?
what is your favorite Michal Jackson song?
Favourite guitar solos
Miley Cyrus needs to quit ripping off other artists
What is the cheesiest song you like?



Watching the forum over the past few weeks, those are the types of threads that are showing up at the top, and the more serious threads just sit below with little, if any activity. I'm just more than a little baffled that this kind of small talk sees more activity there than real art topics, from artists to artists. That's the kind of stuff that belongs on a fan forum.

Yeah, once in a while a decent topic comes up. Yes, I've answered a couple of the above threads, but only out of boredom. I'd really much rather be seeing stuff of more substance. I mean, to me threads like the above belong in the randomness forum. That's just me.

I guess I'm just disappointed that I'm not finding or seeing as many serious threads in that forum as I had hoped for. That what serious threads there are, aren't very active for long, and that it is this type of stuff that gets the most attention. I don't GET it!

There's GOT to be more artistics in here who take the subjects more seriously than this!

Or maybe...

Your all too busy creating your art to be bothered with the forum????? 'Spose that's a good enough excuse.


Maybe it's just been a slow few weeks....

Last edited by MrXxx on 05 Jul 2010, 6:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

To be honest I sympathise with you to a large extent. The thread topics are becoming increasingly inane.

Agreed, the threads have been increasingly unproductive.

I sure wish the mods and admins would move them to Randomness or something, or perhaps create a different forum for them.

It sure looked to me, when I first signed up here, from the threads that were made stickies there, that the intent of the forum's creation was not for that kind of, well, for lack of a better term, "drivel."

perhaps the mods have gotten tired of relocating threads, or the posters of said threads have skirted the "autism discussion" requirement as almost anything can be related to something else.

The thing that's been bugging me is the number of low post count OP threads that are being started. When I see that I automaticly think Troll.

I've had the same feeling about threads across the board, not just involving art. The occasional superficial inanity seems to have taken over and become the norm. I hope its a temporary anomaly.

Having been here for two years now, I get a little frustrated with the same questions being posted over and over endlessly - I know we constantly have new folks joining who don't have that information yet, but not only have the subjects been covered thoroughly several times over, the earlier threads have provided more legitimate, documented information. I'm seeing a lot of statements made about AS and Autism in general that are nowhere near accurate, in response to questions that have been answered adequately several times already.

I think this board may be a victim of it's own success. There are so many new people signing up all the time there's not a lot of regulars. Or, at least, the regulars to new people ratio is very low. If you look back in the archives it was different in the past.

I'm quite sure it isn't "trolling" in that particular forum. I've not seen much there, if any. The posts that bug me are typical posts that appear in many forums dedicated to music, and other forms of art. It's not that they are unusual, it's just that it really looks, for all intents and purposes, that the reason for the forum's existence was originally to be for serious discussion about art, by artists, for artists. Those kinds of threads are what we artists would call "fan" type threads.

For example, MySpace has a music forum. If you post those types of threads there, no one complains, but if you post, "Check out my page and tell me what you think," you'll have your post nuked as spam, because that's a FAN forum, and not for artists to promote themselves.

Clearly though, because there ARE sticky threads in the Art/Writing/Music forum here, as well as MANY "come [read, hear or see]my art threads that aren't being removed, the purpose of the forum really seems to have been to be about art, from artists, for artists. It's not that there's anything wrong with the inane topics that are showing up and getting activity, it's just that they don't mix well in my opinion with more serious discussions between artists about their art.

I would not say that only artists should post there either. Just that I'd much rather see the discussions there keep to a bit of a higher level than "What's your favorite [whatever]," or "Don't you hate [so-and-so]?"

I just think that type of thing should be moved somewhere else. I think keeping the light discussions out of there might encourage more serious activity.

I'd sure rather see stuff like:

"I'm thinking of buying a writing software. Can you recommend one?"
"Here's a chapter from my book. Tell me what you think..."
"Can anyone recommend a better key for this song?"

I know when all I see getting action are drivel threads, it makes me kind of not want to bother posting anything more serious in nature.

I understand your frustration. I know I'm part of your problem but it does sometimes get to me that threads that you'd expect people to be in only to increase their post count there are people that don't post anywhere else.

Ever been to Bandmix.com? Same thing happens there. They don't have quite so many different forums there, but they do have a really dedicated core set of members. They hit those "repeat" threads (they have their own "brand" of repeats), with either links to threads of the same topics, or jump on them pretty quickly, telling the new users to search for them. It still happens from time to time, but new users do seem to learn pretty quickly to search before posting.

I have to wonder whether that would work here though. It seems here, for the most part anyway, the kinds of questions that are repeating are the kind the OP's probably want to hear "fresh" answers to, from active users. There is a difference though, between "drivel" and repeat questions of more serious natures. I mean I can understand questions like "What's the difference between HFA and AS?" being repeated a lot. A lot of the answers are going to be opinionated and will change over time. But "What's your favorite?" questions really don't need to be happening all over the place. They inevitably become hundreds of pages long, nobody reads them all, or cares really, and they basically serve no constructive purpose.

BUT, they are inevitable, and WILL happen. I just wish there were a software on this forum to flag that kind of thing. I've seen it on other forums. As soon as you try to post, it'll tell you the topic appears to already exist, allows users to choose from a list of them, instead of re-posting, then, if you do post it anyway, flags the new post for mod review as a possible duplicate.

I suppose it would be too much to hope for that here...

Come to think of it, this thread really ought to be in the Wrong Planet forum, but I bet it wouldn't be getting the attention it is if had been there. Still, it probably ought to be moved...

I don't even look at random discussion usually because the topics are, for the most, a waste of time. I have more problems with how the site is run than with peoples spamming though.

That thought has crossed my mind as well. I can think of maybe 10 - 12 regulars off the top of my head, compared to the tens of thousands of people who have signed up here. It's baffling.

Most people I've seen sign up only make a few posts then disappear. I've looked on the member list and most members only make about 1/2 posts. I don't know if I'm a regular or not, I do post regularly but I don't know if there's some special criteria concerning whether a member is regular or not, like amount of charisma for example.

There isn't any special criteria. A regular is just somebody who posts frequently. You would probably qualify as a regular.